12 practical tips for dealing with difficult customers and improving customer satisfaction
Have you ever had to deal with a customer whose demands seemed impossible to meet, or who was constantly dissatisfied despite your best efforts? If so, you know how daunting it can be to deal with a difficult customer. However, every interaction offers an opportunity to improve your customer relationship management skills and strengthen customer loyalty.
In a world where customer satisfaction is crucial to business success, knowing how to deal with difficult regulars is becoming an essential skill. ☝️
Find out how with our 12 practical tips.
What is a difficult customer?
In any business, it is inevitable that you will come across difficult customers. These individuals, through their behaviour or expectations, impose major challenges on your sales teams or your agents.
A difficult customer is someone whose attitude or expectations go beyond the usual norms of customer relations, making the management of this relationship particularly complex.
These individuals may express their dissatisfaction excessively, be highly critical and show :
- aggressiveness
- indecision
- anger.
They may demand immediate answers and solutions, or constantly doubt the quality of products or services offered.
💡Managing such customers requires a great deal of patience on your part as well as a tailored approach to maintain a productive and respectful interaction.
What are the warning signs?
Identifying a difficult customer at the start of an interaction helps you to manage the situation more effectively. Warning signs include
- Verbal aggression, when the customer raises their voice, uses threatening words or interrupts frequently.
- Indecision, when the customer hesitates, asks numerous questions and often changes their mind, such as when they ask for detailed information on several products without being able to make up their mind, even after lengthy explanations.
- Excessive demands in the form of repeated special requests and constant complaints, despite the efforts made to satisfy them. This is the case, for example, when a customer insists on additional discounts or non-standard personalised services.
- Distrust is also an indicator, and shows up when customers ask for additional guarantees, demand detailed explanations and remain sceptical despite assurances given.
- Impulsivity is another behaviour to watch out for, with customers who make quick decisions without thinking and then abruptly change their mind, such as those who buy a product on the spur of the moment and ask for a refund shortly afterwards.
- Finally, excessive chatter is seen in customers who monopolise agents' time with long, repetitive conversations.
☝️ By recognising these behaviours and adopting appropriate strategies, you can better manage difficult customers, minimise conflicts and improve your overall customer experience.
12 tips for effectively managing a difficult customer
Satisfying difficult customers is never easy, but your goal is exactly that.
There are a number of methods you can apply to ensure you meet their expectations as well as possible. 🗒️
Tip #1: Be where your customer expects you to be
A request from an unhappy customer can arrive via any channel:
- Through social networks. In this case, using monitoring tools to track mentions of your brand in real time and setting up a team dedicated to managing these platforms is one of the best approaches to take.
- By email. Here, implementing a ticket management system to organise and track requests would help. Set up automatic replies to acknowledge receipt of requests and ensure that each reply is personalised to suit your customer.
- On your website. By integrating a CRM, you can manage requests centrally. You can also use chatbots for simple questions and a live chat service for more complex problems. An FAQ section can also help your customers by referring them to similar questions from the past.
- At the point of sale. In this case, train your sales staff to handle complaints in a professional and empathetic manner. Also put in place clear procedures for dealing with complaints in-store.
You need to be able to deal with this request with the same speed, regardless of the channel through which it arrives.
No matter how you deal with the problem, your approach must remain respectful, always with the aim of helping your customer, and without letting yourself be stepped on.
Tip #2: Calm the customer down and make yourself available
Is a customer angry? Is another customer furious? Absolutely avoid escalating tensions between you: as soon as you make contact, show yourself to be calm and pragmatic.
Make it clear to the person you're talking to that you' re there to help them solve their problem, reassure them that you're going to listen to them to understand their request, and that you need them to state the facts calmly so that you can come up with the best solution.
Tip #3: Ask questions
Why is it important to ask the right questions?
After listening carefully, this will enable you to :
- identify your customer's real expectations ;
- identify the source of the problem;
- understand the customer's point of view;
- compare what your customer says with the information in your database;
- have your answer approved by your customer's satisfaction.
3 types of questions to ask depending on the type of difficult customer
- Open questions to invite the customer to express themselves. Asking this type of question enables you to identify your customer's needs and expectations, and to understand the reasons for their dissatisfaction. Open questions are similar to the QQOQCP method: "Who? Who? What? When? Where? What? How? How many? Why? ".
- Closed questions when you need to limit the discussion. The only possible answer to your question is a yes or a no. This practice is very effective for reframing a conversation, such as with a customer who is a little too talkative.
