When it's time to fire your customers - Rossmann reads Yelp reviews.
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- Опубліковано 15 лис 2013
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Here I describe the benefit of firing problem customers, and use a perfect real life example of a problem customer from someone else's repair business.
Thank you to everyone who made a purchase on eBay via our affiliate link at rossmanngroup.com/ebay for helping support this type of content. Your viewership is appreciated and as always, I hope you learned something!
Thank you for the free advice good sir! I love learning what I can from your videos, your approach on business seems very appropriate for the coming generation of clients.
That's a tricky situation to resolve, if he was told to expedite it and wasn't told that it would mean that there would be no phone call then that is certainly something that your company should have communicated, however I dont believe that he wasn't told that and second even if he wasn't told he should understand that something that small can be easy to overlook when your rushing to get a job done. Also who runs an expense account thats used to pay contractors for work and leaves it empty? So yeah that was pretty much all on them.
Plus I just thought about it, how is it not common sense that if you set a deadline to have an item fixed and back into the mail within say maybe 6 hours from the time the item arrives in the morning until say 3 in the afternoon when FedEx and UPS like to have items in hand for overnight deliveries that you would have time to call the customer and confirm what work needs to be done and how much it will cost? I wouldnt want to be trying to call someone on that short of a time frame and have them ask a ton of questions or try to haggle on the price of the repair.
I hope whoever did that brick wall got fired.
It's the rule of 80/20.
"you're fired"
"What?"
"you heard me."
"b-but I don't even wor-"
"GET THE FUCK OUT!"
+Terrance Van Liew YES!!!!
I once had a customer who wanted to send me a laptop for repair, told me he had clients waiting some work that was on it and the deadline for delivery was in two days, so if the repair took longer than that, he'd hold me responsible and I'd have to pay the $250 a day penalty his clients would charge him. I'd also have to sign an NDA before I could look at the laptop and the data on it was work tens of thousands and if any was lost or destroyed I'd also be held responsible for that...then he talked for 10 minutes about how important he was.
When I told him I didn't want his business, he was honestly shocked and started telling me I HAD to do it because important this, clients that. If I didn't take on the job he'd sue me, etc, etc.
Yup, good luck with that.
Watermelon Helmet lmao who wants to risk that shit.
There is a saying I saw somewhere that read, "Lack of planning on your end doesn't constitute an emergency on my end."
You know what I wanna say to this?: lol
you quite clearly made the right choice there lol. Who acts like this and expects that you'll want to do business with them? Sure, I'll take on 100% of YOUR risk because YOU are incapable of doing the work for YOUR client, and I'll do it for a fraction of the money you'll make if I come through for you.
If the storage wasn't the issue, I would have taken the drives out and handed then to him, and then said "you can bring them back when I've finished the repair"
"I need my hand held..." Then they need a therapist not a repair service. FFS.
+stephan haggerty TRUTH!
I was trained that a good IT professional should cater to those who are scared/uncomfortable/unfamiliar with computer related subjects, especially if their (the customer)s job or some other important entity is at stake. But you make excellent points about wasting time with customers ultimately costs money. I guess it is up to the IT business owner to make that determination.
Edit: Clarification
You'd be surprised how many people mistake business agreements for therapy sessions.
The people you describe are often ones that won't be much of an issue, they are scared of tech and always feel guilty about shit they broke.
It's the types that irregardless of tech knowhow are just assholes, that are the issue.
It's not about people that don't know shit, but people that are shit.
+enlightendbel
Well, it depends. Some people just want too much attention or too much time.
So you have to gauge what they're after. Do they want your solutions, or are they out to waste your time?
Sometimes it's the business you *DON'T* do that's the smartest decision
*It's an impossible mission to make customers like this satisfied. They are actively looking EVERY second of their lives to find spots, scratches and dirt on their very important valuable stuff. Be happy that you aren't a part of his family.*
sounds like a woman to me
@@TheGuruStud Just replace "Their very important valuable stuff" with society and you have twitter.
You can't speak to the owner/manager. Why? Cause you aren't important enough. You haven't even spent a dime at my business and want special treatment? No.
I wish I knew this stuff when I used to work on computers, then maybe I wouldn't have gotten so burnt out on it.
Tell me about it. I have been doing computer repair for only two years and I am already burnt out, not really with the work itself, but with the customers.
shaneybrainy13 customers burn you out no matter what buessnes your in just have to fire them sometimes took me a year to realize this lol
h3xd3m0n Don't fire the customers. The ones you don't like, charge them more money. They'll either pay you or take their money and business elsewhere. Either way, you win
That's a good way to lose business. You can't do shit like that when one post by said customers can cost you hundreds of thousands in bad publicity!
