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?

 

[Westi]

are you writing a book?

I like customers that are organized and can provide information that helps installing a system without having to go back and reprogramming it three times until they finally land on the original programming again because they are not only unorganized but also stupid.
If they have a bigger system and demand more service because they paid for a lot more than a doctors office with 4 phones then I can get that also but if they have an attitude then I have one too, and believe me I can do that very well after 26 years in this business you develop that or you end up in the loonie bin.

My favourite customers are actually bigger companies that have IT personnel and someone in charge of the whole purchase and implementation of the phone system as long as they don't take it personal and sit on the money if they need additional stuff to accommodate additional features.

Joe W.

FHandw., ACSS

insanity is just a state of mind

 

[kwbMitel]

Your question is unanswerable. Likable customers cannot be catagorized by occupation. They each have their own personalities. Even with a particular likeable customer there will be individuals that are not as likeable.

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

 

[orypecos]

Avoid
-any customer that says 'It must work perfectly all the time!"
-If they squint at you during the initial sales visit as if they don't believe you.
-If their BBB rating is bad
-if the initial sales meeting is difficult and strained. Just give them a ridiculous quote to get rid of them.
-If there is a strained ambiance in the office because there are a lot of unhappy people working there.
-If all the cars in the parking lot are old junkers.
-If they remind you of a used car salesman.

 

[DaveThePhoneDoctorLV]

what is your warranty policies I.e. general routine repairs vs. new installs miscellaneous parts like replacing a set, software our hardware upgrades etc.. How have you handled issues where you find your warrantied work or repairs have been tampered with. This has happened to me a few times and the customer swears they don't know who touched my work.

 

[gregl45]

Each service ticket is logged with technicians individual code and a copy of the config is attached. If the config is different than what is on file then the warranty is voided. It is hard for them to argue when you ave a side by side comparison.

 

[R10Comm]

I dislike radio stations. They agree to the price and then want to pay half the bill in pizza cupons.

 

[Mountainbear]

If anything has been tampered with it doesn't mater if it was the president or the janitor. If they messed it up it's not covered. I warranty sets for the duration of my suppliers warranty less a month or two to allow shipping times (usually 12 months).
As for customer to be cautious of;
-Be aware of customer who are not the least bit concerned about the price.
-And customers who are overly concerned about the price.
-Also I watch out for customers who have no concern for what I am doing and haven't given clear instructions (they will only come back later to say it's wrong).
And customers who are overly concerned with what I am doing. (yes I know what color code to use).

 

[jeffmoss26]

The ones that pay on time are the ones I like.
The ones who want everything to work without spending a dime I do not like.
Simple as that.

jeff moss

 

[stsguy]

In a nut shell. I love all of my customers. They built me a nice home,put food on the table and educated 2 of my children.

WORK SMART NOT HARD

 

[Westi]

seeing that I work for a company that I do not own, there are a lot of customers that I would refuse to sell to if I could afford it , but that is not my choice at all. I like if they have expectations that are not outrageous. They can get what they have paid for with all the bells and whistles, no problem, but if they start demanding things that are not in the scope of a normal install (i.e. having to run cables for some odd reason or terminating cables they had their "friend" run etc.) I tell them sorry that is possible but will be billed for on a time and material basis and as long as they are OK with that and don't start with the sob story that they paid so much money for this system and this was promised by the sales person.
I would say that 90% of customers are great and the est of the 10% are a mix between getting annoying and real #@%^

Joe W.

FHandw., ACSS

insanity is just a state of mind

 

[DaveThePhoneDoctorLV]

Just Thursday I fired on of my customers that I had enough of. His rude and demeaning comments that I was a one man operation and that my rates are the same as a large vendor along with bringing up problems from the past that have been long since resolved and were actually his employees fault was just enough. He seems to forget that I saved his 200,000.00 POS system from laying an egg when I told them that DSL could not handle the traffic load from his stores.

Enough was enough. I was insulted after all the long hours I put in with his company and the many NO CHARGE customer courtesies that I gave them fro sending so much work my way. I forgave them 2 years ago when I bid for a new system for them and they took the lower bid of just 2,000.00 and got screwed by the other vendor on service and support then called me back.

