Correct or remove bad customers

1. Bad customers make it bad for everyone

Correct customers who behave badly, or fire them: they make it bad for everyone else. Encourage the behavior you want, and give feedback on the behavior you do not want.

Even when they have influence. Remove someone who behaves badly even when they carry weight in the group. In one example, an owner told a member with a lot of standing that, with respect for all they had done, they were being removed for the way they had spoken to the staff and to others in the group. From that day, the standard of behavior across the group rose a notch. In a second example, taking two or three people out of an online group for pitching other members changed its whole feel, night and day; the view here is that taking the same number out of a business that runs in person, or whose people deal with each other every day, changes it even more.

Not only online groups. The same holds for a client base. One bad client can spoil the day of everyone in service and support, and, where your clients share a community, every other client's day as well.

2. The moves, as used in online groups

• Delete bad posts. Tell the people who wrote them why the posts were bad, and show them what good looks like.
• Give bad posters 3 strikes.
• Pin the best 1 or 2 new posts daily. This raises up the people who wrote them and gives fresh value to everyone else. It also helps them level up, and it shows the group what kind of content you reward.
• Make topic categories for what you want people to post, and include these four. Call them whatever you like.
  • Wins: these give you testimonials.
  • Fun: keeps things light and lets people talk about anything.
  • Discovered: people share what they have discovered, using data and proof.
  • Meetups: a place for people to connect, online or off.

3. The action step

Encourage good behavior: pin posts, praise in public, and give value to everyone else. Remove bad behavior: tell people why it was bad and what good looks like, and put them out after 3 strikes.

Let people report in private. Tell members they can message you directly about bad behavior they see, without saying so in public, and then check it yourself before you act.

Expect them to hit back. Expect someone you remove to go after you in public, talking you down or gathering others against you. In the example in section 1 that is what happened, and it did not change the call.

4. What this page does not decide for you

• What makes a post bad. Not established on this page.
• What counts as a strike, and whether strikes ever expire. Not established on this page.
• How to apply the moves outside an online group. Section 1 says one bad client spoils a client base too, but the moves in section 2 are given for online groups only. Not established on this page.

5. The checklist

Step	What you do
Bad posts	Delete them; say why they were bad and what good looks like
Strikes	3 for bad posters; after the third, they are out
Good posts	Pin the best 1 or 2 new posts daily; praise in public
Categories	Set topics for what you want posted, including wins, fun, discovered and meetups, named as you like
Everyone else	Give value to the rest of the group
Influence	Remove bad actors even when they carry weight in the group
Reports	Let members tell you in private, then check it yourself
Retaliation	Expect it in public; it does not change the call

6. What this page does not cover

Getting testimonials is SOP 125 — Run the six-point testimonial script. Connecting members to each other is SOP 141 — Connect members to each other. The cancellation call, for customers who choose to leave, is SOP 132 — Run the cancellation call.