• How To Loose A Customer—even If You Don't Care For You
• How To Loose A Customer—even If You Don't Care Like
• How To Loose A Customer—even If You Don't Care For A

It’s 2013. In a few years, the things that we are doing now will be old, and there will be newer, more exciting things to make our lives easier. More and more products will be introduced to the retail and technology landscapes, and businesses will continue to evolve (as they have up until now) to meet consumer demand.

As business is always evolving, and so are consumers, there are a few things that companies need to start doing if they want to continue being successful.

When we were buying the house, there was nothing more frustrating than dealing with the companies that needed to provide us with the services necessary to make the transaction. Notaries and lawyers were inaccessible. Banks were frustrating to deal with. Most inspection companies were unreasonable.The companies that got my business met a strict criteria.

Customer Fired Today! Had a scary situation on customer's lawn today that really upset me. And then when he called for an explanation I got even more upset t. Your instinct will be to stop your body as quickly as you can. But your safest route is to keep rolling — indeed, the more you give in to the fall, the safer it will be. 'Spread the impact across a larger part of your body; don't concentrate impact on one area,' Marcigliano says. The more you roll with the fall, the safer you will be. Don’t acknowledge the customer. Ever walk into a store and see employees standing around.

The answer will help you decide whether to say goodbye to some and reassign others. Also keep in mind that you could lose a salesperson associated with that major customer unless effective non-compete agreements are in place. Protect your claims when a customer files bankruptcy. How to Lose Customers. Are you looking for a way to get rid of some of those pesky customers who seem to keep coming back and taking up all of your time? Rather spend your time looking for new customers? Have no fear, we have gathered the top ten tips for weeding out the heard and getting rid of customers.

Here’s what to do if you want to lose my (and my other Gen Y and likely Gen X peers) business:

Don’t Have a Website

‘Cause, you know, who needs a website when you have a phone that you never answer? No problem, you can just verbally describe all of the products you have to me and how much they all cost, and what quantities they come in.

Don’t Post Your Rates Online

Make me take a break from my workday to call you on your phone (which you don’t answer) to get your rates, when your competitors have them posted online

Work Bankers Hours

Nobody has a job these days anyway. No big deal if your customers have to take a vacation day just to get a hold of you, let alone visit your store. 9-6 are great store hours, for those who are retired and/or don’t work.

Be Closed on Sunday

Because it’s still 1926 when every.single.worker in the city takes Sundays off to go to church.

Be Slow

Sure, tell me that you’ll do the home inspection and write up the report and have it to me four days after the inspection. That will make me really happy. Because, you know, there’s no such thing as technology and you have to hand-write it out with a feather and a scroll. Oh, and you work only from 9-6.

Put Me On Hold (For > 30 seconds)

Sure no problem, I’ll wait for 5 minutes on the phone while you finish typing out your email, even though I just “snuck away” from work to phone you because you don’t have a website and you are only open until 6:00 PM so I can’t phone you after work.

Tell Me You Don’t Take Credit Card Payments

I have always dreamed of doing business with a company that makes me go to the bank (if I can find a branch – who goes to banks these days, anyway?) to take out cash to pay them, forgoing my credit card rewards and the ease of payment. Very progressive. Or, better yet, suggest I write a cheque. I have tons of those lying down for all the companies that allow you to pay via cheque these days.

Bother Me After the Transaction

You’ll definitely retain my business in the future if, after you were diligent enough to even get my business to begin with, you begin emailing me, phoning me, and sending messages through carrier pigeon with vouchers and newsletters and the like.

You Refuse to Use Email

I love companies who phone me after I fill out a contact form which requires me to put my phone number down but yet I specify in the body of the email “please email only”. I love when my phone starts lighting up when I’m discussing important collective agreement provisions with my boss. That’s my favorite thing ever.

Here are some examples to see what I mean in live action:

The Junk Disposal Bin

Final cut pro windows version. We’d just finished tearing the old shingles off the roof and needed to rent a bin to have the material taken away. I did a quick Google search, and saw that there were quite a few companies in my area that would provide the service. Two of the companies had websites that quoted the prices, which was great. We’d just purchased our house and wanted to get the best deal possible, so I was attempting to do some price comparison.

