Dealing with difficult people/Aftersales Cases
Why can some customers be difficult?
- They aren’t responding as you would like
- Their expectations are not met
- E.g. Artwork is wrong/bad, missed deadline, non functional…
What do they feel?
- Rejection
- Failure
- Humiliation
- Lost of power
Only a few customers are actually difficult probably less than 5% of all the people that you deal with although they do tend to be the ones we remember.
What not to do?
- Get defensive/argue
- Treat it trivially
- Interrupt
- Justify the problem
- Accuse/blame them
- Patronise them
- Make excuses/apportion blame
- Make unrealistic promises
- Forget to keep them informed
- Take it personally
- Retaliate or seek revenge
- Forget your communication skills
- Lose your sense of humour
- Dwell on the negative experience.
Remember:
Don’t get defensive – keep calm watch your tone of voice
Don’t apportion blame – customers want a solution they don’t care why it happened.
Don’t accuse them of getting it wrong – You didn’t do XXX instead say misunderstanding or double check the instructions
Don’t make unrealistic promises
Don’t lose your sense of humour
After a stressful call – if possible take a break to let the problem go otherwise you might carry it on to the next caller
How to handle difficult customers
- 1. Stop and think – don’t react on instinct
- 2. Don’t take it personally
- 3. Do take them seriously
- 4. Empathise
- 5. Listen
- 6. Avoid blame
- 7. Don’t over apologise
- 8. Do act assertively
Keep Calm
Don't let them get to you - Stay out of it emotionally and concentrate on listening non-defensively and actively.
Customers may make disparaging and emotional remarks - don't rise to the bait.
EMPATHY
Put yourself in the customer's shoes/try to see the situation from their side Don't interrupt; don't urge him to calm down. Listen carefully. If someone is angry or upset, it is because that person feels injured in some way.
AVOID BLAME
Don't say Are you sure you understood the price and delivery date correctly?
This will just ignite his anger all over again because you are questioning his credibility and truth telling.
And don't blame your company or your suppliers Never say: I’m not surprised your invoice was wrong. It's been happening a lot.
Do acknowledge responsibility. E.g. if a mistake has been made, you can acknowledge it and apologize for it. Mr Brady, clearly there's a problem here with our performance. I can't change that, however let me see what I can do to get your order sorted because I can appreciate how important it is to you.
It is important to say sorry but do so assertively!
Give solutions!
