Do you "fire" annoying users?
The primary reason we're into this indie hacking thing is to have a peace of mind. We could have 1000 users but if 10% of them are annoying, then do we get rid of them (especially if they're high-paying clients)?
What's been your experience with all this? What do you do?
I can totally relate to this.
Dealing with annoying and sometimes even abusing customers sucks!
What I did to fire them silently: raising the price, reducing free trials, adding paywalls to many of the product features.
hmm, so that's why Apple's doing those things.
Yeah, it's a matter of boundaries. Do business with people you want to, whether that is a service or a product. There is one thing improving our business and giving customer service. Customers service though is about serving the people you want to. It is not about serving everyone.
I'd say "annoying" is probably not worth firing the client for (although we may have different definitions of annoying).
I draw the line at personal attacks, abusive language, or being an extreme burden on support — the first two are immediate firings, the third is a firing if the behavior does not change after expectations are clearly set in a personal conversation.
I'm happy to deal with folks who are annoying (especially early on) as long as they make forward progress and understand that respect is a two-way street. Sometimes annoying/needy new clients can become great long-term supporters once you get them over the initial hump and build trust with them.
Yes, not recently, but in the past, I (or we, it was a team decision) got rid of a customer that brought the morale of everyone down. The last thing you want is your team's productivity and happiness sinking over any sum of money.
Some clients expect a Ferrari when they pay for a Fiat 500 (which was communicated).
Absolutely. We just fired a major client this past December and although the hit on the pocketbook was not so great, the opportunities it opened certainly was. It allowed us to focus on more positive clients and getting our own onboarding and SOPs documented even better than before. Just do it!
I've had one client that was paying me really well but had an immense amount of stress because of them. So I just decided to "fire" them i.e. quit. No amount of $ is worth sacrificing my sanity.