Handling Difficult Customers, Made Easy

Difficult customers are inevitable in a business setting, and you have no way other than handling them tactically and carefully. This doesn’t always happen because the customer is unreasonable, but mostly it is due to some unavoidable situations. There can be multiple reasons governing such issues – shipping issues with third party’s control, response to your behavior, communication from the company or lack of it. Here are some tips that might help rectify the situation and handle difficult customers effectively:

1. Listen patiently and Show Empathy: The key to a ‘Dialogue’ is effective communication, a major part of which is effective listening. The sales promotion team can’t be forceful while dealing with difficult customers, which is unprofessional and blocks negotiation. Instead, the sales representative should talk softly and hear out the problems, even if the reasoning is off base. Sales people can also be empathetic through body language, eye contact and verbal cues. An attuned and empathetic sales representative exhibits concern and engagement.
2. Fix Problems in Hand Immediately: Know an immediate response to the problem? Solve it as soon as you can. You could break your own rules in the process, but then aren’t you the lead or authority just because of that reason? This might not be a neutral answer to all the difficult customer issues, but flexible and quick responses to customer problems need to be considered. Once you leave your disgruntled customer satisfied, he feels that he is a ‘valued’ customer.
3. Be Wrong to Be Right: It won’t hurt if you go with the customer’s energy. Yes! If the customer is adamant and nothing you’re doing or saying is making much effect, use the strategy of agreement, i.e. grant and surrender agreement to the difficult customer. Now, it will be unexpected to the customer, and the customer will end up defending the salesperson. This strategy helps in making difficult customers open to negotiation.
4. Emotional Control Helps: Anger comes from fear. If the customer swears or becomes abusive, you should keep your cool. Swipe the anger element aside, read between the lines to understand why the customer is afraid, and attend to the core issues by not being carried away in the heat of the moment. Being emotional is contagious, so it might be a difficult feat for you to work on this strategy. However, training your mind to hold the guns during such incidents can help in keeping calm and de-escalate customer’s confrontation.
5. Don’t take it Personally, EVER: When you’re dealing with an unsatisfied customer, you need to remember that it is a business call, not a personal one. If you’re being attacked on a personal level, you may want to defend yourself. However, you need to strategize and stick to your facts in hand. Stay firm, and state facts clearly. Actually, the customer knows very less/nothing about you personally. This helps in solving the problems in much easier way.

The reality is that problems will occur, complaints will come, and business will move further. This is the intrinsic nature of business – especially when customer service is given due importance. How and what you take of this, decides where you want to take your business. Attend this webinar Customer Relationship Management: Mastering Profitable Relationships! by expert speaker Chris DeVany on Thursday, August 11, 2016 to know how you can deal with difficult customers effectively and turn them into prospective business associates.