No matter what your business may be, there’s no denying the fact that your customers are the lifeblood of your brand. Your operations are centered around creating a consistently excellent customer experience to garner your customers’ trust and drive repeat purchases. Today, 88% of customers claim it requires at least three to four good transactions to build customer loyalty.
Following the point above, it’s important to note that 80% of customers said that one bad experience with a brand could lead them to switch to a competitor. So, the pressure is always on to ensure that your company provides a wholesome customer experience. But what happens when the customers themselves become the concern?
Unfortunately, you might encounter difficult customers, making operations more challenging. The good thing is you can always prepare for these types of people and situations. The first step is to learn about them and prepare ways to approach them.
Dealing With Difficult Clients
Handling difficult customers is challenging and frustrating, but reciprocating their behavior will only worsen the situation. You must always choose the peaceful track in approaching these customers to turn the situation into a great transaction, considering that 13% of unhappy customers relay their experience to 15 people or more.
If you’re operating an eCommerce business, one single action can further generate negative online reviews that impact your company. Therefore, the best way to deal with these difficult customers is to develop a further understanding of their actions and effective ways to resolve the issue. Here are seven types of difficult customers you might encounter.
7 Types of Difficult Customers
- The Indecisive
An indecisive customer chooses products with difficulty or scans through your products without anything in mind. The tricky part is they don’t ask for help finding the right product or ask many questions and still can’t decide.
In this case, offer your help. Encourage these customers to let you know what they’re looking for or what factors they consider in purchasing. Identify their ultimate selling point and offer the best of what you have.
Of course, it’s understandable that they might be looking to get the best deals or ensure that they make the right decision when purchasing. Although these customers are relatively more polite, they may drain your time and energy and not buy.
- The Complainer
It’s typical for a customer to complain. Complaints may even be sources of constructive criticism that you can take note of to improve the customer experience you offer. But when a customer complains about the smallest things or stuff that don’t necessarily concern them, it becomes exhausting to counter their concerns.
With this type of customer, accept that nothing may satisfy them. Still, remain attentive to capture their preferences and offer a solution.
- The Know-It-All
Much like a complainer, a know-it-all customer is hard to please. These are the types of customers who like to showcase their ideas, talk a lot, and counter any points you present. Although these types of people are great sources of opinions, they sometimes come off as rude and entitled and, therefore, draining to deal with.
When dealing with difficult clients, remember to argue at the minimum and give occasional compliments. This gesture will provide them with validation and entertain your offers.
- The Impatient
Impatient customers want things done swiftly or done their way, regardless of the compromises, and negatively communicate this.
Indeed, some customers might request a faster service when they’re running late for an appointment and relays this information in a way that asks a favor. However, impatient customers appear as if they don’t consider certain factors in your service, such as your brand policies, supplier delays, the queue of other customers, or other tasks you need to tend to.
- The Angry
Angry customers are the type to raise their voices and respond snarkily when you offer solutions. They’re either deliberately angry or triggered by some circumstances to react that way.
These customers are also taxing to deal with. The best way to approach them is by apologizing for any shortcomings from your side. Get straight to their grievances and keep the conversation as short as possible.
- The Demanding
Each customer concern is a matter of priority. However, demanding customers feel their concerns are a high priority and superior to others, leading them to be angry, aggressive, and often verbally abusive in persisting that you address their problems first.
These customers typically demand immediate solutions, regardless if you have a long line of people waiting or the solution they’re ordering is already out of your hands.
- The Unsatisfied
As the name suggests, unsatisfied customers are displeased with the solutions you offer to their concerns, regardless if you’ve already exhausted your resources to rectify them. When dealing with these customers, start with an apology, offer them options to solve their concerns, and let them know that you’re only limited to the solutions you presented.
How to Deal With Difficult Customers
Here are seven ways how to deal with different types of difficult customers.
- Listen to their concerns
Listen attentively to their concerns and build rapport. Determine the root cause of their behavior to provide the best solution. It also communicates that you give them the necessary attention and validate their concerns. - Be honest and transparent
Explain the situation to them and provide honest answers while framing your responses positively. For instance, after saying that you don’t have the stock of the item they wanted to purchase, let them know when the next delivery will be.
Keep your conversations straight to the point and avoid arguing with your customers, as there are better ways to approach the situation. Assure them that you’ll appreciate it if they calm down, so you can address their concerns more effectively.
- Show empathy and genuine concern
Give your customers the benefit of the doubt. Everyone has bad days, and you can make their day with excellent service.
Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and assess the situation. Let them know that you understand why they’re frustrated and that you’re there to provide the best solution as soon as possible. Sometimes, the simple act of empathizing with these customers helps calm them down.
You may also take the situation as an evaluation opportunity on your personnel’s emotional intelligence and capacity to provide excellent customer service. These factors are among the most common reasons why some customers get agitated.
- Keep a calm voice
Learning how to deal with difficult customers involves keeping your voice calm, regardless of how verbally abusive the customer gets. Take a deep breath and remember that your actions reflect the entire company, and responding in the same manner as your customer only worsens the situation.
Maintain a friendly tone of voice, as this influences people’s reactions and responses to you more than the actual words you say. However, if the customer crosses the line, that’s the time you take necessary actions and provide a solution to their concerns while also protecting your employees.
- Compensate them for the hassle they're going through
Another way of dealing with difficult clients is ensuring that you’ll compensate them for the inconvenience that the concern caused them, especially if you deem your company at fault for the shortcoming.
This action immediately eases their grievances, benefitting your company since customers provided with effective resolutions tell their experience to an average of four to six people. They may even post their positive experience online, boosting your social media presence.
Aside from being an effective way to deal with difficult customers, providing compensation is a great gesture to show your customers what more you can offer if they enroll in your customer loyalty programs.
- Protect your mental and emotional health
A survey conducted by Milieu Insight found that 47% of Filipino employees are experiencing symptoms of anxiety while 46% are exhibiting signs of burnout. The respondents of the study mentioned that their top stressors were: an overwhelming workload (46%), long hours at work (41%), and concerns about job performance (40%) With these figures in mind, it’s not hard to imagine that a ton of customer service representatives and other client-facing employees may be dealing with mental health issues.
Taking the nature of their work into account, dealing with tough clients daily can take a toll on one’s well being. Now that mental health concerns among customer service workers have grown exponentially, it’s essential to protect yourself from these situations. Direct the conversation back to the issue at hand, preventing matters from getting personal since dealing with difficult clients can be detrimental to your mental and emotional health.
- Know when to give in
As they say, choose your battles. You need to determine if you can still sway the customer to a common ground where you can work to resolve their issue or if it’s a losing battle. Know when a customer becomes unbearably draining and exhausting to deal with.
Giving in may result in lost sales but saving you from unnecessary stress is still the better route. You’ll still have more time and energy catering to your other customers.
Dealing With Difficult Clients Made Easy
Your goal of providing the best customer experience also comes with challenges in the form of difficult customers. Validating their concerns and giving effective resolutions are still the best ways to deal with difficult customers.
Take each concern as a chance to show your audience why your brand is among the best in the market and is worthy of repeat purchases, leading them to enroll in your well-curated loyalty membership, provided to you by Rush’s white label loyalty program.
Level up your brand memberships and customer experience with customer rewards via Rush’s white-label rewards program.