I had a customer bring a computer in on a Saturday. Saturdays are generally for pickup/dropoff only. They brought it in at 12:30ish. I close at 3 on Saturday. I checked it in and looked at it. Won't boot, failing HDD, can't be read without emergency recovery software.
Called my customer told them it was hosed, and I could get the data back, but due to the poor condition of everything, and age of computer, a refurbished one would be a better option.
Got approved, and they called twice during my Saturday shift, (I don't normally do new service), to ask if system was done yet, again, horrible HDD requiring emergency data recovery.
Long story short, they called 3 times by 1:00 on Monday (only open 3 hours at that point). They DEMANDED I work faster because she didn't plan and has to do payroll. I flat told them to either back off if they want something that will work, or they could come and pick it up NOW!
When they came in and paid they still thought they were more important than my other customers because they were a business. I told them ALL the computers on my bench right now are businesses and they made plans to function while their machine was here.
Basically told them if they returned with that attitude, I WON'T help them ever again.
Years ago a tv tech fixed my tv at home under warranty and did a great job of it. (I understand tv but said nothing to the tech). After 2 days I called his SUPERVISOR and gave the tech a glowing review telling him how happy I was. The supervisor said I was the ONLY customer who ever called to say good things.
I did that for the Unemployment board payment officer when my check just didn't show. Asked to pass my complements to a supe, who was thoroughly surprised, but complement I did. And don't let anyone ever tell you that they don't take notice of the kindness.
That review is like saying "looooooook at meeeee!! I'm supeeeeeer IMPORTAAAAANT" lol
+bannedfromtv yep and that company he gave the bad review to was correcting him :-D
Like they say on A Bronx Tale. Don't think of it as losing $20 think of like paying $20 to get rid of a problem. Or something like that.
+Philip Villaloboz sonny philosophy, i always use it.
It's actually free if you think about it.
Oh Great another person who thinks what Mr Rossmann does is only worth $20..
../s
I just came from a video where he mention $20
Nice1, mate!
I own a garage. you are preaching to the choir. service and repair industry seems to suffer the same issues across the board. I have a "no haggle rule" this weeds out about 90% of the bad customers, soon as they disagree on a quote I ask them to go elsewhere. I have never EVER gone over a quote, usually under quote, its the haggle, the attitude that comes along with it usually means a difficult customer. better off without.
Denis O'brien its so shit when you can tell they are just lying horribly to try and get you to drop the price, when in reality if they just asked nicely, majority of the time discounts cna and will be given, i cannot stand sop stories about petrol when i don't even drive lol
Not trying to sound like a bitch but when someone's car is making a shit noise and they get handed a 900$ estimate.... Yeah its the natural response to haggle. Come on dude. I get what you're saying. But it sounds cold as hell
@@paulcarmi8130 go find someone else. Sounds cold? I can't deposit your feelings at the bank.
@@GameFuMaster im Not saying my feelings should matter to you. However, good auto mechanics are few and far between. So your logic is shit, and so are you. Btw that isn't something I FEEL, its something I KNOW.
@@paulcarmi8130 Your logic is that feelings can be deposited at the bank. Okay then.
Yes truly said ! , I also own a computer repair shop in India and there are times when a single client calls several times in an hour giving stupid reasons that he or she has to go out of town etc. etc. , and all other stupid things as you mentioned in this video . For these type of customers i have only one answer , "Dude , repair is not made for such important people like you , so do not waste your time and mine and go and buy a new laptop ."
+maxinventer Good answer!
hahaha perfect response. Only in asian culture would this be considered an acceptable response. Anywhere else in the Western world and that response would have repair shops out of business!
@@blunion05 If all repair shops go out of business, who would do the repairs? Also, business owners who pander to overly difficult customers are the ones who go out of business. Maybe you should try freelancing and use that attitude.
@@GameFuMaster I think you have misunderstood me. I want repair shops to be able to tell off customers who are on a high horse! But unfortunately it doesn't seem to be the kind of thing acceptable to do, and raises more problems than just getting rid of a difficult customer by simply declining to offer one's service to them.
This is so true about any business "90% of your time wasted on 10% of your customers" I have heard something like this for years and it is true in any business I know. Customers like this you just need to let go and move on to a customer who is actually important a customer who is going to appreciate your time and pay you for it.
