When you deal with customers on a regular basis you are going to have issues come up. Customers not happy with your service. Your frustration can compound when despite your best efforts to help, customers seem as though they don’t want to be helped.
Who Are These People?
They can act rude, bossy, picky, difficult and downright crazy. Actually customers are just regular people like you that want their needs taken care of. Likely you have been an unhappy customer. Your needs were not met. Were you justified in being unhappy? Likely you would say that you were. With that in mind we must check our attitude toward customers when they are not happy.
The Natural Response
When someone gets upset with us due to the service that we have provided we respond in two ways that turn issues into difficult problems:
- We defend ourselves and others in our company.
- Identify the customer as the problem.
When you react in this way it becomes very difficult to resolve the issue. Instead you get into a mode of justification of your own actions and focusing on the problem instead of the solution. If you find that many customers are difficult to deal with, you are the common element in each situation and likely you and your thinking are the problem.
Customer Experience Goal
Keep in mind our goal: ‘Do whatever it takes to get the check!’ No this is NOT our goal. That is a bad thought process to start.
Our real goal is: ‘Leave Every Customer Wanting To Refer Friends and Family.’
DO NOT:
Rehash Details Of The Problem
Defend Yourself Assuming The Customer Is At Fault
Position Yourself in Opposition To the Customer
Reduce Your Goal To Just Getting The Check
DO:
Focus On Our Goal
Focus On Solutions
Listen To The Customer
View Customer Issues As Legitimate