Dealing with Unhappy Customers- How to cope with dissatisfied customers.

There is only one boss—the customer. And he can fire everyone in the company—from the chairman on down—simply by spending his money somewhere else.

Dealing with an unhappy customer doesn’t mean the customer is always right, but dealing with customer complaints presents frontline employees the chance to show your organization really cares about treating them with respect. The outcome determines your customer’s perception, which will impact, ultimately, your organization’s future business climate.

Below are a few principles to handle unhappy customers who voice their complaints.

1- Treat internal associates as external customers. An associate can be defined as an internal customer who is anyone in the organization affected by the product or service as it is being generated. It is impossible to get people’s best efforts, involvement and caring concern for things your organization believes important to your customers if they aren’t treated with respect, honesty and trust.

When associates are satisfied with their treatment, given the right tools to do the job, and supported by management, customers are more likely to have higher perceptions and are more likely to continue to do business with your organization. Organizations would best keep in mind that if the external customer is king, then the internal customer is a prince.

2- Select and train frontline associates carefully. An organization’s “customer-contact” associates are in direct contact with customers and represent the face of the organization—good or bad. Frontline employees need to be selected from key behavioral characteristics, trained, and retrained. Organizations should remember the turnover statistics cited above and remember that this important training effort should not be cut during tough times.

3- Defuse the situation. Act as if the customer is always right, then back up from there. What this meant in practice was to defuse the situation and let cooler heads prevail to resolve the situation.

Anger is like a volcanic eruption. We shouldn’t try to interrupt the volcano while it’s spewing lava! Once the eruption is over, acknowledge the customer’s anger. If that doesn’t calm the customer’s anger, remove the person, if possible, from the crowd so he or she can subside without losing face in front of the other customers. If the issue still can’t be resolved, seek assistance but try to be viewed, by the customer, as being their advocate.

4- Measure your words carefully. Avoid saying anything that sounds like a command or contradiction. If you have to say no, then first “put a look of regret on your face or make an ‘effort’ sound.

5- Strive for a partnership. Talk about solving the problem together. Make your challenge the customer’s challenge. What are we going to do? Try to avoid handing him or her off to someone else, but if you must (assuming the customer is on the phone), ask for their phone number in case they get disconnected and then stay on the line until the person you’re handing them off to is on the line.

6- Get personal. Address the unhappy customer by name, and give him or her your name, too. If the customer hurts your feelings, let him know. This helps create a personal affiliation and can actually help defuse the situation.

Customers actually buy expectations, not just products and services. Maybe that’s why many become disgruntled

Reference: Quality magazine