How To Loose A Customer—even If You Don't Care For You

Two more companies had websites but not prices, and they listed email addresses and phone numbers. I emailed them both and they didn’t respond within 24 hours. Because their hours were so limited, I had to phone them when I snuck away on a quick work break.

One told me that she was just the “secretary”. She told me the price but then transferred me to somebody else to let me know what the availability of the bin we wanted was. That person put me on hold. I was on hold for greater than one minute, so I hung up and called the next company.

The next company told me the prices, but couldn’t bring the bin for a week. So I hung up and went with one of the more expensive ones that had their prices listed on their websites, and the order form right there too.

(There were also a couple of companies that didn’t have websites, but I didn’t even bother with them).

The Asbestos Removal Companies

We negotiated to have the asbestos removed by the previous owners, but we had to arrange for this to happen.

There were some companies that charged double; some companies that didn’t work on weekends (wtf), meaning we’d have to store all of our stuff for a night and stay in a hotel for the weekend because they wouldn’t be out of there in time for us to move in. Some companies even charged for the assessment and quote (yeah, as if I’d ever do that).

The company we finally settled on was reasonable. My biggest beef with them, was that they didn’t allow credit card payments.

The previous owners were transferring funds to us to pay for the removal, and at $5,000, I could have gotten a lot of rewards points on my credit card. They requested payment via cheque, and since I haven’t used cheques since 2009 when I had to pay rent with a cheque, I had to order one cheque and send it via snail mail (meaning I had to buy envelopes and stamps, too). It got lost in the mail, so rinse and repeat by the time they got their money.

I can’t imagine that this is efficient for either the customer or the company, and even though they did a great job and were efficient and really bent over backward for me, I’d never use them again for the fact that they need to start being more competitive with the payment they accept.

Being that there are so many choices out there for pretty much anything you’d need and want, I’m of the opinion that it’s so important to be competitive and really work to attract and retain customers. What do companies do that makes YOU walk away?

How do you lose a customer before you even have a chance to do business with them? For my brother, it’s putting him on hold three times when he’s trying to book a taxi to the airport for a 7 AM flight. He was considering using a taxi service, the traditional route where he would call ahead and book. But he felt that he would have a better chance of getting an Uber at 5:30 AM in Miami for the short trip and at that time in the morning, he just wasn’t much in the mood for talking. And although he went the taxi route, he never really got the chance to talk anyway.

Customers don’t think of channels. They think about their goal and take the path of least resistance and most comfort to achieve it. Businesses need to ensure the channel provides a path that’s simple and intuitive so that a new customer is able to reach their goal. Interestingly enough, my brother used to drive a taxi and the only way that he knew how to engage with the taxi service was to call them and this resulted in three calls in 5 minutes, each time getting put on hold by the operator. Frustrated, he said he’d be fine the next morning with Uber and he was right.

All over the world, we’ve seen Uber take significant business away from the established taxi industry. This is due in part because of technology and part because of Uber’s ability to offer their service outside of the significant regulations that govern taxis. The key takeaway for me has been taxi services (like many entrenched industries) became complacent and did not invest enough in innovation, especially on the customer interaction side to fend off such an attack. The macro product that taxis and Uber offer is essentially the same, getting you from one destination to the other, but the entire customer journey to deliver the service is what separates the providers.

While I concede that Uber has the advantage of offering one method of interaction worldwide (so that there’s no difference in booking a ride in Miami or Krakow), the taxi industry could have easily kept this competitive threat at bay by going one step further: offering booking through Interactive Response over voice (IVR) or text (ITR). Using ITR, my brother could have provided the almost-used taxi service an address he wanted to be picked up from (or used location services), the pickup time, and the destination and then been given a confirmation receipt over SMS – just like Uber does. The next morning a text could be sent to confirm that he still needed the ride and told him the name of the cab driver and the car number. No app to download, no credit card to confirm. Just a simple interaction that helped him reach his goal: get to the airport.

How To Loose A Customer—even If You Don't Care Like

Like my brother, this type of innovation is what customers are beginning to expect and they will hold you accountable if business as usual, isn’t usually great.

How To Loose A Customer—even If You Don't Care For A

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