Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Thursday 28 June 2018

Hard to do: Businesses may need to break up with customers

By JOYCE M. ROSENBERG Boston area.
Associated Press But NeJame recalls one
NEW YORK (AP) — It’s not customer who complained
me, it’s you: Though it can after his house was pres-
be painful, sometimes, a sure-washed to prepare for
business owner needs to a painting, and a ladder
break up with a customer. flattened a small part of his
When Gil Gildner’s big cli- lawn — unavoidable and
ent started paying more not permanently damag-
slowly and stopped com- ing. NeJame told the ho-
municating well, cash flow meowner, “We don’t think
was at stake. we can make you happy.
“The payments became You don’t have to pay,
a week late, two weeks, a and we’ll find you another
month late and then the fi- contractor.”
nal month it never came,” Owners who want to drop
says Gildner, co-founder some clients also worry
of Discosloth, a marketing about negative reviews
company in Little Rock, online. Greg Shepard,
Arkansas. “We decided, who owns Dallas Maids, a
you’re not even invested in In this June 14, 2018, photo, Paige NeJame, poses in a work room at her company headquarters cleaning service, begins
this project. We have to cut in Rockland, Mass. by saying, “I really want to
this off.” Associated Press keep you as a customer,”
Letting go of customers is was told, “If you want to client relationship is about but it’s a hard reality,” Horst and outlines what he and
something most small busi- play with the big boys, you routine business matters like says. the person need to do to
ness owners do at some have to wait in line.” reviewing contracts, there’s The breakup itself should keep working together. But
point. Sometimes the sur- After working with the cli- more leeway. Bob Horst, an be handled diplomatically he isn’t sorry when an un-
vival of the business could ent for 15 months, Cramer attorney with Timoney Knox and without rancor, owners happy customer chooses
be at stake, or it may be a gave up, saying, “Some in Fort Washington, Pennsyl- say. to move on.
client who cannot be satis- customers are not worth vania, has stopped working “I typically make an ex- Shepard recalls a time
fied and becomes an emo- having.” with business clients when cuse, such as, we aren’t when a staffer was in a
tional drain on everyone. Lawyers may not be able they “want to achieve able to handle that proj- car accident en route to a
Even if it’s a big account, it to end client relationships. something that’s unreason- ect at this time, or we raise job, and her replacement
may not be worth the risk of If they’re in the midst of able or highly impractical.” our prices,” says Veronica couldn’t arrive until three
unhappy employees quit- litigation, they must ask for Or when they fall behind in Kirin, who owned a Grand hours later. The angry ho-
ting. court permission to with- payments. Rapids, Michigan, website meowner demanded that
Gildner found a silver lin- draw, and a judge may say “No one likes to see a design company until ear- Shepard promise it would
ing: “Within the first month, no. But when the attorney- promising relationship end, lier this year. “You don’t never happen again.
we found that jettisoning want to burn a bridge and “We’re going to make ev-
the client gave us enough you don’t want to hurt your ery effort, but if something
bandwidth to pick up new company’s name.” out of our control happens,
clients who ended up giv- Usually the problem was we can’t do that,” he told
ing us even more revenue.” an impossible-to-please the customer. She decided
Many times, the problem customer, but Kirin also to find another cleaning
is a frustrating customer. stopped working with cli- service. At Greenpal, which
Steve Cooper, co-founder ents who made inappro- matches homeowners with
of Excella, an information priate comments about a lawn care companies, co-
technology firm in Arling- new female staffer. founder Zach Hendrix has
ton, Virginia, recalls a proj- “I’m protective of my team, learned not all customers
ect in which he couldn’t and don’t want to work are a good fit and that a
speak with top executives, with someone whose first small percentage of un-
only with lower-level man- reaction is about the looks happy customers can mo-
agers. Cooper’s staffers did of one of my employees,” nopolize staffers’ time.
the work only to be repeat- says Kirin, who now has a An impossible-to-please
edly told to redo it. business coaching and customer can be referred
“Eventually, we recognized speaking company. to a business that will make
that our employees’ sat- Complaints from a cus- them happy.
isfaction and well-being tomer don’t have to mean “We keep a private Rolo-
were more important to us ending a relationship. They dex in the 30 cities where
in the long term than in- can be valuable feed- we operate,” Hendrix says.
vesting in this futile relation- back, says Paige NeJame, It’s hard for Jonathan
ship,” Cooper says. who has a CertaPro paint- Marsh, who’s in the busi-
It can be especially hard ing franchise. ness of caring for people,
to drop a big corporation. “A picky customer often to break up with custom-
But Nancy Cramer found points out our weaknesses ers. But Marsh, who owns a
that big companies dic- to us in a way from which Home Helpers senior care
tated payment terms that we can grow and get bet- franchise in Bradenton,
didn’t work for her, and ter. There is a big difference Florida, has stopped work-
felt she wasn’t treated with In this June 14, 2018, photo, Paige NeJame, who along with her between ‘picky’ and ‘in- ing with clients who didn’t
respect. Cramer, a leader- husband owns a CertaPro painting franchise, poses in a work tolerable,’” says NeJame, pay or were abusive to his
ship consultant in Dallas, room at her company headquarters in Rockland, Mass. whose company serves the employees.q
Associated Press