+CJ Gonzales Exactly
+CJ Gonzales Its called the 80/20 rule. Weirdly applies to everything. 80% of your profit is made by 20% of your customers, 80% of the wear on carpets occurs on 20% of the surface area, 80% of honey is made by 20% of the bees, etc etc. Its pretty cool give it a google
+CAL v1n 80% of all corporate helpdesk tickets come from the same 20% of employees.
stonent OMG i work in tech and that soon true bro >_
+stonent Here's an interesting spin on that... at my company we are not allowed to service our own machines unless we are walked through it by the IT helpdesk, even though I could easily do it all by myself. And since everyone knows that I'm always the most tech savvy person in the room, they leave any help desk dealings for me to do. So maybe it's the same for other businesses too. Just a thought.
I had similar sorts of issues when I ran a computer store. Had a customer who was "losing $10,000 an hour for not having a working PC" when we were doing a warranty fix on his machine (as quickly as we could) - he wouldn't spend another $2000 on another PC as a backup (and couldn't understand the math behind it)
anyone who makes 10k/hr has more than one computer.
He was likely loosing several hours of online porn per day and needed his fix.
I think you’d be surprised. My last job the IT guy and the owner got into an argument and he just walked out never to be seen again. I got drafted to take over and it was a fuster cluck starting with the fact that our file server was an ancient dell tower server running 2k3 and 1 1tb sata drive for the storage. Fast forward 6 months and many wasted efforts to get a proper server the hard drive fails.
The owner refused to spend any money to back it up or fix the issue and we lost hundreds of thousands in proprietary data but for some reason it was all my fault 🤷🏻♀️
I knew then I wouldn’t be there for long and less than a year later I was. Makes no sense why you wouldn’t spend the few thousand to do it right when your entire company relies on that one machine.
Unknown Entity oh I know but the blame was still put onto me.
@@kathrynradonich3982 and didn't you sign an agreement when starting that declares everything as your fault, and every loss as your responsibility that you have to pay?
Here it is very common to do so, every company does that.
I did an internship fixing University students PC and maintaining the server farm and email cluster everyone used.
80-90% of incoming work was students who had gotten some type of virus or malware on their pc, our policy was to wipe it, reimage the os and get it back to them ASAP because these were engineers or engineers in training and they could not afford any type of delay. As per the policy if you wanted date backed up you'd have to do it yourself or TELL US AND BRING YOUR USB KEY because we did not provide usb keys as we never had any return to the shop.
Every student at the university had a 64gb flash drive assigned to them if they were in any engineering course so they could have course work or w/e. This guy refused to give me his key and said we'd have to back it up onto a a different usb and then give it to him. We told him straight and I quote "Give us your key to back it up, or the data will be purged, and your pc will work after we reinstall the os".
He said no that can't happen and that we would figure it out. Needless to say I made sure that no data was on that PC whatsoever and 10 minutes later OS was installed and shit was running smooth and fast. Guy freaks that all his data is gone and we didn't back it up for him. LOLNOPE. Turns out he wouldn't give us the usb because he had some sick roms for ps1 bro. and ALL OF HIS COURSEWORK WAS ON THE PC. Get fucked you idiot.
We'd get roughly 5-10 computers from students a day.
On top of that we had to fix any and all issues related to the network or servers or admin pc with no significant delay. This was the epitome of 99.999% uptime.
TL;DR BACK UP YOUR SHIT YOU CAN ALWAYS DOWNLOAD GAMES AGAIN
*That sounds amazing!* My university did not even have toilet paper in the bathrooms, but it was free I guess. No free tech though, only the lab computer, there we got catia v4, xp and 2 gb of ram :))
Why wouldn't you give him the damn computer so that he backed it all up?
(says the dude who has 3 backups of his 3 terabyte data btw)
Here's a thought (which could be wrong): EVERYBODY'S data is important to them. If a customer is not entirely convinced that their service provider understands this, maybe they should consider another service provider.
I also loved how the nebbish expected YOU to cover this his overdraft as if his insolvency is any kind of your problem. WTF indeed. LOLWUT also, too.
There IS such a thing as bad business.
8:31 - When Louis did the "DX Suck It" I laughed so hard I had to pause the video.
yeah that was good timing and delivery.
Mr. Rossmann, you're completely on point here sir. I greatly enjoy your videos. Thank you for putting them together for us.
You are telling the truth. Plain and simple. No frills or gimmicks. And your right you don’t have a jazzy intro. I just realized that. It’s very to the point. Very raw
Louis has the most disciplined mind regarding business and fairness that I have ever witnessed.
My parents have a retail business with a no haggle policy. They'll bend the rules a little if it's truly a big sale but in general, the honest best price is already on the ticket. Despite the small family owned store being cheaper than the bigger chain stores for identical products, they want discouts. Bargains. But it's just an emotional need and not rational.
I've had people tell me I'd have to discount further on discounted items when I've been helping them out, because they have cash. Ummm, and?
