Dealing With “Difficult” Customers
Being in customer service positions, I have dealt with my share of “difficult” customers. How you handle them can be the difference between turning them into loyal advocates or into a never-ending problem.
Just to make it clear, I hate
it when I have to deal with “difficult” customers (and I suspect most service
staff do). Happily, most people are
pleasant to deal with.
The first thing to recognise when you find yourself dealing
with a “difficult” person is that the human brain is naturally “wired” to produce
a “fight/flight” response when faced with a threat. This comes from when life was more dangerous
and, when meeting a wild beast, humans either fought it off or killed it
(“fight”) or ran away (“flight”).
Nowadays, the response is more likely to be aggression and stubbornness
(“fight”) or “giving in” (“flight”).
Translated into the situation of dealing with a difficult customer,
the usual response is either to defend one’s position or give in. Interestingly, when dealing with a “difficult”
person, they will be experiencing the same.
So if you have both sides determined to “fight” (as often happens), you
have a problem…
This doesn’t mean that you should “give in”, but it does
mean that you need to understand why the customer may be taking the stance that
they are.
Great service takes two.
It’s reasonable for customers to expect the staff serving them to be:
·
Knowledgeable;
·
Courteous;
·
“Professional” (e.g. not to deceive or lie, keep
promises, etc).
Customers may be “difficult” for two main reasons:
1.
They have a genuine complaint;
2.
They find that being “difficult” (even when it’s
not justified) gets them what they want.
In the first case:
·
Find out why
they’re upset (ask questions);
·
Apologise if the error is the business’ fault;
·
Explain how/why it happened in simple terms
(especially if the customer did something to contribute to the problem);
·
Fix it – fast;
·
Make sure it won’t happen again (this may
involve a lot of work, e.g. retraining, etc).
Now let’s deal with the second case. In this situation:
·
Ask yourself why
the customer is taking this attitude - is it because your organisation has
given them a reason in the past?
·
If it’s due to bad past experiences, re-build
their trust in “the system”;
·
If it’s because they feel they’ll get their way,
no matter what the situation, lay down the rules under which you’ll deal with
them (get your supervisor to help, if necessary).
Remember to depersonalise
any offending behaviour(s). Rather
than saying “I don’t like the way you…” try: “We require our staff to behave in
a way that customers find respectful, courteous and professional and expect the
same in return. If customers can’t or
won’t co-operate, then it’s in their best interests to look for this
product/service elsewhere.” Just be sure that your organisation isn’t the cause
of the problem, be prepared to carry this out and to deal with any negative PR
that arises.
Every organisation has the right to refuse to do business with
a customer if they are persistently unpleasant to deal with for no good reason. There are people who take the view that,
unless they’re openly rude and/or aggressive, they won’t get what they
want. To an extent this works, but in
the end, they get their come-uppance.
I’ve had to deal with such people in the past and will in the future. Most often, a clear laying-down of the terms
on which you’re prepared to do business is enough to make them think
(particularly if they need your product/service). If they go elsewhere, they’re no longer your
problem.
Customers are the reason that we all have jobs, and must be
accorded the consideration and professionalism that we would expect ourselves. If we fail due to a lapse on our part, they
have every right to be upset and it is our duty to solve the problem as fast as
possible with minimal (or no) loss to the customer and to rebuild their trust.
I have spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in the world financial services industry running different service, operations and lending businesses, I started my own Performance Management Consultancy to offer solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services. For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.
Labels: Customer Care, Productivity, Selling
posted by William Martin @ 17:36
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