Useful
Tips for Handling Difficult Customers
Handling customers is a challenge for service providers. Not only has
the bar of service standard being raised higher over the years,
customers' expectation for faster, better and more personalise service
is becoming a necessity for many businesses.
A revisit on an old saying that “Customer is always
right”, many service providers will agree that customers are
not always right. However, customers are important. Without customers,
business could not possibly survive. Thus, at times even when customers
are wrong, service providers still try their best to make them happy.
One Travel Sales Officer related her experience with a nasty customers
who asked for rescheduling her flight reservation. On the following
day, this customer changed her mind and wanted back the original date.
Unfortunately, all seats were taken for that flight during the festive
season. In the fit of anger, the infuriate guest gave her a tight slap
and scolded her being stupid to release her original flight
reservation. Painful as it was, this Sales Officer held back her tears
and helped her to secure the next earliest flight back home.
In another occasion, I recalled a Singapore Telco call agent based in
Melaka, Malaysia who told me that her perception of Singaporeans were
very impatient and rude. When I heard some of the words spoken by her
customers, I cannot help but to feel sympathetic and gave her my
sincere apology for my fellow Singaporeans who had made her work so
tough.
Nasty customers are unavoidable. At times, they are the ones who made
the mistakes but service providers often have to endure shouting and
abusive language from them. Situation like these can be embarrassing
for service providers. The customer's purpose is to shame the company
so as to get what they want. By deliberately creating a service
breakdown, many customers are smart enough to manipulate situation to
their advantage. If handle inappropriately, company may suffer losses
in money and credibility.
Such service breakdowns are avoidable if we understand the common
mistakes made by customers. In general, these are the few:
- Forget / unable to produce
the correct documents for verification
- Lost / clueless on the
transaction process
- Dissatisfaction / confusion
over after-sales policy
- Use rude or nasty words to
service provider
To tackle these customers, businesses may relook into some of their
processes or touch-points. Touch-points filters and measures all the
relevant contact points from the target customer's view. It is the
interface of product or services with customers before, during and
after a transaction respectively a purchase. Businesses that manage
their touch-points well can lead to good customer service and branding
experience.
Here are a few suggestions to improve on the common touch-points of the
customers' experience:
1.
Verification of documents and purchases
Invest in a good database system to track customer's purchase for those
who are unable to produce verification documents. When there is refund
or servicing, customer will not be able to argue on the information
that is already registered in the system. On the hand, for businesses
that may not be able to afford expensive CRM system, having a big
signboard at the service counter to inform customer on refund policy
and verification of documents can reduce unpleasant shouting of
customer when they forget to produce the relevant documents.
2.
Lost and clueless customers
In a big hypermart, customer may lose their way while trying to locate
merchandise. At Mustafa (Singapore biggest 24-hour departmental store),
the ground staff are trained to remember where the merchandises are at
their fingertips. Comparing with its more posh counterparts in Orchard
area, Mustafa may not have be as jazzy but their friendly and
knowledgeable staff does make shopping there a great experience. Many
service and repair centres are located at industrial estates. It is
easy for customers to lose their way while circling around hard to find
industrial parks. Putting up proper signage and map directions on
website can reduce confusion how to get around. Such customer
experiences are aimed to wow customers and reduce frustrations.
3. Dissatisfaction over
company policy
Customers do not like to hear “This is the company
policy”. Rather they like to hear what service provider can
do for them when there is a service breakdown. Tell them politely
focusing on the task and issue. For example you can tell the customer
who insisted on a refund after due date by saying, “I am
sorry, sold item can only be refunded within 7 days of
purchase”.
4.
Rude Customers
When faced with rude customers, stay calm. Do not retaliate by being
rude. Sometimes, customers just need to vent their frustration which
may not be the service provider's fault. Listen actively and show
concern and empathy. Once the customer has calmed down then deal with
the issue.
Remember this: Good customer service starts from the moment customers
starts their journey to your business location till the usage of the
products or services. Once you have gotten the processes right, you are
on your way to delight your customers.
