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It’s the holiday season. That means long queues, short tempers and disgruntled customers. Chances are you will have to deal with people who are aggressive, abusive and unreasonable. Sometimes, due to the circumstances, even reasonable people turn into difficult customers.
Here are some tips that will make these conversations a little easier for you and your customers:
The toughest of all the difficult conversations you could have would be with customers who are right. When customers are angry because something went wrong and the company is at fault, our immediate instinct would be to defend ourselves and the company. But this will only frustrate the customer more. The best thing to do would be to agree with them.
When a customer flies off the handle for a seemingly manageable problem, then it’s probably not about the problem. Maybe the customer has had a series of issues with your product or service. Your job is to make sure you do everything you can to make them happy. So, go ahead and apologise. But make sure you do not apologise too much and sound insincere in the process.
Some customers have a tendency to cross the line. They might be racist, sexist, or abusive for no reason. It is not right for you to be treated that way. Simply let them know that you will not respond to any further inquiries until they change the way they talk to you. This way, they have to become less abusive or threatening in order to get help. If this is not a one-off incident, if the customer has tried to bully you or your colleagues before, it’s important that you escalate it to your management.
Even if the fault is on their side, the highest priority is to keep the customer happy. So never indulge in the blame game. Getting into a ‘who said what’ battle, even if the customer is at fault, will only lead to a lose-lose situation. You would have also committed a customer service sin in the process. If the customer starts blaming you, tell them that resolving the problem at hand is way more important than assigning blame.
You can use escalation as a way to help the customer quickly. If the customer is not responding to your attempts to help them and is fixated on talking to your manager, just go ahead and escalate. It helps because the customer will feel like they are being taken more seriously.
Customers are not the only ones allowed to be frustrated. If you realise that the issue is getting on your nerves, instead of faking niceness, excuse yourself from the case. Explain to your customer that you are giving this issue to someone else because you want what’s best for them. Resetting the conversation with a new face and starting with a clean slate can help reduce the tension.
Some customers might value experience over skill. They might think that a young, inexperienced support rep might not be the right person to handle the problem. There are some other customers who might hold a high position in their company and would not want to talk to anybody less than a vice-president in your company. It’s okay to indulge them now and then if they insist.
Be prepared to deal with difficult customers by training yourself in skills like anger management, stress management, and negotiation. Different people react differently to stressful situations. Some might get agitated, some might cry, some might close off and become completely unreactive. It helps to think about what your reaction would be, so you don’t take yourself by surprise.
Don’t shy away from dealing with difficult customers unless it is necessary. The relationship forged with a customer after a difficult conversation is stronger than the ones forged out of a nice one. Because your most frustrated customers are also your best source of learning.
Follow these tips to handle difficult customers every day and turn every hard conversation into a chance to learn.
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What are the methods you use to deal with difficult customers? Let us know.
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