I was astonished to receive an invitation from a very large & world renowned research firm to attend an on line seminar that provided among other things, the information to help you select what customers are best to FIRE to improve operational efficiencies.  Naturally, being a Customer Service Evangelist & President of a well known Customer Experience Management company… I just had to chime in.

Short, brief, from the bottom of my heart answer that I hope you take advantage of:

Never & especially not during these economic times.

For the mathematicians in you, I have devised a simple yet detailed formula to explain.

Customers = Revenue, Revenue - Expenses = Profitability, Profitability = SUCCESS.

Few companies can afford to “Fire” a customer today.  In fact, I beleive companies should be SPENDING on customer retention strategies on how to better listen to their customers.  Beyond listening, you need to put action in place based on what it is your customers are saying and protect them as YOUR customer from the feeding frenzy of competitors in the marketplace looking to gain any type of market share that exists.  Why would you allow your competitor that opportunity? The days of picking blossoms from tress are over, sales organizations have transformed from delicate, soft spoken types who are masters of listening into excavators mining the earth for any nugget of sales gold and they are relentless (or should be)

In short, I’m well aware that there are many theories that exist whereby it’s prudent to examine your customer base and decide whether or not “You should fire them”.  I wholeheartedly disagree, and am providing you this opinion because I care about your business as the readers of my little blog.  If a firm is suggesting that you fire a customer…I strongly advise to think about it and potentially fire them… then give me a call.

I promise I wont fire you.

Jason