Every profession has its ups and downs, even more so those professions that involve direct interaction with people. Dealing with customers is a delicate art that has to be learned and that path to enlightenment is often riddled with dissatisfied, unhappy customers and mismanaged situations.
In early 2015, just after I wrapped up my NYSC service year, I learned for myself an efficient way to manage unpleasant customer situations, I had a really good teacher, but my teacher was also very brutal, because experience was my teacher, but not to worry, reading this article means you already have a far kinder teacher in me.
So in the weeks following the conclusion of my service year in Anambra, I moved to my Sister’s place in Abuja to find a job and after a couple weeks of constant debit alerts, I finally got one, my first real job, I was hired as a customer care representative for a small tech company. A job I was at for a little over year, working as a customer care rep gives you an insight into the minds of the average customer and a few special ones too, during my time there I made a lot of mistakes and met different kinds of people and I experienced the good, the bad, the ugly and the truly hideous sides of customers. So here is a list of a few points I picked up on how to manage unhappy customers.
1. Stay Calm and Polite: The first time a customer screamed at me, I screamed right back but this only made them scream louder and then I got yelled at again, but by my boss this time. After a few more screaming matches, I eventually learned that I’ll undoubtedly encounter people who’ll raise their voice and get angry for things that might not even be within my control but losing my cool is the worst thing I can do, for both the business and myself. Its important to stay calm and speak politely and then you can hope but not expect the same from your customers. People won’t care much for your side of the story when a video of you screaming at a customer pops up on the Internet. In addition to being calm and polite, if youre attending to customers in person, try to also look it, sometimes our mouths say one thing while our faces say another, so maybe smile sometimes.
2. The Customer is not always right but you should still pretend they are: This is one of the hardest cases to manage, when you know for a fact that the customer’s wrong but they just won’t accept it. So what do you do? Put them in their place? No! Regardless of how you feel, you should still treat them like they’re right, only focus on solving their problems and never get confrontational. Customers aren’t always rational, but you don’t have that luxury. In this scenario you’re like a priest absolving customers of their sins and tending to their needs, I learned that fighting customers is one the quickest way to lose them.
3. Listen: I once had to attend to a customer who expressed severe displeasure with our service, this person went on a rant and at some point started complaining in a language I didn’t even recognise, and all I did was listen, not saying a word but nodding along like I was following. The lesson here is, sometimes, people just want to be heard and as long as you have the time, you should always let customers vent their frustrations with your service or product. If you listen to your customers and you understand the language, then you might truly learn new, more efficient ways to satisfy them and thus, improve your business.
4. Understand the problem: Having already highlighted the importance of listening, it is essential to add that unless a customer just wants someone to shout at, it wont help you much if you don’t understand why they’re upset. Were they overcharged? Did they not receive a product they ordered? Was it received in bad shape? Whatever their grievance might be, listen and then make effort to understand them, only then, can you hope to solve their problems. So even if they scream at you in a blend of exotic languages, try to understand the parts in the languages you speak and ask relevant questions.
5. Personalise your response: Before I started, I was told to always address customers by their names or preferred titles, reason being that personalisation is such a huge part of business, that’s why your bank sends you a birthday message every year. People generally feel better when they feel they’re talking to a friend or at least a business they feel values them and not just someone who sees them only as the Naira sign. There is no one-size-fits-all technique that works for all people, so use any information you have about your customers to solve their problems.
6. Don’t get offended: While this is very similar to the first point, it goes in the opposite direction, its easy to get caught up and believe that the customers are coming after you personally or that their words reflect on you as a person but it doesn’t! The first couple of times customers unleashed their frustrations on me, I felt personally attacked and almost resorted to tears. Customers are unhappy about a product or a service and not you, so when they speak to you, endeavour to remember this and not take it personally. I know this is easier said than done but it’s important, take some time to recover after a draining encounter if you need to.
7. See from their perspective/Be on their side: key to understanding a customer’s problem is trying to analyse the situation from their perspective. What would you do if you were in their shoes or how would you want to be assisted? Also, don’t antagonise them, try to remember it’s you and them versus the problem and not you versus them so try to be on their side and keep an open mind. If they’re unhappy about costs, then tell them about that impressive payment plan you have or perhaps cheaper alternatives you think might impress them.
8. Let them know how seriously you take their complaints: Make every customer feel their complaint is at the top of the list and being given your utmost attention, even if it isn’t. How you do this is up to you, but an easy way is simply telling them, let them know you’re actively working on their problem or that someone else is.
9. Say ‘please’ and ‘sorry’ often: By now you might have noticed that virtually all points on this list are related and that’s no coincidence. This point may be redundant now but it’s by far the most effective way to get a furious customer to calm down and de-escalating difficult situations is a priority. So be generous with the apologies, regardless of whether or not they’re deserved. Also, ask yourself, if you walked into a store and saw a customer screaming at the cashier, would you still be comfortable shopping there?
10. Offer Solutions: This is the destination we’ve been slowly heading to, the primary objective is to solve the customer’s problems, so having understood the source of their problems, try to walk customers to your solutions. Remember to adequately explain how it solves their problems.
11. Be willing to give something up: Part of the solution is often offering something up as compensation in order to pacify the situation. The preferred choice of many businesses is to offer up a refund or a discount as a form of apology, or a complimentary product/service, something that says to the customer “here’s how sorry we are”. You want to let them know you value them and want to retain their patronage. You might on the other hand choose to give up the customer or they may choose to give up on you, because, let’s face it, some situations are unsalvageable and you might have to let go of their business. Regardless of what party initiates the split, be as courteous and polite as ever, even when you know you’re losing a customer.
12. Finally, Keep a record of the complaints you receive and also thank customers for their feedback: These unhappy customers tell you a lot about what’s wrong with your business and keeping a record of their complaints might reveal to you a pattern about what aspects of your business aren’t doing well and need to be improved upon. Also, remember to thank customers who voice their complaints to you, as it’s very possible other people had similar problems too and just silently decided not to patronise you anymore. I mean, think of how many times the apps on your phone beg you for a review before you finally rate them on the app store, if you ever even do.
My time as a customer care rep was eventful to say the least, but it also taught me valuable skills on not just how to manage difficult customer related issues but also just people in general, because customers are just people whose money you want. Remember that unhappy customers are an integral and unavoidable part of business and if you don’t have them, it probably just means your customers aren’t vocal and you should ask them if they’re truly happy with your products/service and in what ways they’d like to see improvements. Efficient customer care service is fundamental for a good business, people will be reluctant to use your service if they think it’ll cost them valuable time and effort to resolve issues if anything goes wrong, but they’ll be much more likely to work with you if they know you’ll take care of them even at their worst. Dare I say, a good relationship with your customers, even the difficult ones, is a sure way to gain life long customers.
And lastly, remember, despite all the million Naira endorsements, sponsorships and advertisements, word of mouth referral is still and likely always will be the most reliable and trustworthy way to get new customers and all it costs is good service.