I've had people red faced with rage at my own mother when we refuse to haggle, after she suggests that they might wish to try another store given that they weren't happy with our pricing (and given we're the only people in town selling that product which requires a buy in fee to stock it and a mandated RRP meaning tight margins....why would we discount just for them?). We took their money then told them not to come back.
I utterly and completely agree with you. These people are tiresome, difficult and for some reason seem to think that money is what drives everyone in business. It isn't. I also want, and I know my parents too, for people to come in, buy stuff that is useful to them, have a good experience with the product, even if we never see them again.
Sorry for long comment :)
We were selling an item on discount, it was a really good price for what it was. A customer just kept going and going for a better price, wouldnt let it go. I removed the sale tag in front of his eyes and told him it had gone back up to full price. It felt good.
Working in any small businesses you get this. Where I work, I get everyone who does "discount this, discount that, could you go lower". They want to haggle as if it's a pawn shop, car lot or flea market.
It shows how little they view of our business and it's very disconcerting. I often want to get angry, but I do the same thing, "If you want to find a better price, we invite you to search elsewhere."
I want to say, "Would you do this at Walmart or Best Buy? Do you think that this gets you anywhere?"
If that laptop was in deed involved in a law suite, what is the laptop doing in the repair shop and what should the repair shop guy do with the laptop if not to fix it? Make sure you want to repair the laptop BEFORE sending it to the repair shop.
Yeah, that bit particularly confused me too
the government want my files because of tax evasion! I Know! I'll send my laptop to the dodgy repair shop I know off, they'll break it then I can tell the government it wasn't my fault. Oh No! the dodgy repair shop outsourced it to a good repair shop now I have to give the government the files!
the other ones that piss me off are the ones that agree to work and then complain about the price a month later. I'm an auto Tech and a few months ago we did some work on this piece of shit that was very labor intensive ( 14 hours labor). the parts were about 100 bucks. a month later she left a review stating we screwed her on the price because her friend (who is not a tech) did some research on a forum that stated the repair should only be about $xxx dollars. I basically told her some random person doing a Google search on a forum filled with more random people does not determine my price. also told her to call the chevy dealer down the road and get a quote for the same work we completed and see what they charge. as soon as I hung up with her I called the dealership and found our price to be about 300 dollars less. still got a bad review online for doing work that has had no issues since it has been fixed and charging less than the dealership. it's fucking bullshit that any asshole with a smart phone can say whatever they want about a business that many people will see which can essentially take business away.
Holymium TV I actually like bad reviews. I write responses to them that makes them seem like an idiot and shows my customers how much I care. I turned a 1 star customer review that was trying to get a free repair out of me into a 5 star review that learned they don't get away with shit like that.
I told them what software to run to fix their computer and they deleted it because they thought the icon was ugly, got themselves a virus... Then blamed me for their computer still having issues. They later ran it and the problem was gone. LOL
All my below 5 star reviews I turn into advertisements for my business.
People like to read the bad reviews first to see how you respond. Problem is, out of my over 200 reviews, only 2 are below a 5 and only one is below a 3, so most my customers see only 5 and give up looking for below 5s and tell me how amazing it is to see a business with only 5 stars.
It's gotten to the point where people think I pay for my reviews...
libel charges should be heavily considered and prosecutable as slandering...
We got a one star review because we refused a customer service. In the review he said that the work wasn't "Rock Science".
We fix Cell Phones and Computers, he wanted his washer (yes washer and dryer) repaired. That is like being mad your house painter will not replace the transmission in your car.
95% of our 1 Star reviews are total BS by customers that have never shopped at our store, or just crazy people.. Got one for not returning the customers laptop power cord, took an hour out of our time to find it on our video system, we showed him the video of him walking out the door with the power cord.. So he left the review that we were rude about it, after he accused us of STEALING his power cord, that he never left at the store in the first place.
Also have two different "competitors" and I use that word loosely, because our stores are a good hour drive apart. They leave us bad reviews, and then use the same account to leave themselves a good review.. They do such bad business, that they have to delete there old store listings on-line, and create new ones almost every year, from how many negative reviews the get from bad work.
There wasn't money in the expense account to cover an expense they knew two days prior that they would incur? Are they bankrupt?
