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 demonstrated constant dissatisfaction 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 CRM 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 indispensable skill. ☝️
Find out how with our 12 practical tips.
What is a difficult customer?
In any business, it's inevitable to encounter difficult customers. These individuals, through their behavior or expectations, impose major challenges on your sales teams or agents.
A difficult customer is someone whose attitude or expectations exceed 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 an adapted approach to maintaining a productive and respectful interaction.
What are the warning signs?
Identifying a difficult customer early on in the interaction helps you to manage the situation more effectively. Warning signs include
- Verbal aggression, when the customer raises his or her voice, uses threatening words or interrupts frequently.
- Indecision, when the customer hesitates, asks many questions and often changes his or her mind, as when he or she asks for detailed information on several products without being able to make up his or her mind, even after lengthy explanations.
- Excessive demands manifest themselves in repeated special requests and constant complaints, despite efforts to satisfy them. This is the case, for example, when a customer insists on additional discounts or non-standard personalized services.
- Distrust is also an indicator, and shows up when customers ask for additional guarantees, demand detailed explanations and remain skeptical despite assurances given.
- Impulsivity is another behavior to watch out for, with customers making quick decisions without reflection, then abruptly changing their minds, such as those buying a product on a whim and demanding a refund shortly afterwards.
- Finally, excessive chatter is seen in customers monopolizing agents' time, with long, repetitive conversations.
☝️ By recognizing these behaviors and adopting appropriate strategies, you can better manage difficult customers, minimize 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.
You can apply several methods to ensure you meet their expectations as well as possible. 🗒️
Tip #1: Be where your customer expects you to be
An unhappy customer 's request can arrive via any channel:
- Social networks. In this case, using monitoring tools to track mentions of your brand in real time and setting up a dedicated team to manage these platforms is one of the best approaches to take.
- By email. Here, implementing a ticket management system to organize and track requests would help. Set up automatic replies to acknowledge receipt of requests, and make sure each reply is personalized 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 old questions.
- At the point of sale. In this case, train your sales staff to handle complaints professionally and empathetically. Also put in place clear procedures for dealing with in-store complaints.
This means you need to be able to deal with this request with the same speed, whatever the inbound channel.
No matter how you deal with the problem, your approach must remain respectful, always with the aim of helping your customer, all without letting yourself be stepped on.
Tip #2: Calm the customer down and make yourself available
Is a customer angry? Is another customer furious? Avoid escalating tensions between you: from the moment you make contact, be calm and pragmatic.
Make it clear to your contact that you're there to help him solve his problem, and reassure him that you're going to listen to him to understand his request, and that you need him to state the facts calmly so you can come up with the best solution.
Tip #3: Ask questions
Why is it important to ask the right questions?
After listening carefully, you'll be able to
- identify your customer's true 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-ended questions to invite the customer to express himself. Asking this type of question enables you to identify your customer's needs and expectations, and understand the reasons for their dissatisfaction. Open-ended questions are akin to the QQOQCP method: "Who? Who? When? When? Where? Where? What? What? How? How many? Why? ".
- Close-ended questions are used when you need to limit your exchanges. The possible answer to your question can only be a yes or a no. This practice is very effective for reframing a conversation, such as with a customer who's a bit too talkative.
👉 Example: "To sum up, your complaint is about a delivery that's 24 hours late, 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 2 or 3 options.
👉 Example: "Would you prefer delivery on Tuesday morning or Thursday morning? ". This kind of MCQ saves you time.
Tip #4: Listen to the unhappy customer
Active listening enables 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 cut them off;
- stay focused on listening and do nothing else;
- don't finish the other person's sentences;
- do not rely on your own expectations;
- show your availability;
- 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 expectations and solutions have been clearly identified and proposed to the customer. Each incident, complaint and response should enrich your database.
Tip #5: Reformulate 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 one: an emotional reaction can emanate from a lack of information.
👉 Providing information is a company's first mission: the customer must clearly understand what's on offer and what the product or service is for.
Tip #7: Use relevant, ready-to-use answers
Take advantage of satisfactory answers that have been a great success with difficult customers! Here again, you enrich your database: you enter the answer in your database, and it becomes reusable if needed, when faced with an unhappy customer.
☝️ Beware, however, of context: a recipe can only be used in a given situation.
Tip #8: Apologize if you're in the wrong
If your company has made a mistake and you've verified it, you should apologize!
Has a customer who was initially considered difficult finally made 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 acknowledge your wrongdoing and spontaneously make a gesture, you've gone beyond your customer's expectations: you've answered 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 one is not always easy. You may not have the commercial ability to respond 100% to the request.
Do your best to provide an alternative, or solve at least part of the problem: the customer sees your efforts and availability. ✅
He's then more inclined to dialogue if you take care of him. Make sure your customer accepts the proposed solution. This is very important: it means he accepts your response.
Tip #10: Thank the person
A customer who comes to you, even if it's because of dissatisfaction, is a customer who (still) considers your company. Indeed, the worst thing that can happen is for them to ignore you.
Think of having a conversation with a difficult customer as an opportunity : he's giving you a chance to respond to his 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 centers. It's the customer who marks the end of the conversation. This means no more questions.
It's also a French standard that qualifies the best customer services...
Tip #12: Offer customized solutions
Offer tailor-made solutions that correspond to your customer's specific needs, and be ready to adapt your services or products to meet their expectations. In addition, analyze customer complaints to constantly improve your products and services.
When and how to let go of a difficult customer?
Sometimes it's necessary to let go of a difficult customer for the good of your business. Signs that it's time to end the relationship include :
- major conflict generating excessive emotional charge ;
- additional costs due to refusal to honor commitments;
- an ongoing 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 helps to minimize negative fallout and maintain a positive corporate image.
Customer relationship management in express mode!
Companies can no longer keep their customers waiting, even difficult ones: they run the risk of losing them and seeing their sales decline. Customers have become volatile, and the slightest pretext is enough to drop your brand for a competitor. The only possible response is to adapt to their impatience and behavior, and continually improve the quality of your customer service.
When it comes to dealing with difficult customers on the web, technology has become indispensable, acting as a right-hand man to assist your teams of advisors.
Article translated from French