Trump knows the value of firing… do you?

Most people consider “firing your customer” a form of blasphemy. After all, if the customer is always right and acquiring a new customer costs 5–10 times as much as retaining them, why would you fire them? That’s sound thinking in Business 101 classes, but not for the real world. If you have customers that are draining your time and resources, how are you going to continue working with them in a profitable manner?

Because he’s a financial wizard, Justin Himebaugh at HRU Technical Resources, was tasked at a previous job to gauge the profitability of each account. Much to everybody’s surprise, they were losing money on some of their biggest accounts. Just because those customers were bringing in large amounts of revenue, they were given many services for free or at a discount. So not only was his employer losing money on that account, but those employees couldn’t work on profitable customers… it was a double-hit to the bottom line.

If you take the time to do that analysis in your own business, and find unprofitable customers, you have two options:

1. Change the way you work with them to ensure those accounts are profitable.
2. Fire them.

One Moore Thing: Your pool of customers is probably larger than you think, so why do you continue to work with unprofitable or pain-in-the-ass customers? Instead of banging your head against the wall, hating your job, and taking it out on your family, why not find good customers that are profitable and enjoyable to work with?

Your face is more memorable than your email signature

Much of today’s world is driven by technology, and that technology provides a buffer between humans. That’s great for productivity but not for creating connections. Compare these scenarios:

Theater vs. Movies: When you go to the theater, you’re completely quiet. Everybody focuses on the performers, the music, and the various moving pieces on the set. Compare that to going to the movies where everybody is crunching popcorn, talking to their date, and texting their best friend. They’re not engaged… they’re just watching.

Face-to-Face vs. Phone: People used to go see their neighbors in person. They would spend an hour or two catching up on everything going on in their lives and sharing a lemonade or beer. Now they pick up the phone (or worse yet, text) and share a few brief sentences. Then we wonder why our relationships aren’t as deep as they used to be.

Calling vs. Email: While the phone is less personal than a face-to-face conversation, it’s way more personal than an email. In email people tend to be brief (because they’re busy), rude (because they’re hiding behind a keyboard), and they will normally say things in emails that they would never say in person. While email is great for confirmation, it’s horrible for conversation.

One Moore Thing: You can’t shake hands, give a hug, or see pain on somebody’s face through texting or email. What’s your action plan to engage your customers face-to-face?