Site Helps Businesses Tame the 'CustoMonster'

That old saying, “The customer is always right?” Not true, says Robert Bodi. “I guarantee you the customer is not always right.”

Bodi, who, along with his daughter, Ashley Bodi, hosts a TV show called Business Beware on Biz TV, says they have a name for customers that are never satisfied. CustoMonsters.

“Every business has bad customers,” he said. “They are the customers that go from business to business to business, and they are never satisfied. They always want something free, which actually costs the consumer in the long run, because a good consumer has to pay for the CustoMonsters.”

The Bodis have set up a website that helps small business owners combat the CustoMonster. BusinessBeware.biz offers a database that lists both CustoMonsters and slow-paying customers that are identified by small business owners around the country.

When business owners become members (it’s free to sign up), they can scroll the database to see the list of delinquent customers. And, if they have slow-paying customers of their own, they can give them a nudge by asking Business Beware send a letter.

The letter explains what the customer owes, and warns that if they don’t pay, their name will be added to the list.

Simple enough. And, says Ashley Bodi, it works. “We had 10 customers that didn’t pay,” she said. After sending out their Business Beware letter, “the next thing we knew, nine of those 10 customers paid in full.”

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