Small business Customer Service 101

The pervading wisdom when it comes to customer service and small businesses is that the customer is always right. A customer is king.

Which is all well and good until you get a customer that's a right pain in the proverbial. They whinge at every service, they return product when there's nothing really wrong, they phone to let you know they're peeved.

And when you call to chase payment for a product or service, they're the ones who come up with every excuse under the sun as to why they can't or won't pay their bill.

A respected business owner colleague of mine calls this group the Five Percenters. "About 95% of your customers are good, and will pay up eventually. And then there are the other 5%!"

Dealing with them is an eternal struggle, but he's come up with a new tack which I wanted to share:

"I call them and say that we're really sorry, but they have slipped into the Five Percenter group. We've tried really hard to get them out of this group, because we don't believe they should be there. But they're stuck! I suggest that if they have any ideas that could help us get them out of the Five Percenters, we'd really appreciate it!"

It's amazing, he says, how many people don't want to be stuck in a minority group. They often come up with ways to make themselves better customers.

And if they don't, ask yourself if really want them as customers. Might be time to set them free!

All success.

Margie