Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. Bill Gates
Anyone who deals with internal or external customers on a day to day basis has their share of upset customers and tough complaints to deal with.
Things that make people upset can be grouped into three main areas. Through an awareness of these, you can deal with upset customers more effectively and create positive outcomes by gaining insights into what your customers want, need and expect.
#1 reason for upset customers: attitudes
People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude. John C. Maxwell
Values, beliefs, thoughts, feelings and needs form attitudes. These attitudes are displayed outwardly as behaviours and emotion,s and sometimes they are not always pleasant!
It can be challenging to respect someone who has attitudes from your own. Your customer is in the same boat. They may have pre-conceived ideas or their attitude may be affected by something that has happened to them before. This will affect their perception of you, your product, and any communications you have with them.
Tips for dealing with attitudes
- Don’t take it personally. If you react aggressively or passively withdraw, you run the risk of damaging the ongoing business relationship, not meeting the business goal or causing the situation to escalate. Don’t get emotionally attached or involved when dealing with an upset customer.
- Keep your own attitude in check. You can’t change the story someone else is telling themselves. However, you can take back control by reframing what has happened. If you want improved results from your difficult conversations, change the stories you tell yourself.
- Find a common ground. Try to look for ways you are similar rather than concentrating on differences. You don’t always have to agree with others. Just listen, empathise and try to understand their point of view.
- Contrasting. Explain what you don’t mean, until you have restored their feeling of respect. When you have addressed the misunderstanding, you can move forward to reaching your shared goal.
#2 reason for upset customers: communication barriers
The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. George Bernard Shaw
Barriers to communication may include: differences in perception, jumping to conclusions, stereotyping, self-expression, emotion, personality and assumptions (to name just a few).
By recognising your own communication own barriers, you can work on minimising them. By recognising the barriers of others, you can plan to overcome them.
Poor listening creates its own barriers to communication, because people can usually tell when people are not giving them their full attention.
Tips for dealing communication barriers
- Don’t rush. Don’t show the customer you are in a hurry to get rid of them. This will lead to an escalation in stress and frustration for both parties. Your customers are your business, so be ready to spend the time necessary to resolve genuine complaints and communication issues.
- Language and tone. Use non-confrontational and empathetic language when you’re dealing with customer complaints. It might be tempting sometimes, but don’t talk down to your customers. This will only make you appear arrogant or condescending.
- Body language. Adopting an aggressive or defensive stance doesn’t translate well to the customer and could lead to a mirroring of body language from them as well. Stand with your shoulders back, look relaxed and confident. This will show your customers you feel capable and in control.
- Listen and learn. Active listening is vital to customer service. It involves minimising distractions and listening for message clarity, as well as restating the issue back to the customer, which ensures that both parties have the same perception of what is being communicated.
#3 reason for upset customers: external factors
To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect. Oscar Wilde
People who you perceive as being unappreciative, unrealistic and uncooperative can trigger strong reactions. When it is a customer, you have no idea what type of person they are, what type of job they do, or what their personal circumstances are.
Even when you are dealing with an internal customer who is a work colleague, you still often don’t know what external pressures they may be under or what is happening in their lives.
Tips for dealing with external factors
- Practice empathetic listening. Sometimes, angry people and upset customers are just looking for someone to listen. You can show people you care and build rapport by simply paying attention. Empathise with their issues and reserve judgement about them as a person.
- Take notes. This will ensure you don’t forget any important details the customer gives you. If you are dealing with a particularly difficult customer case or complaint, it could also be worthwhile keeping notes to log the situation with your manager or gather feedback from your team on how to resolve the issue.
- Stay in control. Look at the matter objectively and see that the customer is simply upset. Showing that you are in control reassures them that you are capable of resolving their situation and their confidence in you will increase.
- Accept that you cannot control others. Treat everyone with respect and as you would like to be treated, even when they are angry and upset, whether you feel they deserve it or not. Try to keep an open mind and find some kind of common ground to move your conversation in a more positive direction. If you are really losing control of the situation, consider calling for “back up” or suggest continuing your conversation at another time.
Finally…
Dealing with upset customers and complaints doesn’t necessarily require much physical energy, but it can be a considerable drain on your psychological energy. While you can perceive a lot from actively listening to your customers, you won’t always be able to identify what is making someone upset or angry.
The most important things you can do are to listen empathetically, choose not to take it personally, and treat others how you would like to be treated.
Image credit: Mikko Luntiala via Compfight
Read the full article 3 things that upset customers and tips for dealing with them and other career tips at Odyssey Training Blog.
