When and how do you fire a client?

In the private aviation business, we deal with all types of characters. Most of our clients are great! And I don't just say that because they spend lots of money on our services when, truth be told, there is almost always a less expensive way to travel.Our clients include the self-made, the trust-funded and the corporate. Within that mix there are plenty of down to earth, easy to get along with people and a few entitled PITAs (pain in the you know what) as well. Sometime customers truly cross the line with either unreasonable requests or hostility toward crewmembers which begets the question — when do you have to have a sit down, come-to-Jesus conversation with them? And when do you have to just fire them? These are not easy questions because no one likes losing customers.We have one bright-line rule: Yell at customer service all you want (more on that later) but treat your pilot badly and that will be the last time you fly with us. The pilot is almost always doing their job and customers typically do not understand all that goes into the process. This is the person charged first and foremost with keeping you safe. We once had two "gentlemen" fly from an East Coast city to the Hamptons for a party. They came back for their return flight inebriated along with a woman they had picked up. The first problem was that they were drinking. The second is that the third passenger rendered the plane overweight which grounded the flight. The act that sealed their fate? They screamed at the pilot and tried to "order" him to fly. Customer service got on the phone and explained the options: either lose the additional passenger and behave or you're never leaving the Hamptons. They complied, but I followed up with a note the next day to them explaining why they would never fly with us again.We once had a client yell at us because she booked the flight at 4 PM and we arrived at 3:30 PM, our standard time. "I expect the plane to wait here all day!" Sorry, nope. Then she didn't want to fly because she didn't like flying at night. It was July, night wouldn't occur for 4 hours, and she was scheduled on a 45-minute flight. She was fired.An airplane owner once tried to order us to do unapproved maintenance. "I own the plane, damn it!" And you, sir, can have the plane back.In all the examples above, the customers all came back. They recognized their behavior, they were not expecting to be called out for it and they apologized. So, they were un-fired but only after they made amends.While a few customers deserve to have the plug pulled, others simply need a good talking to.This tends to fall into two categories.The first are people who behave badly toward customer service. In this case, I usually talk to them and explain how customer service works to make your flight as seamless as possible. Usually, one conversation changes behavior.The second are customers who are perpetually late. We operate multiple flights in a single day. Not everyone has this business model, but we do. From the outset, we explain that they need to be on time, roughly 15 minutes before scheduled departure. When they are late, we are late to someone else. It sends a ripple through the fleet. This usually is resolved with one conversation afterwards or by leaving the customer at the airport and telling them we'll be back in a few hours. You can hang out at the FBO and have the ice cream and see you at 2 PM. Some customers simply don't understand that they are not the only customer we have.Ask yourself who is more important to your business? One miserable customer or the people you employ working to make all the customers happy?How you answer this question goes to the type of culture you're building.