Difficult Customers - There's No Such Thing
Change the way you think about customers and you'll find they are not so difficult after all..
A couple of years ago I had a call from a Customer
Service Manager working in the paper industry. He wanted me to run a seminar
for his team, on "How to Deal with Difficult Customers".
I had several telephone conversations with this manager organising dates,
times and getting to understand his business. If I was to describe his style
on the telephone I would use words like, businesslike, cold, curt and
somewhat impatient. I started to realise that if I was one of his customers
then I might have been a bit "difficult". He certainly knew his business and
I
don't think he was a bad person but warm and friendly - forget it.
There are actually very few genuinely difficult customers in the world. And
I hear you say - "we've got all of them". However the majority of customers
in the world are reasonable people. They may not think the way, look the
way, sound the way that you do. However they are your customers and if you
want their business then you've got to deal with them. They may get
"difficult" from time to time if they feel they've been let down. It's how
you handle them that'll determine if they continue to be a problem or if you
can turn them around.
Difficult customers and situations usually occur because some part of our
core service has failed or the customer perceives it to have failed. We've
not delivered on time, the customer has the wrong product, it doesn't work
or it's not what the customer expected. What happens then is, the customer
comes to the interaction with us in a negative frame of mind. It's what
happens then that'll decide whether they deal with us again or bad mouth us
to other people.
The trick is not just to concentrate on fixing the core service issues.
Telling the customer that you'll replace the product, deliver it in half an
hour or knock something off the price, isn't the answer. Sometimes you may
not have an answer and the customer is going to hear "NO". However as you're
aware, it's how you say "NO" that matters. Let's consider some of the
reasons customer interactions go wrong and why they may become more
"difficult".
We Don't Care
We don't sound or look as if we care, are concerned or appreciate the
customer's situation. Maybe you do care, however you've really got to say
caring words and look and sound as if you care. After all, the customer
can't read your mind.
We Don't Listen
Too often we try to jump in with solutions and don't allow the customer to
vent their feelings. Again we need to show the customer that we're listening
by what we say, how we say it and our body language.
We Let the Customer "Get to Us"
We often allow the customers attitude to irritate or annoy us. This becomes
obvious to the customer, again through our tone of voice, our body language
and only fuels a difficult situation.
We Use the Wrong Words
There are certain trigger words that cause a customer to become more
difficult. Some of these are "cant, have to, sorry 'bout that". Even your
organisation's jargon can have a negative effect on a customer interaction.
We don't See it From the Customer's Point of View
Too often customer service people think the customer is making too much of a
fuss. They think - "What's the big deal, we'll fix it right away". The thing
is, it is a big deal for the customer and they want us to appreciate that.
Customers will often judge the level of your service based on how well you
recover from a difficult situation and they're very likely to forgive you if
you do it well.
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