Nightmare customer after acquisition
May 19, 2023
by a searcher from Harvard University - Harvard Business School in New York, NY, USA
Seller has had a small customer for ~10 years. Customer is an angry person to both employees and Seller. Customer is also <1$ of recurring company revenues. Customer additionally takes too much mindshare and time.
Seems like an ideal customer to fire, but, the customer has not been dropped because they are a local retired judge who seller fears cause problems for our service vehicles, service technicians, or otherwise. I'm not clear if this is possible for a retired local judge to actually do - I can't imagine this guy has friends who he could ask to harass me with, HOWEVER a) it's a big risk, and b) if he has friends I can't imagine they would be nice people either.
Has anyone gone through something like this? I think the strategy is to just reduce service so that I appear incompetent, but not malicious, until the customer churns.
in Las Vegas, NV, USA
We had clients for our marketing agency who were hard work. We learnt very quickly this is 100% about setting expectations.
we laid out in our contract the level of service and make customers initial the contract that they will be charged $150 an hour if they drain our time with BS.
we lay it out very clearly and hit the issue head on with all new clients during onboarding, "we work WITH you, not FOR you. It is a partnership, not a dictatorship"
If I was taking over this business, I would make it perfectly clear that there is a new sheriff in town, these are your rules and a new contract to sign.
make sure to include a 'you're fired' clause and the maximum they can sue for is 1 month or retainer fees, or whatever makes sense in your State.
also give yourself a couple of ambiguous' off ramps in the contract to emd your contract if you feel like it i.e. disrespectful towards staff, rude, overly demanding, threats, late payment, not sticking to their end of the agreement etc.
Most importantly, make it clear to the judge, you ain't playing games and have a business to run, with or without him being along for the ride.
The first time he remotely steps out of line call him out directly and straight away in a respectful way. Him being a judge is a great tool as you could turn it on its head. 'You were a judge for a long time, right? You were highly respected and show such respect in court by all. It was your courtroom and you set the standard, right?
How would you have reacted if someone spoke to you the way you have just spoken to me? Would you find any reason to accept the behavior or accept it?
when he answers, regardless of the answer given. Tell him that you will not accept a lower standard than he accepts in his courtroom'
Hopefully that helps.
from College of William and Mary in Eau Claire, WI, USA
Some places, especially some big cities, have more pervasive political machines where your seller's concerns about dropping the judge may be valid. However if you're in an HVAC business focusing on homeowners as opposed to one with many government clients, I'd think you're better insulated from political influence.
I'm happy to chat with you in more detail, shoot me a DM if you're interested.