Firing clients

Sure. Why not?

Seth Godin has a post today about people being rude and disrespectful to airline staff. His question is: Should companies "blacklist" bad clients?

Yes.

I mean ultimately it's a question of how much long term benefit (working with desirable, respectful clients) you are willing to trade for cash right now. I would argue that in the long term, your workplace is a better place when you move on from clients that are disrespectful.

At Ripple we love our clients, and work damn hard to make them happy. But we have let several go over the years. Fired them. Not because they weren't profitable or because they were financially burdensome, but because they were disrespectful. Because they treated our staff like servants, or lied to us, or in some way showed a pattern of disrespecting our staff. In the long term the cost of keeping clients like that is much higher than letting them go. The hidden cost of having a staff that cringe every time the phone rings is higher than I think most people realize.

Companies need to enforce a level of respect and dignity with customers. An airline should not tolerate abusive fliers and they should in fact, blacklist them. They make the airline staff and all of the other passengers uncomfortable, and they lower the bar for the rest of us. The entire culture of flying is degraded by the "entitled" flier. The abusive flier.

Now, don't get me wrong. The American airline industry is broken, the service is among the worst in the world, and it's frustrating. I have done more than my share of complaining about it. But every business needs to draw the line at personal attacks. If the airlines started banning certain customers, they would send a powerful message to their own people: You matter. We expect the highest level of service and commitment from you, and you'll get respect in return. The gratitude and re-humanization that airline staff would feel would be 100 times more powerful than all of the lame morale programs trotted out by the airlines to try to fix their service. The airlines send a powerful message when they turn their cheek to such behavior: The lowest person that walks in here with $200 is more important to us that you, our ten-year employee. Abuse is simply a part of the job, and you need to suspend your dignity while you're in the uniform.

Bullshit.

Fire them. Fire them and send out a press release. Fire them and tell the world why you did it. Fire them and let people know that incivility won't be tolerated at your company. Fire them and send the message to your employees that they matter. Fire them and make your company a better place.

Sure. Why not?

Seth Godin has a post today about people being rude and disrespectful to airline staff. His question is: Should companies "blacklist" bad clients?

Yes.

I mean ultimately it's a question of how much long term benefit (working with desirable, respectful clients) you are willing to trade for cash right now. I would argue that in the long term, your workplace is a better place when you move on from clients that are disrespectful.

At Ripple we love our clients, and work damn hard to make them happy. But we have let several go over the years. Fired them. Not because they weren't profitable or because they were financially burdensome, but because they were disrespectful. Because they treated our staff like servants, or lied to us, or in some way showed a pattern of disrespecting our staff. In the long term the cost of keeping clients like that is much higher than letting them go. The hidden cost of having a staff that cringe every time the phone rings is higher than I think most people realize.

Companies need to enforce a level of respect and dignity with customers. An airline should not tolerate abusive fliers and they should in fact, blacklist them. They make the airline staff and all of the other passengers uncomfortable, and they lower the bar for the rest of us. The entire culture of flying is degraded by the "entitled" flier. The abusive flier.

Now, don't get me wrong. The American airline industry is broken, the service is among the worst in the world, and it's frustrating. I have done more than my share of complaining about it. But every business needs to draw the line at personal attacks. If the airlines started banning certain customers, they would send a powerful message to their own people: You matter. We expect the highest level of service and commitment from you, and you'll get respect in return. The gratitude and re-humanization that airline staff would feel would be 100 times more powerful than all of the lame morale programs trotted out by the airlines to try to fix their service. The airlines send a powerful message when they turn their cheek to such behavior: The lowest person that walks in here with $200 is more important to us that you, our ten-year employee. Abuse is simply a part of the job, and you need to suspend your dignity while you're in the uniform.

Bullshit.

Fire them. Fire them and send out a press release. Fire them and tell the world why you did it. Fire them and let people know that incivility won't be tolerated at your company. Fire them and send the message to your employees that they matter. Fire them and make your company a better place.