I've had enough... SHE'S GONE! | How to Fire a CRAZY Client

Hey, everyone, it's Mike Andes@landscapebusinesscourse.com and today we're actually going to be hearing a live call. This is a real call with a real customer out in New York. And if you're at command center, we're going to have Brian, one of our reps, here on the phone to be able to talk to this customer and nicely fire them. This is not something we like to do or enjoy doing, but I know this is a big question that comes out is how do I let go of a customer that I do not want to have, you know, service their property more? Because they're just unreasonable. And I'd say 99.8% of people we can deal with, we can figure out their issues or what problems they might have. Eventually comes a point where if a customer, you cannot make them happy. They're completely unreasonable. They're out of their tree. They're always calling in, they're mad about things, and then you give them, like, free services back, and they still are out of their tree and mad. Eventually you say, hey, look, we're not a good fit. And here's how we're gonna pass you along to a different service provider. And you have to realize that you can't be everything to everybody. You can't be a really high professional, big company, do big propert, but then also be the type of person that dinks around in someone's garden and picks every little weed and talks to them every time you come to their property. So there's definitely a niche that you have to focus on in your community of which customers you're going to serve. And realizing that as your business grows, you might have to weed out some of the customers that you had in the past that were expecting you to show up to the property yourself or were expecting you to do a certain way or a certain time of the day every single week. So these are the kind of conversation we don't like to have with nicely fire the customer. Let them go. And it's funny how a lot of times they start kind of stepping back. We're like, oh, no, it wasn't a bad job. And like, oh, what can I do to keep you on service? A lot of times it's not going to help, though. You just want to let them go, move on with your life. Let them move on with their life and live happily ever after. Let's go ahead and roll the tape.

All right, so we're getting ready to call this lady. This customer actually has been a bit problematic for us. After about a week, she called in frustrated that there was weeds popping up and she thought that maybe something we did on the first mowing service caused it. She disputed some of our invoices, had questioned whether or not we provided services, and throughout the process she had called and kind of questioned the work we were doing, whether or not it was being done. She didn't believe that we had been out there mowing and that we had put down treatments. Even though I let her know that we did email some follow up and we did take some photos when we were out there. She said that she doesn't check her emails and so she has no way to know whether or not we actually provided services. We also gave her complimentary services. So now we're going to call her because it seems like there might not be any way to keep her as a client. So we're going to give her a call here and let her know that she's not a good fit for us and try to refer to another local business that looks to have good reviews and will hopefully be able to service her. We're going to call her right now. Hello, Grace, this is Brian from Augusta Lawn Care.

Yes, hi, how are you? Okay. How you doing? What's up, Brian?

Well, I've been talking about you a lot today. Me and Felix have gone over it a few times here and we want to make sure you're getting taken care of. And honestly, the more we discussed it, the more it feels like we might not be the best fit for you.

Why? You don't want to do my lawn anymore? You haven't finished it. Well, what I have showing now is somebody's going to come and look at it. Forget about it.

Well, I think it's a mess right now.

I know and I feel bad about that. We want to make sure we're getting taken care of. And the more Felix and I discussed it, it just doesn't feel like it's something we're going to be able to help you out with. We've kind of gone back and forth on it.

You're not that good a firm to take care of it.

I just don't think we're the best fit for kind of the services you're looking for.

Well, I'm only looking for normal services just to get my lawn looking like a lawn. That's it. First of all, you started something, I paid for something and my lawn looks like. I can't begin to tell you so. I mean, that isn't anything.

That says something about your company and.

My Lawn looks worse than when it started. My lawn was not that bad when you guys started.

Predominantly, we do.

How am I going to get somebody now supposing they don't want to do it?

I think I can set you up with someone here locally who does. Who does good work and I think would be a better fit for you.

I guess.

You have to give me the name and. But the thing is, my lawn has to be mowed, and I don't want to wait another week or two to get it mowed because it's so high. So no one could come here and mow it.

