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Modern Machine Shop ran an interesting piece recently under the title, "Why Is It Okay to Fire a Customer?" https://www.mmsonline.com/blog/post/why-is-it-okay-to-fire-a-customer. Here are a few clippings for your interest:
We work overtime to meet the demands of our customers and rightly so. Our success depends on our reputation and repeat business. So much so that going the extra mile in communication and delivery has effectively become the new baseline for good customer service for successful businesses.
This is all well and good. I'm proud of our industry's efforts to elevate the standard through innovation and technology, and it's working. Even so, elevated standards mean bigger risks for customers and suppliers alike, making the century-old saying of "the customer is always right" somewhat of an overstatement. What was once sealed with a handshake is now enforced by contracts and documents written to protect all involved parties.
[...] In my 26 years of leading Pioneer Service [CNC machine shop], I've had the unfortunate but necessary task of firing exactly two customers. The common thread between them was a deal-breaking level of disrespect. They directed accusatory and demeaning language to multiple members of my team, and they were unapologetic repeat offenders. Firing them [customers] was considered only after taking every reasonable measure (and perhaps a few less reasonable ones) to make them happy.
Thankfully, this is an extreme minority of customers. I will never enjoy firing anyone, employee or customer, but I have yet to regret standing up for a member of my team.
[...] Just before firing one of the two offending customers, I approached the employee who had been that customer's favorite target. I'll call him Dave. My goal was simply to reassure Dave that he'd done nothing wrong. Dave was shocked, didn't want me to fire the customer and tried to dismiss the rude behavior. My explanation to him was the same phrase I say to all of my employees: "You've got my back; I've got your back.
Anyone work for a boss/owner like this?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by turgid on Saturday February 15 2020, @12:36PM (5 children)
It should go without saying that this sort of toxicity is very unhealthy and unhelpful. I've done many jobs now in my life, starting out putting out vegetables in a supermarket when I was a teenager. The customer wasn't "always right," the customer, "came first." There was a subtle distinction. The attitude was that everything we were doing was for the customer, and that if there was a customer with any sort of problem at all above the trivial, it was to be escalated straight away to first the department manager and then the store manager. It was a very good system. Management tried very hard to cater to the needs of the customers but there were one or two that were just impossible to please and they were politely but firmly, after several attempts, asked to go to another shop.
There were some pretty draconian rules about staff behaviour and dress code and I did see some people being sacked for some utterly trivial an inconsequential things, however, the cardinal sin was being rude to a customer.
"Greed is good" and "the customer is always right" have done a lot of damage. They have resulted in an unsustainable arms race between unreasonable demands from customers and therefore unsustainable pressure on businesses and staff. I've had to leave several companies (for better pay and less stress) several times now because management and customers will not communicate like rational human beings (flat out lies), and the staff are treated as some kind of magical entity which will produce years of work with no notice by working late, cancelling holidays and working weekends. The biscuit was finally taken when being asked to start work on a project, which was a good 18 months worth of work, a month after the deadline (employer lying to customer). As a point of pride and as a personal goal, I stayed on and got that project done with eventually 100% customer satisfaction in 18 months. Many others left due to the stress. I did too after getting the result.
Unreasonable demands, unreasonable schedules, inhumane treatment of people and contempt for objective reality ultimately result in failure. It's unsustainable. You may imagine you're getting "good value for money" and the company may get a short term rise in the share price, but the knowledge leaves the building and you have unsupportable products, and you can't develop the next generation without starting from scratch. The people become tired, ill and bitter. And all for what?
We're all human beings and we all deserve to be treated with a bit of respect whether customer, supplier, worker, manager etc. Things would work much better if we took a more sophisticated and enlightened approach. But greed is good, eh?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 15 2020, @01:36PM (4 children)
I know out of personal pride you stayed on to finish the project, but all you did was show the customer that your employer was good to do business with. You kept the cycle going. And it's not like you ever planned on going back to work there, so... I guess you used that as a bragging point in your interviews for the next job? Frankly, a year and a half is WAY too long to stay for a bad employer.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Saturday February 15 2020, @01:43PM (3 children)
I thought I'd broken the cycle, and I thought some of the management wanted to do things better, but at the end of it the company went back to its bad old ways. Not hiring enough staff, lying to customers about work done etc. Yes, it's good to be able to say you achieved something. People call me a "Socialist" with all its negative connotations so it's good to have some clear achievements in the Capitalist shark tank,. We're not all lazy and profligate with other people's money.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday February 15 2020, @02:23PM (2 children)
Right but being lazy and profligate with other people's money is only mud icing on a turd cake. Involuntarily taking money that someone else has earned and giving it, however directly or indirectly, to someone else that you think needs it still ain't right. Need is only need, it does not turn wrong into right; and when the folks who the money actually belongs to don't even agree on your definition of "need", it's especially fucked up.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Saturday February 15 2020, @02:41PM (1 child)
Watch out in case that diabolical Bernie Sanders comes along and redistributes some of Trump's wealth in your direction.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday February 16 2020, @01:53AM
No worries. Bernie's such a shit candidate he can't even win when Donald Fucking Trump is the opposition.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.