Difficult customers come in two flavors:
1. Obnoxious people who are naturally difficult.
2. Customers who have not been properly serviced and have a genuine grievance.
Customers can be people internal to your organization (like your boss) as well as external.
Most of us genuinely set out to provide exceptional service to both - your internal and external customers. However, in reality, things can go wrong and mistakes are made. Your customers are more likely to judge your level of service based on how you respond to them and how you handle the issue. If you do it well they will probably forgive you and possibly even say positive things about your business or your abilities to other people.
A customer that has a bad experience dealing with you is 10 times more likely to tell his friends and colleagues about it than about the many times he has had good dealings with you. It's human nature; we tend to focus more on the negative than the positive.
The most important thing to realize when dealing with an upset customer- be it internal or external, is that you must focus on dealing with their feelings and then deal with their problem. Upset customers are emotionally charged when you, your product or service lets them down and they'll probably want to "dump" these feeling on you.
You won't deal with their feelings by concentrating on solving the problem; it takes much more.
Here are five ActionCOACH ideas that deal with the customers' human needs:
- Listen and Acknowledge: Patiently listen to what they are saying and let them know that you understand. You should repeat back to them what you have heard: "I understand that you have not received the package as promised..."
- Don't React Emotionally: Let it wash over you, otherwise you will end up in an argument. You may be on the receiving end of some verbal abuse or insulting comments. Be ready for it and ignore it.
- Do Not Contradict The Customer: Whatever has happened is 100 percent true for them. You may not agree with their version but its their version.
- Apologize: Look the customer in the eye and say, "I apologize" rather than "I'm sorry". It's overused and they hear it too often. A good idea is use the "I apologize" words in a sentence such as "I apologize for not having sent the parcel earlier."
- Use Empathy: It's an effective way to deal with the customer's feelings. Empathy isn't about agreement- only acceptance of what the customer is saying and feeling. Use words like, "I understand that you are frustrated..." Be genuine about it otherwise your customers will think you are being patronizing.
- Build Rapport: Sometimes it's useful to add another phrase to the empathy response, including yourself in the picture. For example, "I can understand that you are frustrated; I don't like it either when I'm kept waiting." This has the effect of getting on the customer's side and building rapport. If you do this well, you may be able to successfully rescue the situation, save the sale and possibly go on to up sell them!
Human beings are primarily driven by their emotions. In today's competitive environment, customers are very aware of their choices and are quick to express anger, frustration and dissatisfaction. If you focus on human responses in any interaction and show your customers that you genuinely care, they will be more likely to forgive your mistakes and accept what you say.
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