Yes, you read it right. The headline does say “fire” a customer.
“Dear Mrs. Crabapple, We will miss you. Love, Herb”
Does that line ring a bell?
Well, to those to whom it doesnt, here is the story.
Once there was a woman who frequented the Southwest. But every time she flew on it, she was unhappy with some feature or the other – seats, food, boarding procedures and so on – and she always wrote in a long list of complaints. Despite trying hard, the customer relations team could not satisfy her. Why she kept flying on a plane whose service she was not satisfied with was beyond them. Finally, they brought the CEO into the picture.
Herb Kelleher (CEO), in sixty seconds, is said to have written back saying, “Dear Mrs. Crabapple, We will miss you. Love, Herb”.
Yes, in essence he skillfully fired this customer.
It is okay to go out of your way to please a customer; but if that is going to practically destroy your business, it is better to say “goodbye” to that customer and focus on saving the other “good” ones.
Here are 2 good reasons why you must fire a customer.
1) When it costs more than what you might earn
If Kelleher had wanted to please Mrs. Crabapple, he would have had to arrange for changing the seats of the plane, revising the boarding procedures, food – practically revamp everything about the plane. Is that one impractical customer worth all the efforts?
Even if Mrs. Crabapple flies on Southwest for the rest of her life, what she pays for the tickets in total would not stand a chance against the fortune the company has to spend on making her happy. So when pleasing one impractical customer is not going to be worth all the efforts, you can fire that customer and focus on keeping the good ones.
2) When it earns the displeasure of the employees
The employees of an organization are essentially its internal customers. You could be giving your employees the head ache of the first order if you want them to please a bad customer. There are clients who make unreasonable demands and abuse the staff of a company. This should never be encouraged. That particular customer would walk away when the business is done. But your internal customers are going to stay with you. As a business owner, one should protect the interests of the employees too.
When everyone knows that the customer is wrong and it becomes near impossible to reason with him why still pretend that hes God?
It is better to let go of the customer if it comes down to that.
By writing that note to Mrs. Crabapple, Kelleher perhaps lost a customer but stood by his staff, saved the company a lot of time, efforts and money that would have otherwise gone down the drain.
Have you ever felt like showing the door to any of your customers? Post your thoughts and comments below!
