What are your favorite and least favorite customers

[DaveThePhoneDoctorLV]

I am interested in what types of customers you like working with and for and which ones you find to be the most difficult including getting paid for.

For example I seem to work well with Lawyers and the customers that I find are the most difficult to work for are Doctors. They are cheap and do not want to spend very much and their staff are not very friendly.

Real estate customer right now are all prepays because of the economy. They all talk big and want the best systems but do not have the money to pay for them

How about you?

 

[mforrence]

My favorite are faith-based retirement communities. Least favorite are high-strung professional offices.

 

[PBXTech]

Least Fav: The ones where they have to stand over your shoulder every minute you're there. Like you're going to mess it up more than they already did. Get out of the phone room and let me do my job because the more time I’m answering your questions, the less time I’m fixing the problem.

Most Fav: The customers that you've been going to for 10+ years that understand you and what to expect from you. They let you do your job and are appreciative that you are there.

 

[doktor]

Same as PBXtech!

///doktor

 

[Mountainbear]

My favorite are the ones who tell you what they want (or ask me to decide) then get out of the way and let me do it. Getting paid fast is nice too.
The worst don't know what they want, but they want to suggest things.
My worst right recently needed to have wireless everywhere Hotel(3 buildings, 6 acres), but he must have said 10 times "I haven't got a lot of money."
I finally asked him "do you want it to work or do you want something that doesn't cost a lot?"
Two month later when we finally got everything the way he wanted he asked how long he had to pay the bill. I usually give 30 days.

 

[IPGuru]

The customers I like are the ones that make me feel welcome (because I am going to fix there problem)

The customers I hate are the onse that treat me like it is all my fault the moment I walk through the door.

Guess which one is likely to get let off a charge when it is proven to be user error

 

[PHXAZ]

all costumers can be a pain at times, all you need to do is be able to take control of the situation and make them feel confortable. Once you get there and if first thing is to try and prove them wrong or go in a defensive mood all you are going to accomplish is to piss them off more than they already are.
take them as what they are people that depend on their phone system to make a living.
my only least favorite client is the one that quits calling, they are the ones that I make a living off. I dont know about you butI cant afford to loose to many of them.

 

[skip555]

I like those that pay promptly

I don't like those that don't

I can live with the rest

 

[DaveThePhoneDoctorLV]

any type of ustomers like doctors, plumbers,etc. that are the easiest to work for?

 

[fireeater]

i like the provincial government offices

i dislike motel hotel people

_____________________________________
S.H.A.D.O.
_____________________________________

mike

 

[kwbMitel]

I can't nail it down to a specific market. Every customer is different, has different needs and different expectations. Some customers just want a phone with dialtone, some want the phone to detect when they walk in the room and automatically switch from forwarding to their cell and instead ring their deskset.

Somewhat to my surprise, I recently learned I can provide the latter request above using a Blackberry with GPS enabled.

*******************************************************
Occam's Razor - All things being equal, the simplest solution is the right one.

 

[DaveThePhoneDoctorLV]

What about Hotel Motel don't you like. I have had my first Hotel and it was a bad experience.

How do you get a Blackberry to do this with a Partner or Nortel?

 

[fireeater]

my experience with the motel people is that what they want and what they need are 2 different things
they want the end all and be all top of the line systems ,but when they hear the price, they will go for the 1a2 refurbished key system but still expect the features of the top of the line systems

and when you get everything working (to there pay scale)
they won't leave you alone , and expect free addons and service calls to add wires and such.

so far in my 20 years of this there has only been 2 motels out of 100 that do not fit this description


_____________________________________
S.H.A.D.O.
_____________________________________

mike

 

[DaveThePhoneDoctorLV]

what is your experience with attorneys and doctors?

 

[crumthwacket]

Dentists are great - they're more mechanical than medical doctors and don't have a poker up their arse and an attitude to match.

Customers who volunteer to pay before we even write the invoice are the best.

 

[IPGuru]

Doctors ar definetly bad
The take the lowest level of maitanence cover they can get & then demand an instant responce. Playing the "weve got sick people trying to get through " card every time.

Vets on the other hand do take out much higher levels of cover

 

[Sympology]

Like: Those that know they don't have a clue and let you help them.
Dilike: Those that think they have a clue and try to help you.

Robert Wilensky:
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.

 

[alamtnman]

working as an internal guy for a large corp.
dislike -middle managment,who thinks their problems are more important than they really are and the managers who think that they look better the more they yell ask ask how long when they havent got a clue how to fix it themselves and/or they believe if they have you call at&t every 20 minutes it will make them get a pri or pots line up quicker

like- customers who understand your doing all you can. and will get it as fast as you can.

as a owner of a small company on the side:

like customers who have a well defined idea of what they want and are willing to pay quickly because they understand you are a small company.

dislike customers who dont know what they want, then complain about everything and try to beat you up over the price.


T.R.
RCDD

there may not be any stupid questions
but their is a bunch of inquizative idiots
(myself included at times)

 

[kwbMitel]

Like: Those that know they don't have a clue and let you help them.
Dilike: Those that think they have a clue and try to help you.

I would add:
Like - Those that know what they're doing but also know their limits.
Dislike - Those that know what they're doing but only discover their limits by exceeding them.
Like - Those that ask questions and learn from the answers
Dislike - Those that ask the same questions over and over again.
Like - Those that understand that phones are a communications tool
Dislike - Those that think phones are status symbols and that the guy/gal with the most applications wins.

*******************************************************
Occam's Razor - All things being equal, the simplest solution is the right one.

 

[DaveThePhoneDoctorLV]

What customer personalities in what type of business do you like the best?