Firing a Client

I’m a huge fan of Michael Hyatt. I read his blogs, have his books, am a member of his Platform University, and I follow him on social media. Ok…so maybe I’m a groupie! At any rate, he’s a terrific virtual mentor. Imagine my surprise when I saw his article about firing a client, just a few days after Susan and I decided to do a blog on that very topic.

So rather than reinvent the wheel, I’m going to include a link to Michael Hyatt’s blog, Why Sometimes You Need to Fire Your Customers.

I think this is a hard issue for those in the pet industry. We tend to love the dogs even if we don’t love the person on the other end of the leash. That can cause us to get derailed by people who just aren’t the best customers for our business. However, if we can learn to step above the emotions and see whether or not a client is really healthy for us and for our company, I think Michael’s points are very valid.

There are many reasons a pet parent might not be the best fit for your business including:

• You have fundamental disagreements about how to care for their pet
• You have fundamental disagreements about expectations of your staff
• You have fundamental disagreements about policies

For me personally, when clients become too draining on me or my staff and I feel I have bent over backwards to help them as much as possible, I will let them go. Thankfully, this has only happened one or two times in my 23+ years in the pet industry (although I think as I’ve matured, I’ve become more wise about who I take on as a client to begin with and that helps!).

But how do you do it once you make that decision? Well, I thought I’d provide you with a letter I once gave a client (names have been removed, of course). Feel free to use it as your own starting point. This letter was combined with a face-to-face meeting between me and the client I was letting go. We parted ways uncomfortably, but amicably. And while I lost some money in the process of refunding her, I gained a sense of relief that was much more valuable to me and my staff.