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Communication & etiquette |
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Dealing
With the Customer
From Hell |
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Dear Dr. Mark,
I work part-time at
a cell phone sales and service center and I hate many of
my cell phone customers. They’re pushy, rude, and
refuse to listen or take responsibility for problems
with their phone or service. Sure we make mistakes, but
just as often they’ve screwed up by ignoring something
that we told them was important in using their phone. |
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Holiday
Survival |
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Add to that, they’re
blamers and they’re dishonest. I can’t tell you the number of
times customers have dropped their phone and then tried to
convince us that it malfunctioned. I don’t want to quit my job
because I don’t like to run away from challenges. How can I
deal more effectively with these “bullies”?
CUSTOMER GO HOME
Dear GO:
I guess there are two
sides to every story. I think what you and the person who wrote
about poor customer service have in common is that you are both
frustrated by people who avoid taking any personal
responsibility for problems.
I’m sure your company
has trained or told you to listen calmly and to try to not take
personally your customer’s complaints. That makes a lot of
sense on paper, but it doesn’t prevent you from feeling a build
up of frustration as you face difficult customers, day after
day.
TOP
Here’s an additional
approach that might help:
First realize that
hidden under the anger of most customers is fear, anxiety and
even guilt. Fear that they did something wrong and someone’s
going to jump down their throat; anxiety about being dependent
on cell phone service so they can’t just stop it altogether and
guilt because he/she knows it’s his/her fault. Knowing this
should help you to not take complaints so personally.
TOP
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Second learn to
recognize the “customer from hell” as quickly as possible. Your
first signal will be a feeling of tightness in your stomach,
throat or head. Caused by your own efforts to maintain a
professional stance as the customer verbally accost you, the
tension is exasperated by the additional will you muster to
restrain yourself from telling them to go screw themselves or
quit your job.
Third—and THIS IS
THE KEY—as soon as you realize they are one of those awful
customers, calmly but firmly interrupt them and say:
“Excuse me sir or madam,
on a scale of 1 to 10—where 1 is very mild and 10 is wanting to
throw your phone on the floor and say something I can’t repeat
in public about this company—how upset are you with your cell
phone and this company?”
TOP
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In all likelihood,
this is going to throw them off guard and they’ll just say:
“Huh?” not knowing what you’re getting at.
Then say, “You know,
the last thing we want to do is make your life more difficult,
so I want t
o know how
frustrating this has been for you before you tell me the details
and I do everything I can to take care of the problem.”
Because you have
validated their upset and shown caring for them and maybe even
helped them to tame their feelings by naming them, there is a
good chance you will deflect this raging bull onto a more
reasonable path.
More importantly, by
taking being proactive instead of reactive, you will feel more
in control instead of feeling out of control and at the mercy of
an unmerciful customer.
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TOP |
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