Summary: Quality customer service is a key element to building lasting business relationships.  How management and staff members deal with problem customers will have a direct affect on the way future prospects perceive your business ethics.  This article provides six tactics to managing difficult customers and properly training your staff how to react.

The customer is never wrong – and some customers take this to heart. What does a company do when faced with a difficult customer? The answer is not an easy one to arrive at. Reasons being that the number of difficult customers you are apt to face varies with your line of business and its scope. Also, you need to consider the cost of letting a difficult customer go in terms of dollars, time invested in cultivating that customer and the impact on your business’s reputation.

A great way to avoid situations with difficult customers is to not have them on board your business at all. This can be done by sensible customer profiling and gathering customer information skillfully. A poor fit between a customer’s expectations and your business philosophy can imply a strained relationship going ahead. Would it be worth cultivating such a customer and turning him into a client or is he better for your business as an infrequent buyer? It’s up to the business to decide but when faced with a difficult customer, it sure helps to have some idea on what tactics to apply so that your position does not get compromised and the customer’s stand too is vindicated.

The role of the management

Training is important and this is where the senior management and HR play an important role. Customer facing executives need to be groomed to understand that facing angry, rude, irritated, and sometimes abusive customers is an occupational hazard and it should not be taken personally.

Trainers and experienced customer facing executives need to be at hand to tell the young staff that even though they do not make the rules, it is their lot to handle customers good, bad, and ugly and they have to do it skillfully. If you can “Wow” a disgruntled customer and convert him into your fan, you prove yourself to be a very valuable asset to your company.

Tactics to manage difficult customers

It wouldn’t be incorrect to call customer facing executives the fall guys who are just handy for the odd irritated customer who wishes to take his ire out on someone. But lest the employees at the front end feel that they are powerless against the “aware and empowered” customer, let me assure that they do have at their disposal means that they can employ to defuse hostile customers. Here are six actions that you should perform when faced with a difficult customer.

• Listen - Be a good listener – it’s a cardinal rule of being good at customer service and a handy attribute to possess when faced with an irate customer. Many a times, the customer only wishes to be heard and does not have a specific grouse in mind. By giving him a patient ear, you are letting him know that you are attentive to his thoughts and that you appreciate his position.

• Think and respond – Do not take the customer’s language and demeanor as a personal slur, if you do its going to affect your response. So be detached and professional. Do not offer excuses, the customer would rather want to know your plan of action to rectify the situation. Excuses will only serve to further inflame an already agitated customer.

• If the going gets tough – Sometimes, it can happen that inspite of your regular efforts at managing a difficult customer, you may find that the customer has no intention of letting up. Try and assess if he is doing so only to play to the gallery, i.e. to drum up support with the other customers present there or is there something in his argument that’s escaping you. Involve a senior in the discussion.

• Be aware of the rules – Nothing can be worse for you as a customer facing executive than a situation in which a demanding customer catches you napping regarding company rules. You cannot ask relevant questions or make a sensible suggestion if you’re not clear about the rules yourself. If you know the process inside-out you can quickly calm an agitated customer by pointing out the facts and asking relevant questions.

• Empathize – A sure way to win over an agitated customer’s confidence is to empathize with him, letting him know that you understand. Remember, empathy is different from sympathy. A customer will only begin to have faith in your suggested solutions if he feels that you’ve grasped the issue.

• Resolve the issue – Actively initiate a process to tackle a customer’s complaint so that it gets resolved as soon as possible, ideally in front of him so that he leaves a satisfied man. Take the customer into confidence regarding the steps you propose to take. Promise to deliver only what you can and once you do so get in touch with the customer, a follow-up is a thoughtful gesture that customers appreciate.

Occasionally, you may have to get firm with an unruly customer and have to let him go, admitted that “Customer is King” but if the “King Customer” is being truly unreasonable, you should be prepared to deal with him in a firm manner.

Treat each encounter with a difficult customer as a learning experience and incorporate the learning into your next such dealing.