How to Deal With Difficult Customers
“You mean I spend thousands of dollars in here, and I can’t return a defective tool?” The customer leaned across the counter.
“Well, the tool isn’t really defective,” replied Luke, taking an adversarial stance.
“So you’re calling me a liar?”
The customer now had everyone’s attention in the sales counter area. His loud voice and aggressive manner caused some of the other customers to look at one another and roll their eyes as if to convey the silent message, Oh, one of those people.
It was my first week on the sales counter, and I was favoring the customer’s point of view.
Luke continued the fight. “No, I’m not calling you a liar. This is simply normal wear of the tool. It’s against the manufacturer’s policy.”
I was now completely on the customer’s side.
He didn’t reply immediately and a silence fell across the room. He straightened up, slowly scanned the other customers, and then in a clear voice, he said to Luke, “People come here as a last resort.”
Then he turned on the heels of his work boots and marched out of the store. As soon as the door closed behind him, you could feel the air come back into the room. People chuckled rather nervously, then someone said, “Guess it takes all kinds.”
“That guy’s always a pain,” said Luke.
And there was the real issue. A different customer would have received a new tool, no questions asked, but because this customer wore the “difficult” label, it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Some people aren’t happy unless they’re unhappy. These are the volatile handful known as “difficult customers.” Constantly looking for a flaw in your service, they’ll take advantage of your policies by making requests that sometimes border on the absurd. But more importantly, they will teach you how to deliver the customer service that you promise. You can learn more from the difficult customer than you could ever learn from your most loyal. Difficult customers tell you where it hurts.
Listen closely and they will tell you what is missing from your business and might even suggest what you can do about it. Their feedback can be the most brutal, and the most honest gauge of your success. People come here as a last resort.
If you have an abundance of difficult customers, it isn’t because you’re unlucky. It’s because you’re doing something wrong. The sooner you figure out what it is and fix it, the sooner you will bring your business back from the precipice of disaster.
True, there will be an occasional customer who has no valid reason to complain, but complains anyway. Most of the time, you can resolve the legitimate complaint and the absurd demand by using the following strategy. Handling difficult customers may be your biggest challenge in living up to the promise you make of great service. Having a procedure in place for all of your staff to follow is the most effective way to handle this challenge. Here is a four-step plan that may be helpful for dealing with the legitimate customer complaint and even the occasional difficult customer.
1. Never argue. This seems to be the toughest rule for distributor salespeople to accept to accept, so let’s repeat it. NEVER ARGUE. Even if you win, you lose. Especially if you win. Did Luke win? The customer really did spend thousands of dollars in our store and he never came back. You tell me.
2. LISTEN between the lines. Is there an underlying message to your customer’s complaint? Does he feel cheated, ignored or unacknowledged? Mentioning that he spent thousands of dollars probably indicated he felt under appreciated.
3. Appeal to your customer’s nobler motives – his or her sense of fair play. Let the customer know that you trust him or her enough to do what’s fair and right. A question you can use that takes the fire out of most irate customers is, “What would you have me do to make this right?” If you appeal to the nobler motives of your customers, most of the time, they will live up to your expectation. What a different outcome it could’ve been if Luke had asked, “What would make this right?” instead of stating that the tool wasn’t defective.
4. Tell the customer what you can do. Never say, “That’s against company policy.” If someone in authority within your company tells you to say that, then you need to reconsider your career with that company. Most customers don’t like rules. Suggest alternatives. Luke could’ve looked like a hero if he’d said, “The manufacturer’s policy states that they won’t replace this tool. However, that’s not our policy. Let me see what we can work out.”
Talk is cheap. Most business owners promise great customer service, but how many actually live up to the talk? Your customers don’t care what you have to say. They’re watching to see what you do. The limiting factor for most of us is that we don’t practice what we preach. Then when a customer calls us on it, we group him into the “hard-to-please” bunch.
The truth is, no matter how good your customer service, there will always be someone who is unhappy about something. The more unhappy customers you turn into happy customers, the more word will spread that you deliver the great service you promise while others only talk about it. The best advice ever given to me for dealing with a difficult customer I pass on to you. “Keep your temper and, above all, let your customer save face.”
Mike Dandridge md@theperformancepro.com Mike is the founder of High Voltage Performance, a consulting firm that specializes in designing customer experiences for the industrial marketplace. He is a keynote speaker and a seminar leader with 25 years experience in electrical wholesale distribution. Dandridge is author of, The One Year Business Turnaround, a book based on his years in wholesale, containing a year’s worth of ideas for improving your customer service. You may reach Mike at 254-624-6299. Visit his Website at http://www.highvoltageperformance.com. Subscribe to his blog at http://www.businessturnaround.blogs.com/.
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