Six Golden Rules In Minimising Difficult Customers

The six golden rules of Dale Carnegie are the key to minimizing issues with difficult customers.

1. Become genuinely interested in other people – Be responsive towards a customer especially when the situation is tough. Acknowledge the customer and make them feel you are there to resolve the issue at hand.
2. Smile – This certainly helps with any kind of interaction. It makes the customer feel welcome and comfortable. Remember on the other hand the same smile is road to aggravation for the customer if you are not providing the customer with acceptable resolution.
3. Remember that a person’s name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language – Knowing your customer name and using their name with courtesy during such scenarios will play an important part in diffusing difficult interaction.
4. Be a good listener - Encourage others to talk about themselves – A great listener always allows the other party to express their thoughts and gives them time to vent out their feelings. When you interrupt a difficult customer during his talk it will make the matter worse.
5. Talk in terms of the other person’s interest – When a customer hears you say “the company policy is...” his or her immediate reaction could be a negative one as you are not paying attention to his or her need. You have not listened to them or are not interested about their concern. This a danger zone to avoid.
6. Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely – Amazingly this can be easy but a number of professionals have fine-tuned the art of ignoring and not listening to the customer. When you make the customer feel welcomed, comfortable and acknowledge them, you are now on the path of making them feel important.

Every customer who interacts with your organization provides you with a chance to provide Soul Based Service Excellence. Dealing with difficult customer truly tests yours skills in providing such a high standard of service. 

My name is Rohit Bassi and I am the founder of In Learning. My mission is about sowing the seeds of passion to help you outperform yourself by enhancing your core critical skills of communication, leadership and collaboration. I have delivered workshops to the likes of Oracle, Harley-Davidson, Emirates NBD, Emaar, Alshaya, Baskin Robbins, Mazda and many more. Please feel free to contact me via rohit@in-learning.com or call on +971-(0)55-553-2275.