Residential vs. Business customers

[Diggs]

As I've mentioned before the vast majority (85%?) of my business is home/residential. I do support some small businesses but find that 90% of my stress comes from those small business customers (payroll, taxes, livelihoods, etc.). I dread the phone ringing at 7:00 AM sometimes with their latest personal crisis that of course must be related to the install I did 6 months ago. Hmmm - 90% of stress from 15% of my customers. Got to admit. Even though they are more profitable (for the most part) I'm not really interested in taking on more business customers.

@add - Residential customers ("business friends" as was posted elsewhere) always feel like it is their fault and are open to learning and are so thankful for the help. Businesses think it's my fault, have no intent on changing anything and can't believe I actually billed for that 2-hour remote session and stop I did last week.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

It sounds like you may not charge businesses enough to make it worth it for you. Sure some parts of business support can be stressful, we all have some of those clients, but being on the higher end of the market seems to help. However if you have enough residential work to keep you busy and are satisfied with the revenue I see no reason to pursue further business work if it causes undue stress. One of the nice things of being self employed is having a say in the customers you service.

 

[Archon Prime]

Most of mine are residential as well. Reason being is I work on specific hours for on-site work which is usually 5-8pm and all day saturday. I have about 5 small businesses but they know I can remote to them, or do it after hours. They have no issues with that. But I tend to stay with res for the most part for most of the services I offer.

 

[Philippe]

Same here. 100% residential = 0% stress.
I won't touch small businesses even if I double my rates: always in a hurry, insurance cost, often call multiple tech but always your fault, + the legal issue, etc...
Residential is so simple

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

For us we have found it takes about double the effort to work with residential customers than to work with businesses. I know every area is different though.

 

[Larry Sabo]

@Diggs, I agree with your feelings about not needing the stress associated with serving small businesses. I fired one small business because of the stress. The customer was as nice and accommodating as you could ask for and felt there's always a way out of bad situations, but I felt it was all on my shoulders if things went all to Hell. After a career in the high tech industry, where they own your soul, I don't need any more stress.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

It's all about your ability to manage stress, manage workloads, and how much you charge. And I can imagine, for a 1x man show, supporting business clients would be a daunting task.

I'm in control of my business clients networks. So I have a somewhat controllable, predictable environment to work within. And we provide top tier products and services that we command top dollar for.
For residential...the tiny bit we do, I can't stand the el cheapo computers, "I can't find it" install keys/serial key/licenses for various software, unknown account info for ISP based e-mail, blah blah blah. And they have a heart attack even if we charge 25% of what we would charge a business client for the same job.

Adding, what Slater mentioned above is true. Aim for higher end clients that want the best products and services. For my primary clients, I have little worry..they've allowed me to put the "best of the best" systems in...I pretty much have their open checkbook. Granted...getting your client list so that it has a lot of these clients in it can take time. But that is a key factor, IMO. You do find that it's the cheapo clients that cause headaches. Being in the position to not take those clients, but stay with just good clients...that's a privilege that can take a while to get to that point.

 

[nlinecomputers]

See I am just the opposite. I find Residential clients stressful. You have to deal with too many people that are far too ignorant of computers then I like. I find that I get more run-a-rounds, more lying, more people totally unable to communicate the problem, more people that are unwilling to spend time or money to fix issues. Nor am I a teacher. Showing grandma how to use Facebook is a certain pathway to me putting a bullet in my brain. I'd much rather be trying to rebuild a failed RAID on a server or corruption in an Exchange mailbox.

 

[Philippe]

[...]
You do find that it's the cheapo clients that cause headaches. Being in the position to not take those clients, but stay with just good clients...that's a privilege that can take a while to get to that point.

So true!
And it's exactly the same with residential. The "cheapo" clients stay out

 

[Markverhyden]

It's all about how you manage your business, which means managing the customers and not the other way around. Meaning the customers manage you. Personally I started moving away from residential years ago. From a technical perspective that environment is about as boring as boring can get. But mostly because of revenue. The handful still around have no problem with my rates, but, like most things consumer related, the rest want something for nothing. I make sure to clearly set expectations as well as make sure that timelines are easily achieved.

Yes, you can have cheapskate businesses just like consumers. But I find those never call me after the first inquiry. I'm sure they went to Craig's List or something similar. Businesses tend to place more value on their IT services than consumers since, in this day and age, it's tough to stay afloat without them. Even for a few hours.

 

[Diggs]

Don't make residential synonymous with "cheap". Like it's been said. Weed out the cheap ones quickly. A big part of the area I cover is upscale lake homes. Residential yes..... Cheap? no.......

