Is it time to remove difficult clients?
The best clients make all the hard work you invest into your business worthwhile, we at Lombard Accountants appreciate that as much as you do. A good client will value your expertise, appreciate your team’s hard work and are friendly to work with. Also, they pay their invoices promptly. You and your team will always go the extra mile for those clients – they drive your success.
However, sometimes there are clients who aren’t quite as enjoyable to work with. The ones who want everything in a hurry, at a discount price, and then complain about the invoice. The delicate question for your business is, should you consider getting rid of your most difficult clients?
The Lombard Accountants team believe there are two things you should do in this situation.
- Rate your clients
Making a list of your clients and thinking about how much they benefit your business is a good start to understanding if they are clients that you need to cut. One way is to put them into grades from A to D. You might start by considering how much revenue clients bring in, how pleasant they are to deal with, how promptly they pay and how many other clients they have referred.
‘A’ clients are good on all measures, ‘B’ clients might be good on most, and ‘C’ clients might be a bit difficult but worth the effort. The lowest-ranked ‘D’ clients are those who take up a lot of time, for very little money, and generally cause you far more stress than they’re worth. This exercise is also valuable for giving you an understanding of the client profile you need to attract more of to your business.
- Why would you fire a client?
It might seem crazy to get rid of a client when it can be tough to attract new business. But if a D client is consuming far too much time for only a tiny amount of revenue, that’s time you could spend finding a new A or B client to replace them. Or you have time to improve your service for your A clients, increasing their spending or allowing you to raise your prices.
The Lombard Accountants team understand that it may seem fanciful after a pandemic to be considering removing clients from your business but your time is important and if a client is draining your teams time for minimum return, it may be time to let them go.
If you would like to discuss your business needs. Call Lombard Accountants on (01) 678 9960 or email hello@la.ie
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