Well they thought they would have time to transfer after the agreed call that never happened
I halfway agree with the customer on that ONE point. We have one card/account that has almost nothing in it. It is the card that is used for buying stuff from potentially unknown vendors, and PayPal. Years ago someone hacked our PalPay account, and managed to spend $60,000 in four hours, before we noticed the charges (PayPals fraud alert system didn't notice the change of items being bought, change of shipping address, or that we normally spent that much over six months not four hours). The PayPal account was directly linked to our main business account, and would have locked my business for weeks fighting with them to get the funds back had the charges gone though. Lucky that night I called the bank, and had the account locked, then called PayPal and informed them of the issue. PayPal assured us that we had NOTHING to worry about, and none of the charges would hit our account. The next day guess who calls wanting to know why the charges are not clearing the bank, PayPal. We ended up having to transfer the available funds to a new account, since PayPal kept trying to pull the money out. Since that time we now have a 2nd account just for PayPal, and other vendors that are not trustworthy, when we need to spend $1200, I can transfer the funds in a few seconds. The account is also setup to block any payments if funds are not available. We keep a few hundred in the account, to cover small stuff, and transfer funds when needed.
However the customer also sounds like someone that I would have also fired. They wouldn't be the first, and they wouldn't be the last. The 90/10 rule is true. Fire the 10%, so you can give the 90%, 100% of your time.
Further proof that the customers with the least money are the most... high maintenance.
Ha, I know such people, my father runs a bussiness, and his time is always eaten by the same people who just can't stop talking and giving him a hard time, and always demanding to speak to no one else but him... gotta show him this video.
Huh? That guy is complaining about a 35$ charge? Now I don't know what he had repaired but... I would think that something with top priority and overnight shipping costs so much that 35$ are ridiculous in comparison. And that bothering to fight about it costs even more...
You were so bold in 2013: "High-fives and circle-jerk crap." I love your tech-terms. 15:43
I run a small size business
where I have made some decent money from items I create in my wood shop. I pay
very careful attention to detail and specify on the site that items have a 30
day warranty from defects. They items I create do get handled a lot and can be
dropped, mishandled and broken…I have repaired items that were chewed on by
dog, left outside in the weather… all free!
In over 1000 sales I have
had 0 defects. I have repaired several items at cost to me that customers have
broken (paid shipping and repair), many of my customers appreciate it and ultimately
I get my money back because they end up being repeat customers.
I have had customers
complain about things that where clear in the description or images and act
like it was my fault. I normally offer a full refund and pay for the shipping
to have the item returned. I then add them to a black list, it’s funny how as
soon as they get the money back they buy a different item with the same
features as the item they complained about. That is when I cancel the sale and
ignore all emails from them, after a few emails they tend to understand what
happen… they were fired.
I take pride in what I sale and it bothers me when something I created does not
work. Because of this I will repair just about anything that I am able to.
5 years later and UA-cam shows me this Gem.
This reminded me of a job I had working on laptops for a company's sales divisions. I used to get little notes in the laptop saying to call them "the instant" it arrived and call them "the instant" the repair was done. I'd come to work at 8:00am with a voicemail left to me by someone at 7:30am wanting to know if their box had arrived yet.... HELLO! Fedex drops off boxes between 10:00 and 10:30am something they are told before they send their laptop out. Or they'd be mad that I fixed it, overnighted it and it was in their hands the next morning but... "WHAT IF....." they had not been home because I didn't warn them. Or worse, they'd call the secretary for their sales division and ask her to personally come down to my work area to tell me to call them, because they wanted to have the last word. So I quickly figured out that I would just simply subscribe them to text alerts and e-mail alerts through Fedex so that I didn't have to have that dialog with them. Or despite the fact that 75% of all repairs are 24 hour turnaround and 95% are done within a 48 hour turnaround, something again they are told up front. They would still insist on telling me how important it was to get their laptop back within that 48 hour window. You are absolutely right about when it's time to fire certain customers.
+stonent Thumbs up and a sub for this video.
Then, after that 48 hours, they wait a minimum of 2 weeks to come pick up there shit.
I really feel dumb watching Louis's videos. He was only 24 when giving these good advice while I'm older and like an idiot falling in these mistakes. Oh well, it's never too late to learn.
What kind of idiot writes "expedite" on a box and overnights it to a repair shop, and doesn't expect the repair to get done ASAP? Why the hell would you do that when your client hasn't even confirmed with you yet? How much did he drop on shipping alone?
Also, "what if our client's check had bounced or they refused payment?" does not sound like the repair business's problem.
You know i love all of your videos.
I am working on writing a business plan to open a restaurant and I know that board repair and restaurants have very little in common, but this is a great point on how to deal with customers that may overall hurt your client base. I just wanted to say thanks for the videos they are a great thing to come home to after a 12 hour day.
+oldgermanstien Thank you! I know what you mean on the 12 hour days...
The biggest tip I have on starting a business: If you can't choose your customers, don't start one.
I just stumbled across your channel, and this video got me to subscribe. I say this stuff to my coworkers all the time at our shop, and its nice to see someone validate it :) I'll be playing this video in the back room for everyone tomorrow.
Krynn72 Very cool!
I know this video is ancient now, but it's terrific. Hardest lesson to learn in customer service (especially repairs) is that you don't HAVE to offer that person service. The customer may NEED a repair, but you DO NOT need to be the one to perform that service. Love your channel. Pretty sure if I ever buy a Mac, I'm sending it to you to reflow solder before I ever turn it on, just to feel like it won't fail.
this knowledge is more information than you would ever learn at a 4 year school and its all packed into less than one class session. how convenient, AND ITS *FREE*
If I had a business, there'd be a big sign hanging behind the counter saying "ALL EMPLOYEES RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REMOVE CUSTOMERS DEMANDING TO SEE THE MANAGER WHO'S ALWAYS WORKING ON FIXING YOUR STUFF
P.S. YOU ARE NOT THE SOLE WITNESS, ASK THE CAMERAS AND MICROPHONES"
Paretto principle applies here I guess. About 20% of your customers contribute to 80% of your ensuing headache .
I remember someone wanted me to build a fairly decent PC for them. I itemised the parts with the prices included and I was going to charge £50 to put it all together, set up the OS etc (this was about 15 years ago). He comes back to me and tells me a chap down the road will only charge £40. Told him I wasn't interested and that he should go to the chap charging £10 less. Six months later he comes back asking me to have a look at his PC as the guy who built it isn't interested. Told him to go and find someone else, explaining that extra £10 would have guaranteed my support for at least a year! I learned that lesson a long, long time ago.
Honestly, you are one of the most hardworking and inspiring people I've ever seen. Thank you for sharing your work and experiences with us.
I can totally agree with this point. I had a commitment to myself at a job which could only care less all the time if I was there except for the fact that I was one of the few people who would show up. I had a call from a place where I could make in a day what I made there in a week, a place that would break all of the "we aren't going to do this for you" proposals I'd heard from the trainings, that WANTED me to be there, and I said no because I was filling in at a place that would replace me without a second thought, was probably trying to get rid of me, and that no one else wanted to work for. Not only should you fire your customers, you should fire yourself if you know for a fact that you are staying somewhere that denies you essential opportunities, because you aren't doing the job that you got the job for.
I hear you. From working fast food for years I postulated a hypothesis about "poisonous" customers. They bitch and complain and freak out over the 1.60$ for a chilli bun or some bullshit. They make the environment inhospitable for employees and other customers. I always found this to be incredibly unacceptable and so very abusive. It would be in some business' best interest to not entertain these fools. I'm not talking about customers who have legitimate concerns or the ones just having a shit day, or even the ones that mellow out once you build a relationship with them; I'm talking about the ones that, if you kept them around long enough, would influence the perception of your brand negatively. Funny enough, you can usually tell which ones they are by the online reviews they post.
On a separate note, I appreciate your content Mr. Rossman. It is informative, educational and entertaining.
I can tell that you're a good guy and a man who is honest in his business practice. It sucks you gotta go through crappy customers
Great video, great advice. Thanks for taking the time to make these videos and share your knowledge and experience.
Having worked in the "Service Industry" for 45 years I always loved explaining to a client that "the repair shop down the road are better qualified to service the model you have" and thus I would "torpedo" my competition with the worst excuses for human beings that the planet has ever produced. Let them deal with these emotional cluster f * * ks because I'm not trained as a psychiatrist .
Thanks for taking the time to make all these video's. I get a lot out of them. Keep up the good work.
"I hope you get to fire me in the future from learning from my mistakes." F*cking subbed lol
Grover had this problem also Grover on Customer Service - High Expectations
Our city had a massive storm and caused a lot of damage and stretched our technicians thin . But I rock up at Middle income man's house " your late ,what took you so long " . I load my imaginary shot gun and gave him both barrels " We have priority to sick and dying people first . You know the ones that cant walk or get to a phone by themself ( cheap shot at his 1st world problem ) , pull out my mobile and call his contact -make his phone ring then say " or they havn' t got a phone to use "
Glad to hear someone else that understands that this is sometimes necessary. I work for a small software company in which some clients opt to purchase the software, handle other services that we offer themselves, and purchase only the annual support - a paltry $400 per license. Now this is mutually beneficial for most clients that go with this model, but a few are just an absolute drain on our resources. It's ridiculous. I've recommended numerous times that we should have a tiered support model - $400 per year per license for standard support and a higher cost for those that abuse the service, or better yet, cut them loose. One of these clowns recently had me tied up for 2 days straight with their nonsense and in the meantime, other clients were unable to get support due to my counterpart being absent and again, me tied up with a single needy client. If clients are unable to get support within a reasonable turnaround time, they'll go elsewhere and if enough do that, it can be detrimental to the business. It's absurd.