Some of that stuff that came up over the past couple weeks.

We'Re not going to be able to handle. And I don't want to kind of misrepresent what we're able to do. We can absolutely mow lawns, but some of the weeds and other issues are not something that we're gonna be able to handle for you. I think some of these other companies might.

Well, I understand that, but I just wanted the application to see if some of the progress would go away. But I guess you're not able to do that. You know, that's pathetic. It really is. I'll tell you.

But I need my lawn mowed, and the least you could do is just mow it for me. So then what? My whole house will be covered?

I don't know if it's. I mean, I think we sent somebody out on the 30th to Mo. And we sent two guys out there, and I'm not sure why. That wasn't to your satisfaction, the photos we have from last week?

No, no, it wasn't to my satisfaction. How could you say that? I wasn't even here. No one came out here on the 30th.

So two of our guys were out there on the 30th, and they clocked time and they mowed the lawn. And you're saying that that wasn't the case? We have photos on the 4th. Felix was out there. The grass was not 2ft tall.

So.

Basically, we're not sure what the miscommunication was, but it looks like the lawn was mowed on the 30th. We're not going to charge you for it.

No.

Yeah, but that doesn't mean anything. The lawn looks like. Forget it. And you just wouldn't leave it like that. I mean, without even mowing it to give it a decent appearance. What's the name of the outfit?

I would suggest Grassup. And Josh over there is a really good guy. The number there I can give you.

Grassup.

Yep.

G R A S S U P. That's right. So what am I going to do? Tell him that you can't handle a job here.

You can just. He. He specializes in overgrown mows. He specializes in weekly, bi weekly, and monthly services. We were out there on the. On the 30th, and we did mow. We have photos from when Felix was out there last week on Wednesday. I know. You said you didn't see Felix out there. He took notes. He took photos. And I'm not. I'm not out there.

I don't. And not on the fourth. All right? That much I'll tell you. I took pictures of the lawn. Maybe I'll put it on Facebook, you know, just to see how far I get with this. What's his number? Well, I'm glad somebody's gonna find out about Augustus, all right? And. And there's gonna be pictures covering it. I can't let this rest, though, because you left me in a mess here. Really, It's.

It's confusing. It's confusing on our end, too. And I've been. Been talking about it all morning long, trying to figure out what makes the most sense on our side. It looks like we met with you three or four times. Felix came out to try to get it resolved. We did multiple treatments. It looks like we mowed a couple of times.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. He didn't meet with me multiple times. He met with me the first time. He's lying about that. He met with me the second time because I show him. I wanted him to see. What do you call it out there? The crab grass and the lawn. Because I was getting more different types of weeds, which I never had. All right? I just wanted him to put something down if he could. That's all I asked for. That's all I do. What I have to do. All right. Thank you very much, Brian. Nice knowing you. Nice talking to you.

I'm sorry I couldn't do more for you, Grace. We did discuss it at last.

I don't see why you can't come and mow a lawn. That's. That's my whole thing. At least mow the lawn.

All right? So you left me in a dilemma. And that's the biggest thing. Especially with me and my husband unable to defend for ourselves. But.

But that.

That.

That.

That'll come to pass. That'll come to pass. Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, Grace. Okay. So not a call you ever want to make. Never. Super fun kind of a breakup phone call. But.

Honestly, there wouldn't be a lot more that we could do for that customer. They're always going to ask for one more mo or one more thing, and the hardest thing is just to hold firm and just kind of say, hey, we're not a great fit for you. It's difficult to save face, but you want to try to leave the relationship as best you can, as professional as possible. And in this particular case, she just had too many issues with our crew and the service we're providing. Again, a tough call to make, but.

We have to let them go once in a while.

I'd like to invite you to Landscape Summit. It's the conference we have in January of 2022. Go to landscapebusinesscourse.com conference for more details. We talk about P4P efficiencies and how you can grow your lawn care and landscaping business. I look forward to seeing you there.