👉 Example: "To sum up, your complaint is about a delivery that's 24 hours late, is that right? ".
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Alternative questions to encourage your customer to make a choice. The intention is to invite the customer to make a choice without rushing them, but rather by offering them 2 or 3 options.
👉 Example: "Would you prefer delivery on Tuesday morning or Thursday morning? ". This sort of MCQ saves you time.
Tip #4: Listen to unhappy customers
Active listening allows you to identify what's important to your customer. It's also a way of showing you care.
To be a good listener, you need to give your full attention to the dissatisfied customer and :
- don't interrupt them ;
- stay focused on listening and do nothing else;
- don't finish the other person's sentences;
- do not rely on your own expectations;
- show that you are available;
- check your understanding of expectations by rephrasing questions;
- have all the facts before giving advice.
🗒️ TO DO:
Take notes to complete the customer history once the expectations and solutions have been clearly identified and proposed to the customer. Each incident, complaint and response should be added to your database.
Tip #5: Rephrase the customer's request
The primary aim of rephrasing is to avoid any ambiguity, especially when you're dealing with a delicate situation with an unhappy customer.
Rephrasing your customer's sentence with other words that respect the same meaning ensures that the complaint or problem is clearly understood on both sides.
💡 It's advisable to pay attention to the intonation used during a customer call: it can change the meaning of your words...
Tip #6: Make information available to the customer
We naturally think of the indecisive customer, or even an angry customer: an emotional reaction can stem from a lack of information.
👉 Providing information is a company's primary mission: the customer must have a clear understanding of what's on offer and what the product or service is for.
Tip #7: Use relevant, ready-to-use answers
Make use of satisfactory responses that have been a great success with difficult customers! Here again, you enrich your database: you enter the response in your database, and it becomes reusable if you need to deal with an unhappy customer.
☝️ Beware, however, of the context: a recipe can only be used in a given situation.
Tip #8: Apologise if you're in the wrong
If you've made a mistake, and you've checked it yourself, you should apologise!
Did the customer who was initially considered difficult finally make a legitimate request? A reparation is then necessary to "make up" for this mistake: a commercial gesture, a gift "to make up for it". 🎁
If you admit you're wrong and spontaneously make a gesture, you're going beyond your customer's expectations: you've responded to their request with a bonus. Satisfaction guaranteed!
Tip #9: Offer a solution and get it approved
Catching up with a disappointed customer or satisfying a difficult customer is not always easy. You may not have the commercial resources to meet the request 100%.
Do your best to provide an alternative, or solve at least part of the problem: the customer will see your efforts and your availability. ✅
They will be more inclined to talk to you if you take care of them. Make sure the proposed solution is accepted; your customer must show his approval. This is very important: it means they accept your response.
Tip #10: Thank the person
A customer who comes to you, even if it's because they're unhappy, is a customer who (still) thinks highly of your company. In fact, the worst thing that can happen is for them to ignore you.
Think of a conversation with a difficult customer as an opportunity : they're giving you a chance to respond to their request. So it's a good idea to thank them for their call and for their trust.
Tip #11: Hang up last
This is the rule in all call centres. It is the customer who marks the end of the conversation. This means that they have no more questions.
It's also a French standard that qualifies the best customer services...
Tip #12: Offer customised solutions
Offer tailor-made solutions that correspond to your customer's specific needs and be prepared to adapt your services or products to meet their expectations. In addition, analyse customer complaints to constantly improve your products and services.
When and how do you let go of a difficult customer?
It is sometimes necessary to let go of a difficult customer for the good of your business. Signs that it's time to end the relationship include :
- a major conflict generating an excessive emotional charge ;
- additional costs linked to refusals to honour commitments;
- a continuing source of stress for teams.
To end the relationship in a professional manner, it is important to explain the reasons for the separation clearly and calmly, to remain open to compromise if possible and to thank the customer for drawing attention to the problems encountered. This approach helps to minimise the negative repercussions and maintain a positive image of the company.
Customer relationship management in express mode!
Companies should no longer keep their customers waiting, even difficult customers: they risk losing them and seeing their sales fall. Customers have become volatile, and the slightest pretext is enough to make them abandon your brand in favour of a competitor. The only possible response is to adapt to their impatience and behaviour and continually improve the quality of your customer service.
In the context of managing difficult customers on the web, technology is becoming essential, acting as a veritable right-hand man to assist your teams of advisers.
Article translated from French