How do you handle difficult customers?

Dealing with customers is not always easy. There are those who are hard to please, and those who make life difficult for anyone they encounter. Or at least, that is your perspective.

When they are impossible, we've suggested that you just let them go. Refer them on or tell them you can't help them.

If you have another member of the sales team who might get along better with a tough customer, by all means, share him/her with your colleague.

If the relationship is not so compromised as to still be salvageable, and you want to keep working with Difficult X, what do you do?

For more on dealing with hard to please customers, see http://connect.forwardmetrics.com/business-management/what-have-you-done-for-me-lately.html.

How do you deal with difficult customers?

The customer is always right

We all know that the customer is always right. And with that adage, it's only natural there should also be some resentment. We are admonished not to bite the hand that feeds us, even if sometimes we really really want to...

Central Park ducks are challenged to share their lake with
tourists in boats.  Photo by Tamara Beck

Those who dwell in tourist towns typically resent the the hoards who come to enjoy the beauties of their nabe, and disturb their peaceable lives. The fact that tourism puts money in their pockets makes the resentment deepen. No one likes to be beholden.

 As a business owner, you are beholden to the customer, dependent on their good will. Without them, your business would fail. You don't have to like it and you are free to vent. "Mrs. So and So is very demanding," you can tell your spouse, your therapist, or your priest if you are so inclined. Mrs. So and So must never know how you feel.

The customer is always right.

There are probably a hundred ways to lose business....

As a businessman or woman, you don't want to be singing the refrain as modified from "Wonderful Town," listing the many ways a business can go south.

Our focus of course is on the customer service side of keeping your business pointing true north.

Any interaction between your customers or prospects and the people you hire to meet and greet them requires good customer service. Customer service implies a good interaction. It is expected that customers and prospects will be treated well. 

This also applies to the folks you hire to man your booths at expos, like the #NYXPO which I attended last week. People walk around the floor of the Javits Center looking at exhibits and asking for information. They are not all customers or even necessarily good prospects, but you never know....

At the #NYXPO the coolest exhibit bar none was an old pick up truck with plastic letters displayed in its bed for a sign company. Only drawback for the company in question? The two guys repping them on the floor were so engrossed in their cell phones they couldn't bother to talk to passers by. I went by the truck twice with the intention of getting a little information. On both passes, I was roundly ignored.

So, here's one way to lose....

So how exactly does Starbucks make its bucks?

Let's start where a customer service blog should by praising the folks who work there. They are invariably polite. They go out of their way to be helpful. Service at Starbucks is excellent.

However, any drink order in any one of their many shops and you'll have a minimum 10-minute wait time.
This is true when they are very busy, or when you are the sole person at the counter. Doesn't matter if it's a simple drink like iced tea that is ready to pour from a pitcher, or one as complex as a latte.

Therein lies the reason for my titular query: If each $5 drink takes 10 minutes to prepare, Starbucks is selling 6 drinks per hour per barista. That would come to gross income of $30/hour.

Rent? Payroll? Materials? Product? What could be left? Yes, I know they are a profitable company.

It's just puzzling that so much staff time can be vested in cooking up our drinks and Starbucks can still make money.

Sometimes you encounter a tough customer

If there's a customer who is never satisfied, feel free to cut him/her loose. Refer him to someone who may have better luck with him or with whom he may have a better rapport.

For more on this topic, visit my recent article at ForwardMetrics.

Connect the dots

Keeping members happy keeps them engaged, just as keeping customers happy keeps them coming back for more.

Associations and affinity groups have to keep their "customers" happy, too.

Give them reasons to renew with:

• great programming
• superb customer service.

Make yours an organization they feel involved in and to which they want to belong:
Samrt, savvy and responsive to their needs.

More advice for Best Practices for Affinity Groups is found at the Assn Practicum blog.

For more about Membership and Customer Service, click here.

Is some dumbass costing you your business?

Maybe not all your business, but an inattentive clerk can cost you money!

By RRZEicons (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Not everyone will, as I have twice, walk out when the clerk is too busy with his IPad to even look up when I come to the counter. Admittedly, he did grunt when I turned to walk away, so perhaps he did notice my presence. What he did not do was acknowledge me in any way.

You understand that I went in to spend money in your store, and I walked out without spending any of it.

Customers by definition are people bringing their custom or trade to your shop. They expect to be served, waited upon, and acknowledged. If you have people working for you who do not serve your customers when they come in to buy from you, some of your customers wil walk out. Some of them will never return.

When your customers are members

What's the difference between "members" and "customers?"

By 吉田宅浪 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Excerpted from ForwardMetrics article published Jun 3, 2013.

The members of an affinity group-- trade association, alumni club, professional association-- are far more
vested in the company they keep than the patrons of drugstore or clothier, for instance.

 Hence, the "rewards" cards and other membership-like incentives that retailers create in order to turn
shoppers into "members."

Customer servi ce for your members is based on a more personal relationship. Find ways to keep
it that way:

• Answer all their questions;
• Address all their concerns;
• Acknowledge that belonging creates a special bond

How social is social media?

Our postings, often detailing all aspects of our lives, are like ships passing in the night as our "followers" and those we "follow" struggle to keep up with the copious information being shared.

One catches a glimpse of what the other is doing on the way to yet another post. Chronicling life's events may be more interesting to the chronicler than the "Friend."

Do we really connect through these notes about what we're doing, who we are with, where we find ourselves? Do our random thoughts hold the attention or fire the imagination of our correspondents?

Was actual letter-writing more "social" and intimate than all the FB sharing we do?

Is posting to LinkedIn, or Facebook, tweeting, or pinning just another play for the fifteen minutes we all crave? On LNKD, and FB, and in the Twitter-scape, we are all authors! What we do and where we are doing it is in the open and published.

On the other side of social media, we have an avowed purpose to enhance our business lives. Does social media work on that other level to spur our business interests? Does that LNKD announcement further our careers, bring in new business, keep us actively in touch with our customer base? Is our company profile served by blogging, and posting?

Your staff are your brand

Everyone who deals with the public in your company is an advocate for your brand.

Make sure that anyone representing you presents the image you want for your company.

There should be a consistency in what your employees tell your customers. The goal  is to create a loyal clientele.


Contact us: cleanlists@gmail.com.

Experience is an advantage you cannot devalue! ®

Who is representing you?

How your employees interact with your customers reflects on your business. They are your representatives, and should be advocates for your company. Your staff reflect on your brand, your business, and you.

For instance: That surly young woman at the check out does a disservice not only to your patrons, but to your business as a whole. She is not the face you want to show to your customers. Sending her out to give samples of this week's special pastries may even drive business away.

Everyone who deals with your public should have a smile on their faces. And it's true that a smile when you're on the phone can be heard right through the airwaves!


Contact us: cleanlists@gmail.com.

Experience is an advantage you cannot devalue! ®

A Survey A Day....

Keeps the customer in play....

When you ask customers what they think about your services you strike a delicate balance between making them feel like they are working for you, and making them feel like their input matters.

Rule #1 Make the survey short, fun and easy,

Rule #2 Thank them for their responses.
2a] Your appreciation can be shown by sharing feedback with them
2b] A chance to win a prize is always a nice thank you.
2c] Let them know when the suggestons they've made have led to changes.


Your input is always valued.

Contact us at cleanlists@gmail.com with any suggestions, or comment in the comment box.

Experience is an advantage you cannot devalue! ®