Question for the pros. How do you "get rid" of a customer?

[sudsmobile]

A little background. We have a customer that has been on a bi-weekly schedule for over a year. He got in at a rate that I'm no longer comfortable with, but even that I can live with. Around mid December, he decided that he would skip his normal day because it was supposed to rain. Then it rained and rained and rained, always like one or two days a week, but enough where he simply didn't call.

Finally, two weeks ago, he contacts me that he's ready to start up again. I SHOULD HAVE used that opportunity to tell him that I was full of washes or that I've had several price increases and missing three months of your schedule means you're no longer in at the same rate. But I didn't. Fast forward to this week and I show up and the two washes is one wash on a vehicle that hasn't been washed since mid-December (the last time I did it). It was destroyed. I invoiced him the normal single vehicle mid size SUV rate and he pays but no tip.

In the past, he's used the tip/no tip thing to signify when he thinks the price is too high. About six months I made the mistake of removing a bird bomb that had etched his black Porsche and he went off a little about running it past him first. It was $25. I mistakenly thought nobody is their right mind would argue about $25. I was wrong. I ended up not invoicing him for that work and he paid with a $25 tip instead of his normal $15 tip, so basically paying me $10 for the work.

A few months before the end of the year, he asked us to remove this shoddy carbon fiber wrap from the hood, mirrors and rear spoiler. Whoever installed the wrap had glued it on the mirrors and spoiler which was nearly impossible to remove. It took 5 hours to remove. It was so hacked up that we ended up doing a one step basically for free just to make the car look good. I charged him, get ready for this, $265 for 5 hours of wrap removal and the one step. I charged him so little because I knew he'd throw a fit if I charged him properly for the work. He paid 10 days later, again no tip.

I've basically had it with him. I almost do the job now out of a feeling of duty to try and reward the fact the he was a good customer for a long time, but today was the last straw. He doesn't value our time, he pays what he thinks a job is worth and it's nothing to him to just give me one car without telling me and leave me with an hour hole in my schedule. We did over $11k in March. I need his $100 job like I need a hole in the head. The entire time he was off my schedule, I had absolutely no problem filling his spot with a bigger, better paying job for 3 months. Like I said, if the guy was cool with us, valued our time and paid anywhere near the going rate with a smile on his face, I'd do the job purely as a favor, but I'm done doing favors for somebody I feel like doesn't appreciate anything we do for him.

I've thought about simply telling him that we are revamping our business model and we're not doing washes anymore. It's not far from the truth. I probably average 2-5 washes per week as it is. I'd like to find a way to drop him that doesn't leave me open to negative feedback on Yelp or whatever. I feel like he's really lost any claim to maintenance under the past terms by taking a 3 month break and also not honoring the number of vehicles that he agreed to.

In any case, I'm just looking for ideas from anybody that has ever had to navigate a situation like this before. I will say this, I've dumped four customers in the last 3-4 months for nearly identical issues. All of them were customers from when we were just beginning and surprisingly all of them were like the worst customers we had. Time wasters, didn't return texts, slow pay, you name it, it was like they were clones of each other. A few of those situations ended less than amicably and none of them saw fit to do anything to negatively impact our business so maybe I'm overthinking this.

Thanks in advance.

[Eldorado2k]

He doesn't value our time, he pays what he thinks a job is worth

How is he in control of that? If you’re allowing him that much because you’re afraid he might leave a negative review than I don’t know what to tell you other than cmon man...

The only thing you can do is raise your price. Given the circumstances it’s the only way to keep yourself from being miserable serving him.

[AaronE]

In the contract you have with him (verbal or written), did you specify a contract termination date, price changes, or the like? If not, you could (you may not like this idea but it might be so out of the box it works), draw up a notice that due to increasing costs, your price will be going up for these services X days, weeks, or months from now. I'd say a month notice should be adequate. Then if he continues service, draw up a basic contract that includes your recurring service that requires no approval from him to do (i.e. what he wants on the weekly/biweekly basis), length of the price being valid (1 year seems like a good way to go), ending contract early terms for you both, cancellations due to weather (how long can he go cancelling without penalty -- maybe have a clause that after X weeks, the next maintainence session needs to be quoted and approved before services start due to standard maintenance not being enough), what to do in the event more work is needed (such as scratch removal, polish/compound, etc. - - maybe make it anything other than regularly scheduled maintenance requires a call and separate written quote; so you'll be billing him for two jobs).

I feel for the prediciment you're in. Cheap customers are the worst in any industry because they ignorantly run their mouths. With the hot dog stand, I have yet to receive a bad review for my prices and the need to raise them with giving some notice, although cheap customers will make a comment to which I smile and serve them a high quality meal (I let my food and service do the talking).

I hope this helps you out a little. If this person is as cheap a customer as I imagine they are, you'll either lock them in on an appropriate rate through a contract or they will leave peacefully and be someone else's problem.

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[SWETM]

Just curious but is tip a standard thing to give based on the amount of the job?

Not familiar with how the tip works in the US. Is it just in certain work as service work? Here in Sweden the price includes the tip. But mostly it's not specified on the reciet. As it's the cost of what you are doing that is the price. And rarely any tip is given. Resturants and bars it's not uncommon to give tip here. But otherwise and not even the last to mentioned if no tip is given there is no hard feelings.

A months notice on high your prices seems like a great idea that what mentioned above. Take the price you are satisfied with. But if he have refered any other customers that he knows or knows anyone of your customer. You can get into problem if he reliased you have a higher cost just for him. It's no easy way to be gentle about this. If he gets a streak of not booking you. You can say that you have filled that spot and are fully booked the next 2 weeks. And see if he decide to go else where.

