Do you fire clients? IF so how?

Robert I know how you feel. We have a fired a couple over the past 15 years. I did one just the other day. I actually just told them I had price increases this month due to overhead, and raised the price to make it worth dealing with them. I still think they will come back, but at least I will be compensated for the trouble now. one time it was my dad who fired the customer and I was totally in shock as he is the nicest guy in the world. He basically told the lady she needed to take her business else where as everytime we do an order for you, there seems to be an issue, the first time we redid a screen print because she measured it and it was 10.625 in of 10.5 wide...lol she was just very picky. On the last order we did for her we printed down both sleeve, front and back, and she nit picked the order placement and we are talking barely off from one shirt to another, never had one so bad. My dad told her to go Macy's or JC Penny and compare the printed shirts there and see if they are off a hair, she didn't like.

Good luck to you, but I have been in the graphics business for 30 years in several aspects, and I hate to turn away work, but I will not stress over "idiots" anymore, life is too short, enjoy!

Before embroidery I was an optometrist and a similar type of patient exists. The reading distance is "wrong", and if they look to this side "it blurs", and to that side "it stretches", complaints on and on............As mistakes can happen we always gave the patient another examination. In the majority of cases there was no need to change the prescription. Some finally admitted to wanting a different frame but a lot of others got "shelf treatment" Their spectacles were taken away from them and they were told that an adjustment was going to be made. Those then lay on a shelf at the back for a week or so. Lo and behold - when they got their "adjusted" spectacles back they could see clearly.
If you know that a design runs well then it may also deserve "shelf treatment".
But - back to firing clients - I might just tell them that as they are never satisfied with what we do then they should think of trying a different digitizer. I have clients that complain about what I charge - I have provided them with names and telephone numbers of other digitizer/embroiderers in the area. I have enough work that I don't have to put up with their cheap attitude. In most cases I will give a "heads up" call to let the embroiderer know a PIA is going to call. On the other side of the coin I have had calls from the other local embroiderers warning ME of difficult customers who may be on their way. Fine - prices just went up!
Maybe not so nice - but you did ask. :D

There is no set way to send a client/customer packing as the reason you are doing so is likely not the same. Especially with majority of customers knowing nothing about sewing, there is no better explanation than "That just won't sew." But they never want to hear anything besides yes and a price.

Only on a few occasions have I had trouble with a digitizer and it is usually a language barrier. I have noticed other people at the shop struggle with designs I sew with ease, which is an operator issue. Anything from them hooping it looser, using different backing etc. can play an affect. General lack of embroidery knowledge is always a big issue.

A lot of the time when one of the other embroiderers asks why it is sewing like bunk, I investigate. What kind of garment was it sewn on/was it digitized for that garment? Was the garment shifting/pulling when sewing? How did you hoop it? What backing did you use? Tensions checked (bobbin/thread)? Last time needles were changed? Thread weight and needle gauge used? Was the design edited at all?

I also digitize myself and have found that most of the time, if there is an error in a design it is because I didn't overlap enough or didn't put underlay. This happens only on things I do for myself as I am not paying as much attention as I do to clients, go figure. I have only ever once seen this from a digitizer though, but all his work was sloppy.

You could use umbrella statements of "Letters .30" or less should be sewn with a #9 needle. 60wt or 75wt thread is also recommended for small detail. Blah blah blah" to cover issues that come up again over and over from clients. Killing people with information is usually the best option. People will usually back down / listen when they realize you know more than they do haha.

Either way, god speed.

Hi Robert

With all respect to you, i want to say that sometimes i do as clients say because they want to win their clients business.

Than, after that i can guide them about how to place the order.

i've been digitizing for almost 20 years and i've only had to "fire" 3 customers. one was because they were an extremely slow pay and when they finally did pay, the check bounced half the time. the other two tried to nit pick me to death on edits. what i said was "i'm sorry, but i just can't seem to make you happy. i think it would be best if you find another digitizer". its been years and years since i've had to do it. these days when it happens, its one of two scenarios. 1. either its the embroiderers customer that is picking THEM to death. i will do a couple of edits but if they come back a second time, i tell them to tell their customer that the next edit will be a $25 editing charge. 100% of the time, they decide they're happy with the design. 2. is usually an operator error with the embroiderer. i get a lot of new embroiderers sewing their first designs and if they have trouble with a design i ask them to send me a pic of their sew out and 9 times out of 10 their tensions are WAY off and they have no idea of how to adjust them. i send them instructions and a tension test design that i came up with and they usually get it worked out. if they fight me on it, i have the same design stitched out and email them a pic of what the file looks like on another machine.

Robert, yes the first order she complained about, we redid, and thought we would be nice and give her the "messed up" ones. The next order we did not give them to her, and on her final order she complained on, which was printing front and back and on both sleeves, my dad said enough is enough from this lady, and did what he did ;-)

A couple of months ago I sent an older guy and his younger female companion packing. They came in and wanted a template. Explaining the process I deduced that they wanted a digitized design. I then ask if we were going to do the embroidery, response was maybe. I responded that I wouldn't be interested in creating and digitizing the design, there are numerous sources on the internet for that. Older guy wanted an explanation. OK, I don't digitize designs for other embroidery shops. I'd be happy to create a design and then digitize it if we are going to do the work. Man gets bent and leaves while popping off the retort, I hope you get some customers. OK, bye.

In general if I want to "fire" a customer I either say either we no longer do that type of work, we won't be able to do their job until some extended date in the future or raise the price until its worth it for me. If requesting multiple edits is a problem you can allow however many you feel are okay and charge for additional ones. One problem I have is all proofs are sent via email so sometimes the size of the proof (and every little imperfection) is viewed at a size much larger than the actual design. If the proof isn't acceptable to my customer then I do a sewout, send a scan and mention that embroidery should be viewed from at least a three foot distance.