Coming Soon
Subscription Marketplace - Buy and sell subscription products and services
838 views
in Articles by
Sometimes its hard to deal with difficult people. Any tips?

Please log in or register to reply to this topic.

1 reply

by
When was the last time you had to deal with a difficult customer? It was probably and external customer but perhaps it was an internal customer, such as a member of your team, a colleague or even - your boss!

I'm sure that you always want to provide exceptional service to both your internal and external customers. However, in the real world, things go wrong and mistakes are made. These "customers" will often judge your level of service based on how you respond to a mistake. Do it well and they'll probably forgive you and possibly even say positive things about your business or your abilities to other people.

The important thing to realize when dealing with an upset customer, be they internal or external, is that you must -deal with their feelings, then deal with their problem. Upset customers are liable to have strong feelings when you, your product or service lets them down and they'll probably want to "dump" these feeling on you.

You don't deal with their feelings by concentrating on solving the problem, it takes more. Here are 5 action ideas that deal with the customers' human needs:

1 - 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.

2 - Listen - listen - listen - Look and sound like your listening. The customer wants to know that you care and that you're interested in their problem.

3 - Stop saying sorry - Sorry is an overused word, everyone says it when something goes wrong and it's lost its value. How often have you heard - "Sorry 'bout that, give me the details and I'll sort this out for you". Far better to say "I apologize for ......" And if you really need to use the sorry word, make sure to include it as part of a full sentence. "I'm sorry you haven't received that information as promised Mr Smith". (It's also good practice to use the customers name in a difficult situation).

4 - Empathize - Using empathy is an effective way to deal with the customers feelings. Empathy isn't about agreement, only acceptance of what the customer is saying and feeling. Basically the message is - "I understand how you feel". Obviously this has to be a genuine response, the customer will realize if you're insincere and they'll feel patronized. Examples of empathy responses would be - "I can understand that you're angry", or "I see what you mean". Again, these responses need to be genuine.

5 - Build rapport - Sometimes it's useful to add another phrase to the empathy response, including yourself in the picture. - "I can understand how you feel, I don't like it either when I'm kept waiting". This has the effect of getting on the customer's side and builds rapport. Some customer service people get concerned with this response as they believe it'll lead to - "Why don't you do something about it then". The majority of people won't respond this way if they realize that you're a reasonable and caring person. If they do, then continue empathizing and tell the customer what you'll do about the situation. "I'll report this to my manager" or "I'll do my best to ensure it doesn't happen in the future".

Make no mistake about it; customers, be they internal or external, are primarily driven by their emotions. It's therefore important to use human responses in any interaction particularly when a customer is upset or angry. If customers like you and feel that you care, then they're more likely to accept what you say and forgive your mistakes.

Related topics

0 replies 518 views
posted in Articles by Madept
0 replies 708 views
posted in Articles by SilkPredator
0 replies 510 views
posted in Articles by LovableStorm
0 replies 508 views
posted in Articles by AmazingKitty
0 replies 952 views
0 replies 854 views
0 replies 709 views
posted in Articles by Knighttime
0 replies 1,123 views
0 replies 902 views
posted in Articles by Hawkward
0 replies 804 views
0 replies 808 views
posted in Articles by Conjursa
0 replies 901 views
posted in Articles by Richard S.
0 replies 802 views
0 replies 766 views
posted in Articles by Oystrich
0 replies 783 views
posted in Articles by Octopuppy
0 replies 622 views
posted in Articles by HarmlessRose
0 replies 457 views
posted in Articles by GardenParrot

55,458 topics

0 replies

0 comments

2,499,598 users

Connect with us:
...