Just as founders, employees, and board members can be toxic, so can your startup’s customers.

Here are some signs that one of your customers is toxic.

They take advantage of your generosity.

Toxic customers push you to the limit and beyond.

They can’t make up their mind.

Toxic customers put your team in a continual holding pattern while they make a decision.

They continually revise their requirements, putting additional work on your team.

They become a squeaky wheel taking more than their fair share of time and attention.

They come up with impossible requests that the team cannot meet.

Watch out for these signs of a toxic customer.

If the problem becomes too much then the CEO should have a discussion with the customer about the boundaries of the service offered.

Another approach is to charge additional fees to those who want service above and beyond the standard offering.

 

Thank you for joining us for the Startup Funding Espresso where we help startups and investors connect for funding.

Let’s go startup something today.
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Thank you for joining your host Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso — your daily shot of startup funding and investing.
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Hall T Martin is the director of Investor Connect, which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to the education of investors for early-stage funding. All opinions expressed by Hall and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Investor Connect. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon for the basis of investment decisions.