How to Fire your “F” Clients/Students

No matter the reason, telling a customer that you don’t want to work with them anymore is never easy. This is especially the case for new and upcoming professionals where every client can make a significant difference to your bottom line. Nonetheless, more often than not, the clients that you want to remove from your program regularly take up more energy than your average client or student and can actually hinder you from expanding your business with clients who are a better match. I call these clients “D” and “F” Clients. These individuals (and their horses) don’t ever seem to improve despite all of the extra effort on your part. It could be behavior, financial responsibility, poor communication, personality conflict, or myriad other reasons that a customer isn’t a good fit. While you may be at your wits end, there is a way to sever the relationship while maintaining your professionalism and setting the transition up to (hopefully) be a positive one. 

Try this: 

1. Spend some time thinking about why they, or their horse, are such a terrible client for you and reframe it in such a way that the client will understand. This will mitigate the likelihood that they will get defensive, emotional, or lash out. I try to put the reason for the change on me as opposed to pointing blame at them. (Anyone here broken up with someone via the “It’s not you, it’s me” line? Yeah, this is the professional version of that, It’s just not a great fit, sorry.) 

2. Put a clearly defined end date on the relationship. This provides clarity and manages expectations for you and your customer/client. This date may already be defined in the terms of your contract, otherwise it is really up to you.

3. Reach out to other professionals in your area who may be better equipped to serve them and see if they are interested in taking on the new client. Don’t be shy about sharing why the client is leaving, which will instill trust in your relationship with the other trainer/instructor. While it may feel like a negative to you, the challenges may be easily mitigated for them based on the nature or structure of their program. They can always say they don’t want to be referred to. This also goes a long way toward building a supportive network of specialized professionals in your area connected by passion for lifting up the industry as a whole as opposed to competition. (I will go into the benefits of networking and partnering in this way in another future post. It is a common theme here at Equestripreneur in general.)

4. Provide referrals to other professionals that may serve their needs better. If after doing your due diligence with #3 above, you’re not comfortable with referring them out to others you don’t have to. This can depend on the nature of the grievances you have with them and whether a different personality match or program structure may be better for them or not. However, take note: this little bit of extra effort goes a long way toward increasing the likelihood of terminating the relationship in a positive way and you can rest assured knowing that you did what you could to make the transition as easy as possible for them.

5. Reach out to your client/student via all forms of written communication you have for them. This ensures they can’t turn around and say they never saw or got your message. So, if you have their email, number, and social media, message them on all three.

Here is a message template. Adjust it based on your specific needs: 

Dear [Customer Name], 

While I have enjoyed working with you and your horse, as of [Specific Date] I cannot continue doing so. Unfortunately, [insert your why here - e.g. maintaining a horse business comes with high operating costs and the consistent lack of timely payment and subsequent follow-up in our relationship has put too much strain on my business model]. I would like to refer you to [other trainer/instructor’s name], whom you can reach at [other trainer’s contact info]. They have a wonderful program that is set up to better serve your needs. 

Best,

[Your Name]

If you take these steps and the client still reacts poorly, you can rest assured knowing you did everything in your power to make it as clean a break as possible. At the end of the day, you can’t control how people react. You can only control yourself and how you react. Take the high road and know that if others in your social circle ask what happened, you can politely share exactly what you shared with the customer. You took a professional approach and even provided them with support for a transition out of your program. What they choose to do with it is entirely up to them. You can rest easy at night.

Oh, and if you have to fire a client due to communication or payment issues, consider developing a policy that gets signed by all current and new clients mitigating your risk in the future and giving you something to fall back on should you find yourself in a similar dilemma in the future. I had to do this very early on in my program by creating a 24-hour cancellation policy that specifically addressed last minute cancellations due to student illness and weather (it also included a maximum number of times that last minute cancellations would be tolerated). I also included a very brief explanation of why the policy existed (I have to pay the expenses to keep lesson horses in good condition to teach whether customers show up or not). It gave me something to reference back to when I had people cancel last minuteso I still got paid and, frankly, most clients started paying me before even reaching out to tell me they were cancelling for the day, knowing it was standard practice for the business. This saved me from the hassle of the follow-up process to begin with.

Okay, now take a deep breath. This stuff is hard. We are in a relationship-based industry, but you are still running a business (and maintaining your livelihood). Nonetheless, rest assured that by taking this difficult step your peace of mind will be better as your "D" and “F” client’s shift away from your program.

If you want help crafting messaging to fire that "D" or “F” client, or a policy that will make is easier if you find yourself in a similar situation in the future, reach out. I’m here to help.

Hugs and Happy Riding,

Kristin

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Learn more about author Kristin Bowers.

Blog posts from Equestripreneur are not meant to replace individual professional advice, which will best inform personal circumstances.