[Calendyr]

I don't understand your mentality in this. You are angry at him for not tipping? I love to receive a tip, but I don't expect one. When I charge a client 500$ for a job, for me that is plenty. If they decide to tip, I will absolutelly be happy about it, but I don't get mad if I get no tip. As others mentionned, if you think you are not charging him enough, just raise your prices so that you can both be happy and not have to rely on getting a tip to feel you are paid enough for the work.

When it comes to prices, the way I do it is I establish what I feel the job is worth then submit that to the client prior to starting the job. I make them sign an agreement for the estimate. This way there is no surprise and we are both comfortable with the price. It has happened maybe twice the client thought it was too much, so we came to an agreement on a lesser service for a lower price. In general, people will pay what you ask for unless it's unreasonable. I think you run a 2 man crew, so yes 52$ per hour for 2 men is not that much. But if you are solo, that is a good pay day in my book. I normally charge about 40$ per hour and it bumps up when I do coatings to up to about 100$ per hour in some cases (minus expenses of course).

If you are really tired of the situation, maybe you could talk to the client and sign a new agreement. Nothing wrong with raising prices from time to time, inflation affects everyone and it would not be realistic for him to expect the prices would remain the same for ever.

[AaronE]

Just curious but is tip a standard thing to give based on the amount of the job?

Not familiar with how the tip works in the US. Is it just in certain work as service work? Here in Sweden the price includes the tip. But mostly it's not specified on the reciet. As it's the cost of what you are doing that is the price. And rarely any tip is given. Resturants and bars it's not uncommon to give tip here. But otherwise and not even the last to mentioned if no tip is given there is no hard feelings.

A months notice on high your prices seems like a great idea that what mentioned above. Take the price you are satisfied with. But if he have refered any other customers that he knows or knows anyone of your customer. You can get into problem if he reliased you have a higher cost just for him. It's no easy way to be gentle about this. If he gets a streak of not booking you. You can say that you have filled that spot and are fully booked the next 2 weeks. And see if he decide to go else where.

Tips aren't expected in all businesses in the US. Typically, if you are charging a price that compensates properly for labor no tip is required. Usually the tip for these kinds of jobs is a show of gratitude for going above and beyond. For example, in my business, a hot dog stand, I do not expect the tip from customers. My wages are built into my sales price. But, when I offer excellent customer service or go above and beyond to accommodate a customer, I am more than grateful to receive a tip and also give a tip for similar service

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[Mike Phillips]

Keep it simple,

Hi Jim,

First I want to let you know it's nothing personal, if I see you at a bar I would love to buy you a beer. That said, I no longer think we're a good match for business. My services don't meet your expectations and I'm okay with that. Here's the names of a few other local detailers that I know do good work.

[sudsmobile]

I don't understand your mentality in this. You are angry at him for not tipping? I love to receive a tip, but I don't expect one. When I charge a client 500$ for a job, for me that is plenty. If they decide to tip, I will absolutelly be happy about it, but I don't get mad if I get no tip. As others mentionned, if you think you are not charging him enough, just raise your prices so that you can both be happy and not have to rely on getting a tip to feel you are paid enough for the work.

When it comes to prices, the way I do it is I establish what I feel the job is worth then submit that to the client prior to starting the job. I make them sign an agreement for the estimate. This way there is no surprise and we are both comfortable with the price. It has happened maybe twice the client thought it was too much, so we came to an agreement on a lesser service for a lower price. In general, people will pay what you ask for unless it's unreasonable. I think you run a 2 man crew, so yes 52$ per hour for 2 men is not that much. But if you are solo, that is a good pay day in my book. I normally charge about 40$ per hour and it bumps up when I do coatings to up to about 100$ per hour in some cases (minus expenses of course).

If you are really tired of the situation, maybe you could talk to the client and sign a new agreement. Nothing wrong with raising prices from time to time, inflation affects everyone and it would not be realistic for him to expect the prices would remain the same for ever.

I'm not angry that he doesn't tip so much as I'm angry that he uses the tip to show dismay for the price. If I, for example, raised the price $15, he would end up paying the same amount because I know for an almost 100% certainty that he would no longer tip.

As for our hourly rate, I try to make $50-55/hour by myself and $75-80/hour for the truck when there's two of us.

[Eldorado2k]

I personally never count on there being a tip and instead try to make sure I’m content with the flat price we’ve agreed to. A tip is icing on the cake, but I don’t think it’s something that should be expected or used as a bargaining chip.

If you raised his prices, who cares if he doesn’t tip? You’d be getting the total amount without having to deal with any whining or having to bend over backwards in order to get it. Sounds alot easier to me.

And if he doesn’t like it then you move on to occupy your time with better profits elsewhere.

[nvestr]

I'm not angry that he doesn't tip so much as I'm angry that he uses the tip to show dismay for the price. If I, for example, raised the price $15, he would end up paying the same amount because I know for an almost 100% certainty that he would no longer tip.

As for our hourly rate, I try to make $50-55/hour by myself and $75-80/hour for the truck when there's two of us.

Well at least in that case you don't have to worry about a tip anymore since the extra part is no longer discretionary. Yes, you will make the same as when he did tip, but as you said he didn't always tip so on average you will collect more. It may also be what he needs to leave on his own accord, which would also benefit you. There is nothing wrong with raising prices as long as it's told in advance. Every business has to keep up with inflation.