Sometimes You’ll Need To Prune Your Customers – Keep Your Business Positive
Over the weekend, while hanging with some young entrepreneurs, I was engaged in a conversation with someone and all of a sudden he said something very shocking… so shocking that it completely threw off the positive mood in the room. He said: “Fuck social entrepreneurship! I don’t believe in the whole concept of giving back.”
I was totally shocked when I heard that statement. I automatically knew, right away, that this person wasn’t going to go far in life. I wanted nothing to do with him after that statement. Now, a few days later, sitting on my computer writing this… I begin to think about customers and clients.
Why customers and clients? How do they relate to some negative jerk who is pretending to be an entrepreneur? Well, it got me thinking. Thinking about how the characters of your clients and customers can affect you and your business.
Just as that one bad apple destroyed the chemistry in the room with such a negative statement, can your clients and customers leave a bad impression on other customers because of their negative actions? Can they discourage other people to not use your service because they don’t want to be associated with negative people…even if they are just your customers and not a part of your company?
I guess the point here is: your customers and clients “are” a part of your company. It doesn’t matter if they weren’t a part of the founding team, it doesn’t matter if they didn’t come up with the idea, and it doesn’t matter if they don’t have an equity stake in the venture… they are still a part of your business and their actions can either positively or negatively impact your business. Your customers make or break your business.
We don’t have the power to control how our customers behave and the things that they say, but we should do everything in our power to disassociate ourselves with customers who can potentially rub other customers the wrong way.
For instance, say someone was a paying subscriber to Mind Petals magazine. He loves to read Mind Petals magazine and promotes it everywhere he goes. But one day I wake up and read that particular customer’s blog and find out that he was caught stealing computers from his college computer lab.
Personally, I’m going to drop that client right away — period. I simply wouldn’t want to be associated with such a person. Moreover, I wouldn’t want to be responsible for associating that person with my other clients. To me, that wouldn’t be fair.
Look at what happened to Imus. Quickly after his racist comments, he lost all of his corporate sponsors — American Express Co., Sprint Nextel Corp., Staples Inc., Procter & Gamble Co., and General Motors Corp. Subsequently losing his job. Corporations didn’t want to be associated with his racist views and didn’t want their customers to be — in anyway — connected to someone who uses racist language.
Spend some time thinking about your customers. Get to know as many of your customers and possible. Become their friends, listen to them, and drop the bad ones that you come across. Keep your business positive and weed out the trash.
3 Comments
Girish
April 16th, 2007 at 7:37 am
Dave - What you have in your life is your own reflection. Anything which you find faulty in people around you is an opportunity to look into yourself.
Why you got such a client who is a thief? Yes you can remove him from your list. But another such person will be born again. All the problems and solutions are inside us. Instead of focusing on outside, see what is wrong in your thoughts/beliefs/actions which creates this and correct them.
Matt Bowes
April 16th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
“some negative jerk who is pretending to be an entrepreneur”
If you’re implying that social entrepreneurship is the only valid form of entrepreneurship, you are seriously delusional.
David Askaripour
April 16th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
Hey Matt,
No, I don’t think that social entrepreneurship is the only valid form of entrepreneurship. But I don’t consider people who have no desire to help others entrepreneurs. You can be a “businessman” but not an entrepreneur. Delusional…far from it.
Girish, yup, I agree. It’s hard control who uses your service. Point of the matter is to just try and remove yourself from those who can leave a bad mark on your business.
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