“You’re fired!” We’ve all heard The Donald say it, but how many times have you ever wanted to? Not to an employee, but to a client? If you’ve been in the industry long enough, probably more than a few.

It’s not uncommon when dealing with the public to want to kick a customer to the curb, but when is it actually the right time to do so?

“A travel agent can only take so much grief from a client,” Linda Cahill, of Travel by Land or Sea, said. “We have to learn when it is time to let them go.”

According to Cindy Clifford, of Gotta Go Cruises, it comes down to time.

“Whether you’re making a healthy commission or discounting down to the bone, anyone in an agency like ours – which offers personal service rather than handling assembly line orders – is going to spend basically the same amount of time from researching the cruise to following through to sailing.”

It’s not worth it to spend the same amount of time on both types of bookings, and often even more on the ones that earn the least.

“In an odd sort of Travel Agency Murphy’s Law, frequently the less money a client is paying, the more phone calls, questions and requests we field – which makes the client not just less profitable, but way more time consuming, which takes away from the time we have to sell and serve our other clients.”

John Schmitt, Jr., CTC, vice president and director of sales and marketing for Superior & Frankenmuth Travel Service, agreed, telling of a client who repeatedly double and triple checked everything the agency told him online, and then called to check other options before finally booking. This year, he’s called again.

But because he’s going back to the same hotel, he’s also contacted the hotel directly and they’ve told him they will offer a significant reduction.

“This undercuts the contract with our wholesalers. The only way for us to ‘win’ the business is if we go to the wholesaler and ask if they will honor the lower rate. But even if they do, the client states that he’s willing to wait ‘in case the prices drop.’ He has cost us much more already than we ‘may’ earn in commission.”

Schmitt told TMR he has given the client one day to book. If he doesn’t, Schmitt will suggest that the client not do business with the agency.

“I only sever a relationship with a client if they are abusive in some way,” said Dorothy Flannery of Top Sail Journeys. “Usually this is from shopping me to death and taking up so much of my time that I can’t make a nickel off them.”

Flannery told TMR she has only ever fired two clients. “These were clients who booked the cheapest rate cabin, had already searched the Internet, shopped other agents, wanted me to provide bigger discounts than anyone else was willing to offer AND they wanted something else thrown in, like coupons, wine, insurance, shore excursions, etc.”

Like the one client who was interested in booking a seven-night cruise – total fare: less than $450 – and then wanted Flannery to send a photo of the free toiletry bag she gives to clients.

“That should have stopped me right there, this woman was going to make a cruise decision based on a $3 nylon toiletry bag?”

Unfortunately, Flannery waited through weeks more of back and forth shopping e-mails before finally cutting off contact with the client.

Wasting Time

Roxanne Boryczki, president of AZ Trails Travel, said that one of the biggest reasons to fire a client is if the client is a waste of time.

“I have probably fired three clients over the course of the last 15 years. All were for the same reason, which mainly is that they waste my agents’ time in a BIG way.”

For instance, Boryczki told TMR of a client who only ever booked airline tickets with AZ Trails Travel, nothing else. On one trip she began making itinerary changes almost immediately upon arrival at her destination, then didn’t like her new destination when she got there.

“After she arrived at that destination, she decided she didn’t like it… she e-mailed us from the airport and wanted immediate service – remember there is about an eight hour time difference. When she didn’t get an immediate reply, she got angry with us.”

She then purchased her own tickets directly from the airline, when she got home she challenged the credit card charges for the original airline tickets, as well as the agency fee “saying we didn’t earn the fee and she shouldn’t have to pay it.”

“Needless to say, we had to work with two airlines to fight the charge backs, plus our own charge back on the ticket fees – we won all challenges in the end, but after hours of work and letter writing.”

Quality of Life

“It also comes down to aggravation and quality of life on the job,” Clifford added. “Some people are just so demanding, unpleasant and unappreciative that no matter how much you do and how hard you try, they will never be happy nor let you be. Does anyone get paid enough for that?”

The irony is that the least pleasant customers are most frequently also the clients who generate the least revenue.

But Schmitt told TMR that creating an agency with a service orientation and keeping clients who don’t appreciate that out of the equation creates a much more rewarding environment in which to work.

Next: How to fire a client — and when not to.