Dealing with Disgruntled Customers

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 owner of: http://www.work-at-home-forum.com/ An online community of people who work at home.

---

Say It With Humor

When you own a business, you may find yourself in... Read More

Renewing Customer Loyalty

Every business loses customers, but not many do much about... Read More

Customer No Service - How to Lose a Loyal Customer!

So today was the day where I almost stopped going... Read More

Customer Satisfaction and the Service Business

The relationship between customer satisfaction and success of a service... Read More

One Critical Question to Ask Yourself Every Day

What happened to the old saying, the customer is always... Read More

Get Customers to Stop Calling You--12 Easy Ways to Save Money with Online Customer Support

Despite rumors to the contrary, the Web is not dead.... Read More

Make Sure You Get The Customer Perspective

Businesses that fail, often forget to seek out the customer... Read More

Debt Elimination Scam

May people these days have a problem with mounting debt.... Read More

Does Your Customer Talk Back To You?

What is your customer saying about you? Do you really... Read More

How to Succeed in Business Without Compromising Your Integrity

I spent some twenty years in the corporate world, for... Read More

How To Build Stellar Client Relationships

Your opportunity to build a stellar client relationship starts with... Read More

Over Delivering Provides Big Results

Over promising is a problem only when you under deliver.... Read More

4 Customer Service Mistakes Companies Should Avoid Making

1) Being placed on hold endlessly. Don't you just love... Read More

Why Communication Skills Dont Work In Customer Service

Every time my firm conducts communication skills training, we know... Read More

Provide Exceptional Value - Grow Your Business

The primary objective of a business is to get and... Read More

Losing Angry Customers

This article offers five ways to help you deal with... Read More

Customers - Hold Onto the Ones Youve Got

You probably spend a great deal of your time looking... Read More

CRM - Its Relevance

In today's demanding economy, the first line of any business... Read More

Making the Connection: Customer Relationships That Build Your Business

Have you ever wondered why you often find a coupon... Read More

Everyone talks in code!

How often have you left a meeting with a customer... Read More

Automating Your Customer Support

My regular readers will know that one of the things... Read More

First Contact: The Source of Customer Loyalty

With customers being smarter, more cost conscious, more product knowledgeable... Read More

Should I Have My Company Mystery Shopped?

I wish I had a nickel for every time someone... Read More

4 Myths about Customer Value

The purpose of business is to create and retain a... Read More

The Added Value - Is YOU!

If there was a restaurant in your town that was... Read More

Invalid Excuses for Poor Business Results - The Weather

Note to Kmart: It wasn't about the weatherIn the 1970s... Read More

Putting The Serve Back Into Customer Service

Good service is easy to spot and hard-to-find. Mediocre service... Read More

Retail Store U-Scan Machines: Self-Serve or Voluntary Part Time Job?

Do many of us realize that we are working an... Read More

Are You A Coward? I Was

Over the last month, I have come to hate emails... Read More

Customer Service A Chickens Way

Anyone who knows me knows my favorite fast food restaurant... Read More

Under Promise & Over Perform: The Art of Managing Customer Expectations

I'll always feel warmly about Conrad's restaurant, in Glendale, California.On... Read More

Increase Sum in Your Check Account with Follow-Ups

We'll be examining what makes follow up to prospects/customers so... Read More

Make Your Customer Your Friend

The simplest way to describe a 'durian' (pronounced doo-ree-ann) is... Read More