Customer Complaints

Customer Complaints – From the Business Owner’s Point of View

Mark Komen, President

Kodyne, Inc.

Minneapolis, MN

We regularly hear from customers regarding what they have to say about someone’s business, especially in the areas of dissatisfaction and complaints. Negative customer reviews abound on social media, whether accurate or even true. Granted feedback of any sort is a gift, however there is another side to this issue – business owner complaints about their customers – something that doesn’t get much attention in public. I asked a sample of small-to-midsize company owners/business leaders the following questions:

What are your biggest complaints about your customers (assuming you have complaints)?
Have you ever fired a customer and why?

18 owners responded representing the following industries:

Distribution
Manufacturing
Engineering/Construction
Business Services (IT, insurance, financial, management, marketing, consulting)
Education (B2C)
Non-profit
Real Estate

Here are the most often cited complaints they have about their customers. Most were also grounds for firing customers. The complaints were common and span all the industry categories above.

Complaint 1 – Customers who don’t pay, expect freebies, haggle

Failing to pay or delaying payments which cause immense strain on small businesses. Some customers even demand more work even though they aren’t paying their bills.
Businesses need to at least break even. The cost to serve some customers is just too high for reasons reported below. Low profit/high maintenance customers are often shown the door.
Dealing with continual and unreasonable price justification demands are time consuming and it’s hard to know when the justification is satisfied. Related to this is the situation of being price-shopped in spite of the service we provide.
“They say they want value, then haggle over price”
Delivering fast vs. doing things well
Wanting everything for free without commitments on their end

Complaint 2 – Verbal abuse, not fitting our values

Customers who abuse and belittle our staff members. (editorial comment – I imagine actually being an employee of those customers is a real nightmare).
Not respecting our engagement processes

Complaint 3 – Never satisfied, push for 1-sided agreements, endless complaints

Expecting perfection
1-sided supplier agreements and demanding that we waive certain rights in supplier agreements
Endless perceived emergencies and demands for immediate attention. Many not warranted; deluging us with emails over minor details
Lack of cooperation

Complaint 4 – Ghosting/cancellations

No-shows for appointments and meetings
Last minute cancellations
Not responding to our attempts to reach them or replying in a timely manner

Complaint 5 – Unprepared, can’t make decisions

Not providing the necessary input so the work can be done
Not really understanding what they want or need
Unable or unwilling to decide between options presented
Lack of forecasting which results in many rush orders

Complaint 6 – Don’t follow recommendations or guidance

In some cases, companies have been asked by their customers to do something illegal or borderline illegal
Going rogue on decisions that aren’t aligned with our recommendations
Customers who aren’t equipped internally to act on recommendations and be successful

Engagement Exit: The owners who responded to the survey are very customer-focused and have a strong desire to satisfy customer needs and help them be successful. Loyal customers, who could take their businesses elsewhere but don’t, are golden…up to a point. Once the cost of serving certain customers exceeds the value of doing so, ending the engagement is a tough but important decision. Exit approaches used by the respondents are shown below. Respondent Engagement Exit Approaches

Raise prices until they go away – perhaps not the most direct approach as it avoids addressing the core issues but likely results in the customer moving on.
Recommend other providers who might be a better fit
Don’t take on new work with them, just finish what’s in the works
Flat out fire them

Advice for Business Owners

Create and communicate clear, consistent messages about your expectations for a successful customer engagement. This is an opportunity to optimize the engagement at its earliest stages. Establishing financial expectations, personal interaction guidelines, decision process approaches and the like go a long way to set the stage for success. Have a frank conversation with the customer on these points with the idea of optimizing the relationship. The reality is that there are times where the fit between the customer and the business isn’t good, healthy or profitable and cutting ties may be the appropriate course of action.
As one owner stated – Difficult customers can be your best, long-term customers if you can find a way to work with them. Their feedback can help you fine-tune your approaches and processes where you might have had blind spots. At the same time, there’s a limit to what owners are willing to tolerate.