Dealing with difficult people/Aftersales Cases

Introduction

Flashbay has an excellent aftersales service. Please find the procedure under Aftersales and Order Troubleshooting.

However if you find yourself in an aftersales situation please be aware of the following points.

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 USB drives…

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 or start arguing.
- Treat it trivially.
- Never interrupt.
- Justify the problem or make excuses.
- Accuse,blame or patronise them.
- Make unrealistic promises when you haven't spoken to our Aftersales Team before.
- Don't take it personally and dwell on the negative experience.
- Forget your communication skills and lose your sense of humour.

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!