Paul Cox
You're going off topic and being argumentative. I'm not going to entertain that, sorry.
+Paul Cox That's actually not uncommon at all.
How is commenting directly about your statement off topic? Your business model is disgusting, you can't expect smart people to buy bullshit. I find it hard to empathize with snake oil salesmen. Calling you out with facts is not argumentative.
It really comes down to that specific business.
If it costs X dollars to support the clients, and the profits from the software sold are 0.2X, then customers either have to pay for support, receive very poor support, or not get support.
People have the opportunity to go elsewhere, as it is a free market economy - anyone can design and market software. If people are not going elsewhere, the model Michael Mitchell has can't be all bad, because he has customers.
Louis Rossmann
That's certainly not how I do things, but many do. I am in the IT management business. In particular companies like Red Hat (Enterprise Linux) and IBM (z/OS) charge annual fees for support. It's a VERY common business model, especially when the intended clients are "loaded."
Thank you Louis for sharing your experience with the World, I appreciate your real-world examples and for being honest and transparent.
I feel your pain! I'm in gardening and tree surgery in the UK and the technique I use for 'firing' clients is when I go to quote a job, if the client seems like an arsehole I quote them much more than normal. That way if I get the job and work for the awkward customer it's a good day and if they decline the quote (which is what usually happens) it's a good day too! This also goes the other way - if there's a potential client I'd really like to work for, they get a cheaper than average price. Might not be how it's meant to be done but it works!
I had one potential client who when I arrived to look at the job immediately looked at my van in a disapproving manner, and was the most miserable person with a dull, monotone voice. He then insisted I get a quote to him within a week (something which ordinarily I do, but that week I was working 7 days so had about 3 hours of 'spare' time). I told him I'd do so. He then phones 2 days later asking where his quote is! Instantly stuck another £400 on a £1000 quote. Didn't hear from him again.
I've only been in business a year so haven't experienced it all yet, but like you I'd much rather be sat at home broke than working for numpties.
lol well said..still going strong in year 2?
10/10 would be honored to be fired by Louis.
Nah. Sounds like he only kicks the real cockwads to the curb. Is that what you want to be?
I love how you explain all these situations in your videos, I can really relate to my job. You've helped me think differently and more effective in the work I do as a fiber contractor. Thanks!
+Lars (Jetatek) What do you do as a fiber contractor? That sounds pretty cool!
GOD DAMNIT LOUIS
The last minute or two just gets me so pumped up!
You're the man!
So many people in the comments are saying not to fire your customers..... it’s easy to tell who has never had customers.
I have “fired” a handful of clients in the last couple years and I have never regretted it. Getting rid of bad customers makes more room for good ones
Just starting a business and your video's help me out quite a bit, thank you for the time you take dude. seriously.
Thank you for making these great, honest videos. I myself had a similar tech related business, and I can tick all the shortcomings you have listed here and in your other videos, which I had to learn to workaround the hard way (by failing and having bad times with my customers). I'm sure your videos will help others, thank you very much for the time you spend making them.
As I'm listening to this, at the end of every point you make. I'm adding in at the very end "every BMW owner I have ever met".
Holy self-importance, Batman!
+Glycerin Indeed.
I had to get rid of pletny of toxic customers over the years myself (albeit a little more severe). I work at an electronics recycling facility as a computer technician; but before I got this dream job, I had to stop doing work for a lot of people who took advantage of me with late payments because of seniority, customers who would do exactly what I told them NOT to do that caused the problem in the first place--bringing back said unit with even more issues, rude and unruly attitudes, when they would continue to bring me units with an "infestation" problem from their house (I hate bugs), etc.
I even did a job for a client who suddenly got hooked on drugs, and they would call me at weird hours with absurd questions of paranoia concerning their unit.
I feel you, brutha'
90 to 10 percent rule was first described by an (who else) Italian Ingeneer, Wilfredo Pareto, as the Pareto principle, or 80/20 rule ;-)
and it‘s very true.
Stay strong 👍🏼
oh man, this is the youtube channel I always wanted to make. I'm loving this content dude.
A lot of good knowledge in here that applies to ANY business. Thanks Louis!
Valuable advice! Thank you for your time
Hey, guy, I just watched some of your videos. They're good. We're in the same business, though I don't have a store and don't want one. Having a store, people aren't likely to ask you for references. But here's another tip -- for people who travel to their calls: if someone asks you for references, run the other way because it's a sure sign that they're unreasonable. Only a handful of people have asked me for references, and every single one of them was a problem. Now, if someone asks for references, and it's rare, I tell them straight out "you just disqualified yourself." And I say nothing more.
