In all my years, I have always preached the constant re-evaluation of the most problematic customers, and refusing their patronage when necessary. All that wasted energy could be used on new and existing “good” customers.
We opened our company in November of 1997. I’ve routinely ‘fired clients’ in the years since. Its just not worth it to have crank customers taking up the staffs time with ‘small ball’ stuff, or outright ridiculous claims/requests.
Yes, there are some customers who do have legitimate gripes, but there are many who seem like they are looking for a fight. No matter how hard you try to help them, they always find something else that is wrong. Fortunately, we have a pretty good upper management staff who will almost always back us up in a situation like this.