No matter what business you're in, customers are hard to come by. So it's only natural to be repulsed by the idea of firing them. Winning and retaining customers is fundamental in business, and it's just plain counter intuitive to want to trim your customer relationships. The problem is, some customers aren't worth keeping.

In reality, every customer relationship is like a miniature business in itself. Revenue has to outpace costs over time, or it's a losing proposition. High maintenance customers squeeze profit margins and consume valuable resources at a disproportionate level. Recognize the relationship is costing you more than it's producing, and cutting the cord with a problem customer becomes a simple business decision.

The fewer customers you have the easier it is to determine the profit or loss of each one. If you're in a high touch, high ticket industry; you probably already have a pretty good idea how much revenue each customer is generating. Large volume, high traffic industries may require a more formalized process to measure per customer revenue, but it's still a quantifiable measure. In both instances, the more difficult problem to solve is the unseen cost of servicing a difficult customer.

Quantifying the cost of customer service involves more than meets the eye. In every business and every customer relationship, there are hard costs; man hours, supply expenditure, postage etc., but there are also less tangible expenses. These include everything from litigation and credit risk, to the amount of emotional energy involved in interacting with the customer.

Anybody who's dealt with a chronically complaining, emotionally draining client can attest to the productivity drain. There's less emotional energy to expend in the next conversation, and it takes time to replenish it. This "energy loss" affects sales as well as service. Difficult customers drain productivity.

But how do you measure emotional energy? Frustration isn't exactly a quantifiable substance. Still, difficult customers raise flags, and they're easy to recognize when you start looking for them. Customer hand-offs, difficult complaint resolution, and repeated problem elevations, all point to a parasitic customer.

The concept of the customer always being right, has been so ingrained in our psyche that employees may be reluctant to bring a problem customer to the boss's attention, and instead pass them off on other associates. Watch which customers

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