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Dealing with Disgruntled Customers
by © 2003 Vishal P. Rao
No matter how hard you try, in business you simply can't
please everyone. You could have a highly trained customer
service squadron and an award-winning product, but still
you'd have some buyers who just weren't happy. The bad news
is that unhappy customers are more eager to share their
experiences than happy ones which could spell disaster for
your business.
There is good news, however. Unhappy customers who receive
satisfaction can become your biggest allies. The trick, of
course, is discovering how to satisfy their needs so
efficiently that they'll forget whatever caused their
disappointment in the first place. Here are some ways to
make that happen:
1) Be a Good Listener
When someone complains about us, our first instinct is to
get defensive and to distribute blame. Most of the time we
start doing this even before the other person has finished
their argument. When that happens, we may misjudge the
situation, offer inappropriate resolutions, or appear
insensitive to our customers' feelings. Instead, we must
work hard to become patient listeners. We should stay
focused on the customer and not get distracted by anything
else going on around us.
We should also pay attention to what is being said, not how
it is being said. Even a beligerant customer is trying to
express a concrete complaint, he just might not be able to
do it as clearly or as calmly as someone else. By listening
patiently to our customers, we can take the first step
toward helping them more effectively.
2) Don't Let an Unhappy Customer Slip Away Without a Fight
Just because someone is unsatisfied with your service or
your product, you don't have to throw your hands up in the
air and say “That's another one gone.” Take steps right away
to resolve the situation. Most customers who have a
complaint just want you to take the problem seriously, to
handle it as quickly as possible, and to have it resolved in
a respectful and professional manner. If you can do that for
them, you will successfully mend the relationship.
3) Resolve the Problem to Their Satisfaction, Not Yours
When many businesses right wrongs, they do so by only
considering what is in their best interest and not what
would satisfy the customer. That simply doesn't work most of
the time. Let me give you an example.
One young woman took her small children to a well-known fast
food restaurant for dinner. Because her youngest child was
diabetic, she ordered diet drinks for their child-sized
meals. Instead, she received regular drinks, and the extra
sugar in the drink caused her child to have to be rushed to
the emergency room that night. When she called to complain,
the manager offered her a free meal to compensate her for
the near-death experience of her two year old daughter.
Why did the manager make such a ludicrous offer? Because
that was what the restaurant had decided to do in order to
deal with customer complaints in a cost-effective manner. It
was good for them and that's what mattered.
The reality is that customers will all have different ideas
on how to resolve these issues: some may want an employee to
be fired or punished for their bad service, others will want
financial restitution, some will want assurance that it will
never happen again, and most will want a combination of
those things.
To determine how to satisfy your unhappy customers, just ask
them how you can make things right and then do whatever they
ask for (within reason, of course). By doing this, you will
be showing how much their satisfaction and patronage means
to you.
4) Keep Your Head
When customers are angry with us, it can be very upsetting,
especially if we truly do care about their business. Yet, we
may get so upset that we aren't able to cope effectively
with their problem and end up losing the relationship which
can be even more upsetting. Instead, take these four steps
to coping with your feelings:
A) Remember it's not about you – While it may seem that they
are yelling or complaining about you personally, they
aren't. They simply want what they paid for. Your customers
don't know if you're a good family man or a single mother
struggling to get by; all they know is that they paid for
something and that's what they expect to receive. So don't
take their complaints personally.
B) Stop thinking “If only” or “What if” -- After an
incident, you may spend days going back over the situation
and wondering what you could have done differently, but this
is futile. No matter how much you may want to, you can't go
back and change it now. Instead, you should be looking
forward and finding ways to prevent it from happening again.
C) Know you've done all you can – If you feel guilt because
you weren't able to satisfy an unhappy customer, you can
shut your conscience up easily if you know that you did
everything within your power to right the situation. After
all, there are just some people who will never be happy with
anything that you do and they aren't worth stressing over.
D) Keep improving – In life, we learn more from our mistakes
than we do from getting something right. So each unhappy
customer provides you with a learning experience that will
not only help you handle future situations better but will
also show you how to prevent future mistakes from happening.
Obviously, you don't want too many of these learning
experiences, but when they do happen, be sure to use them
wisely.
While you won't be able to safe every relationship, you may
be surprised at how many you can rescue with these
suggestions. It may seem like a lot of extra effort, but if
you care about your customers and about your business, it's
the least you can do for them and for yourself.
Vishal P. Rao is the editor of Home Based Business
Opportunities - A website dedicated to opportunities, ideas
and resources to help you start and run a home based
business.
Visit him
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