Decide Whether to Drop a Small Customer Segment
Added 2026-11-02
Weigh service cost and reputation before dropping or downgrading them.
We are considering dropping a small customer segment (details below). Do: 1) calculate their share of revenue and of service cost; 2) list three hidden costs of dropping them — reputation, case studies, referrals, team morale; 3) propose three alternatives — raise prices, move them to self-serve, hand them to a partner; 4) judge whether dropping is reversible; 5) give decision criteria: what would justify it; 6) write one line to tell customers.
Site original
Chinese original
How to use
放弃客户群前，先算「服务成本」和「口碑成本」。
Try tweaking it
- Have it state how the hypothesis could be falsified before discussing execution.
- Split the plan into a one-week testable experiment.
What you should get
- A small testable experiment with a failure threshold
- Costs, risks, and what needs outside confirmation
Common mistakes
- Asking for a "full business plan" and getting unverifiable optimistic assumptions.
- No failure threshold, so you never know whether to continue.
How to check the output
- There is a clear failure threshold, testable within a week.
- Costs, assumptions and risks are listed separately.
Where it works
- Good for: turning business assumptions into a small testable experiment with a failure threshold first.
- Watch out: for pricing, contracts and legal points, treat output as a draft needing professional review.