 

[nlinecomputers]

Don't make residential synonymous with "cheap". Like it's been said. Weed out the cheap ones quickly. A big part of the area I cover is upscale lake homes. Residential yes..... Cheap? no.......

They still can be cheap. I live in the Middle of the West Texas Oil Patch. I've been greeted by Men wearing $6000 Rolex watches, in $800,000 homes who steer me toward a 10-year-old PC that they refuse to replace. This is why I drink.

 

[Markverhyden]

They still can be cheap. I live in the Middle of the West Texas Oil Patch. I've been greeted by Men wearing $6000 Rolex watches, in $800,000 homes who steer me toward a 10-year-old PC that they refuse to replace. This is why I drink.

You know there is a old saying, the rich did not get rich by spending money unless the absolutely had to.

 

[GTP]

For us we have found it takes about double the effort to work with residential customers than to work with businesses. I know every area is different though.

Could you elaborate on this a little, I would be interested in your thoughts. Thanks.

 

[Porthos]

Single home business users are the worst for me. They rely on their computers for work and income but they are cheap. Wont backup and when something goes wrong they want it fixed yesterday. Many don't have second computers to separate business from porn surfing. Or even to use when their daily driver goes down.

They fall for the FedEx emails and crap their pants when they get ransomware. (remember no backups). Around here they use Black Friday special computers and don't want to spend for a reliable business class machine or an external drive till its too late.

Rant over.

 

[GTP]

My business is mostly residential, as I've said before. I do support some small businesses (an accountant, Civil Engineering works, a Subway franchisee, Hairdresser, an Auto Electrician and a few others) but much prefer to do residential. As @nlinecomputers computers so eloquently stated (lol) "teaching Grandma to Facebook" is exactly what I like doing! Yes, it can be frustrating, yes, I feel like running from the house screaming sometimes, but it's a great feeling when you show an older person how easy it is to use Skype to keep in contact with that Son in America, or that Daughter in England etc. Email, websurfing, Facebook etc opens up a whole new world for older people! (And they make great biscuits!)
90% of my residential clients never question my prices, they just pay what is owed.
I like that!

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

Could you elaborate on this a little, I would be interested in your thoughts. Thanks.

For us it takes much longer to get schedules aligned to where we can up the machine or for them to have time to drop it off to us. Then when we get a diagnosis and try to call back it takes multiple calls, then pick-up/drop off is often the same. While for businesses it's more like this is the issue, when can you get out here to take a look? I'll be there this afternoon at this time. One conversation and done. It's a lot of back and forth with residential clients and they often want to be right there watching and asking questions if we are onsite where as with business they just want whatever fixed and invoiced. Seems residential work takes longer to resolve from initial call to paid invoice as well for us.

 

[GTP]

For us it takes much longer to get schedules aligned to where we can up the machine or for them to have time to drop it off to us. Then when we get a diagnosis and try to call back it takes multiple calls, then pick-up/drop off is often the same. While for businesses it's more like this is the issue, when can you get out here to take a look? I'll be there this afternoon at this time. One conversation and done. It's a lot of back and forth with residential clients and they often want to be right there watching and asking questions if we are onsite where as with business they just want whatever fixed and invoiced. Seems residential work takes longer to resolve from initial call to paid invoice as well for us.

Thanks. For me I actually like the interaction and dropping off/picking up at odd hours doesn't worry me as a lot of my clients work.
I work from home so having someone turn up at 7.30pm is fine. I'm usually up at 7.00am so clients can drop off on their way to work.
Yes, I get that sometimes you need to contact a client about some issue, but generally I don't have any problems.
I've successfully weeded out 99.9% of residential clients who don't want to pay what I charge.
I'm really happy with the way my business is now!

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

I'm really happy with the way my business is now!

That's one of the most important parts of the whole ordeal.

 

[Briggsy]

I'm 100% residential now. I've had business customers in the past - and it's not for me.

Businesses want everything done yesterday. They never want to free up their computer to let you work on it - and when they do, they huff and puff if it takes more than 10 seconds to fix. They generally talk down to you and then after all that, they take forever to pay.

With residentials, I have a good core of repeat customers who are really pleasant and hassle-free (with the exception of one - who cannot use a computer properly and is a pita - but I just about tolerate her because she gets me a lot of referrals). They appreciate what you do. They're generally polite. They pay you as soon as the job is complete - and I often get to meet new people, which I enjoy.

The only frustrating aspect is when customers are bored and want to chat constantly, or want to know everything you did, why you did it and how you did it - but they get charged for that time anyway.

Love residential. Hate businesses.