+James C. I usually tell them I have none and ask if they'd be comfortable being my first customer and laugh at the ensuing runaway
This just showed up. Lol..very enjoyable. You looked and played the part perfectly. How to turn a yelp review into a full length motion picture.
Now personally i have made a new years resolution to " stop getting carried away" which i never managed to keep.
This video, you mastered getting carried away above and beyond the equivalent of the reviewer.
( compliment).
"Ive been firing customers since i was 8 yrs old." " ive been firing customers for 16 years and im telling you i might just fire this whole gd state one day.
Comedy gold with very valid nessage.
I've really become a fan of your video's. To me, you seem very smart, logical and honest. And i learn a lot, this was very relevant for me in my new job, so thanks for that.
I really appreciate your videos, thank you for posting.
In regards to people looking for a scratch on their laptop as an escuse not to pay you, I learned something 25 years ago, working in the car audio installation world. When a car came into the bays, we inspected the car inside and out, and noted ALL damage, non-working lights, etc.. on the car. In your case, I'd photograph the laptop on intake, so if they find ANY physical damage, you have it documented as being there upon receipt of the hardware. Nake them sign a form stating as much when leaving the hardware at your shop. :)
Thank you for making this video and being honest. This has helped me when choosing who I want to work with. Sadly not alot of people talk about this subject in business but I that in order to succeed it's a must topic to be discussed and make the public aware who the type of clients us business owner don't want to deal with.
I appreciate you newer videos with better sound. I enjoy you content!
Two words. Opportunity cost.
"I've never lost money on a job I didn't do."
This guy is genuine, he is not an “Isheep”.
Another great video and this is advice almost ANY business could use (I was a farrier- trimmed horse hooves- for many years and let me tell you, I should have fired a lot of clients, and eventually when I learned a little about the business side to things, I began doing so! And yes I made more money by doing that and also it wasn't worth the stress, danger and heartache it caused me besides that!) keep doing what you do and keep making videos and I'll keep watching. Have a great day, Louis!
I love just listening to his videos because he just wants to see us succeed
Thank you for the advice, Louis!
Priceless... thanks for sharing!
Louis, really enjoying your videos, it's refreshing to hear somebody so honest and open about things. I agree with most things you say in this video but one thing i did notice is right after you get done saying "What if an employee gets stranded?" "What if a server goes out?", you say "you're not supposed to do business based on "what ifs" in response to the customers "what if" concerns.
I taught business at the university level for years. You are 100 percent correct. Good job!
Hi there Louis!
I just stumbled across your youtube channel while looking up videos on advanced data recovery. For the past 7 1/2 years I have worked for a computer repair/data recovery business in Seattle that is pretty similar to your own.
Working with the general public over the years has taught me that there are some really stupid people in the world with very unrealistic expectations.
This video is AWESOME!
Thanks for having the balls to speak your mind.
f.
Great example, thank you Louis for sharing your experiences on this topic👍
I'm a swedish studio/session drummer who sometimes work with demolition blowing up or imploding structures. Why did i find this so interesting i spent the 23.36 minutes watching from start to end? Because as he said, this is something you can relate to in any business and he makes a solid point about customers who are not worth your time.
Love your work!
true.. !!
Lois.. thank you for your videos.. We have never met. But i feel like i know you.
Keep up the good work !!
Thanks Louis, well spoken!
Between '96 and '02 I was the guy who was sent to handle our problem customers. Every time I went to deal with one, within moments I regretted closing my company down to help someone else with theirs. It's amazing how much idiotic drama can be had in restoration.
This video is superb. It applies to the service industry too. Not just a storefront.
Thanks. I work for an MSP and totally see every point you make.
I knew a guy who ran an isp back in the 90s who would delete the accounts of customers who were a PITA. No hesitation whatsoever!
Could not agree more, well done bro. Wish I could find a company like yours.
I love how honest you are. Despite the generalised view that honesty about customers is not the best policy, as it may put people off doing business with you, I disagree with this. Your honesty would make me want to do business with you more; no bullshit. No faffing. No butt licking. Just a good job.
Keep up the great videos :)
I love your videos, thank-you !!!!
I agree with you 100%, had to learn this the hard way over many years.
Sadly I can totally agree that you are right, even if I'm only an employee and not an CEO.
One more reason why I try to be as easy to the people I need help from as I would expect somebody to come to me.
I'm amazed they didn't say "Do you know who I am?" That immediately turns on the "Don't give a F***" filter to anything they say after that! Hope to see more of this critical evaluation of Yelp reviews - brilliant!
Or else answer "Weren't you that guy convicted for being a serial killer?"
Absolutely right. Top video 👍👍👍