This guy teats his employees this way and I had had enough. I did not care about the money any longer it was my dignity.

I told him I will maintain my warrantied work but that he can find himself another vendor. I did this right in from over 3 of his employees. One of them told me later that she wish she has the courage to have done the same. She is the receptionists and really like my work. She was the one who I dealt with most of the time and now she is going to have to deal with a whole new group.

I watched over this account like a mother hen. THAT is the advantage of a small business and dealing directly with the owner. But this guy will learn once again. I think.

 

[LkEErie]

Alright, my favorite customer is Mr. Patel, my least favorite? Mr. Patel. They make you work for your money and examine how you treat your regular coustomer, they also drive a hard bargain. They will take advantage of you if you don't pay attention, so in the end, you control how this works. Most of my non-pay and deposit rules come from dealing in the hospitality industry. I get 50% down for a reason, so that your (uncle,brother,cousin) doesn't beat me out of my sale. I tend to start higher than a normal bid, knowing that if it's accepted I just made more than normal and the illusion of a sale keeps me in good stead. And, if I LOSE the bid, what have I lost?

LkEErie

 

[Mountainbear]

NortelNATE, I don't know if what you did was brave or a a bad move. I am also a "one man show" and I treat every customer as if they are a million dollar customer. Even the ones who say "I need this to work great, but I have no money". If he is paying his bills sometimes you just need to smile and say "no problem."
If he meets a lot of your potential customers you could be in trouble, but if you can afford it some customers are not worth keeping.

 

[DaveThePhoneDoctorLV]

degrading personal remarks are not part if my contact.

 

[Westi]

I have a customer that treats his employees like that and he tried that with me when I was first on the phone with him so I just told him that I will need to come by for a site survey and we could continue the conversation then. I am a fairly big guy and he is 5ft 4 and 150 pound soaking wet, he was sweet as pie when I showed up
I like when that happens ;-) people treat other people that depend on them as if they own them noticing they can't get away with that behavior all the time.

Joe W.

FHandw., ACSS

insanity is just a state of mind

 

[DaveThePhoneDoctorLV]

I think this guy was trying to get me to give him a discount to keep him as a customer.

He is just one of these customers that because of his big name in town ( they are a dry cleaner ) that he can throw his weight around.

His company went into bankruptcy because of pollution of the ground water all over town.

If you go to his retail stores they are dilapidated and dirty. Paint peeling off the walls and dirt on the floors, letters missing from the signs on the outside of the buildings, etc. and he is trying to be junior telephone and computer IT guy. He can barley run his own business. Not good public relations for a company with the word "cleaner" in their name.

I warned him that his computer room was to hot and that he needed back up filtered power and to this day he not done nothing about it.

When problems com up he blames everyone else instead at looking at himself as the problem. I noticed that he likes to keep the tension level very high at the office.

 

[jimbojimbo]

High stress sucks. Low stress is great. Paying the bill is a must.

Worst customer brought in a lawyer even before we sold the system. I warned my management. Took a loss on that one even though we definitely exceeded the customers scope of work.

Best customer is professional, has done their research, and knows exactly what they want. If they can put it on paper I am twice as happy.

Consultants are a pain since they usually ask for everything, Expect you to train them on every technical detail, and then the customer only purchases about 20% of what you proposed since that is all they wanted anyway. Big consumption of time and resources.

 

[stsguy]

kwbmitel has the best answer. you have to get a feel for the customer and adapt. you may be the best tech in the world,but you are as good as the person you are dealing with.

WORK SMART NOT HARD

 

[DaveThePhoneDoctorLV]

I disagree. No one should have to become a door mat. No one should have to be degraded and stand there and take it just because they are being paid.

Are you telling me that you would stand for being abused by a customer and just stand there and take it?

 

[IPGuru]

I had a case once whe I was called by our out of hours engineer because a system reboot had caused a major error (actualy the error already existed but the reboot made maters worse instead of better)
The custard took the phone from the engineer and started ranting "what the F**K has theis stupid <ethnic insult> done to my system"

Had the engineer left site at that point I would have told the custard there was no other engineer available & I would be more than happy to explain to his director (and mine) why.


I do not Have A.D.D. im just easily, Hey look a Squirrel!