Should you stop serving neighborhoods that don’t produce route density?
I had to make this decision in my own business.
Early on, I said yes to customers 35–45 minutes outside our core area because I wanted the revenue, reviews, and growth.
Over time, those accounts became expensive in ways that didn’t show up on the invoice.
More windshield time, more miles, fewer stops per hour, and harder routes for the team.
We eventually started looking at which cities were producing our best customers and tightened our advertising around those areas. I also had to let go of an original client who had been with us for more than 4 years because she was simply too far outside where the business had grown.
That wasn’t an easy conversation.
But a $100 monthly customer can look very different financially when they require a 30-minute detour every visit.
Revenue alone doesn’t tell you whether an area is worth serving.
At what point do you stop advertising to an area or let existing outlier customers go?
