When it comes to customer service and computer consulting businesses, one of the most difficult issues it knowing when to fire a client.  Not all client relationships will work out, in spite of your best efforts to qualify leads and prospects.  If you have structures, including a well-structured consulting agreement in place from the beginning that help you properly develop and test relationships with clients, you will be able to know when firing a client is really your only option. 

Customer Service:  Proving Ground Projects

A well-defined consulting engagement should always include a proving ground project.  This is a $250 to $750 small project that allows both computer consultant and prospect to prove their ability to work in a relationship together.  Many times companies will try to finalize relationships during the sales call.  You wouldn’t ask someone to marry you on a first date, so you shouldn’t engage in a long-term, expensive consulting agreement during a first meeting.

If you start off with a proving ground project as part of your best customer service plan, you will not have hard feelings about client firing if the project does not work out.  You can simply decline their proceeding project proposal.  

Customer Service:  Two Non-Confrontational Ways to Fire a Client

The following ways are effective methods for firing a client:

1.    Make yourself unavailable;

2.    Price the client out of the relationship.

Eventually, if you are just unavailable to a prospect, the prospect will get the hint that a relationship with you is not working.  Similarly, if a client cannot pay your rates for projects, he/she will not be able to enter into a long-term relationship with you. 

Customer Service:  Credit and Collections Policies Protect You and Your Client

If you do not have a proper credit and collections policy and you run into a client that is either non-paying or just slow at paying, you will have a difficult time firing the client.  Make sure you have clear credit and collections structures in place to keep careful control over new clients. 

Customer Service and Firing Clients:  Have an Escape Plan

Every time you establish a relationship with a new client, you need to make your exit strategy extremely clear.  Outline what happens if either party decides to stop the relationship.  This document will resemble a service agreement or support contract. 

The Bottom Line About Customer Service and Firing Clients

The key to making the process of firing clients easy if the need arises is to keep everything very structured from start to finish in your relationships with prospects and clients.  If you plan carefully, you will be able to get out of bad relationships more easily and also improve your customer service with good clients. 

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit