How to Deal with Difficult Customers

A good word spoken by a satisfied customer is worth hundreds of dollars of advertising. At the same time, a disgruntled customer can do serious damage to your reputation. Prevention is better than fire-fighting. There is always a reason why a customer acts difficult. Know the reasons and treat each customer accordingly.

A few things that can come in handy when dealing with difficult customers include giving them time and maybe some micro management. Communicate more frequently with them to find out about their expectations, a dialogue helps in reaching a decision on manageable and realistic expectations that you can fulfill. At times you may have to be a little firm and take a call on what comes first – the comfort of your employees or the customer’s requirements. Although the customer is king it is critical to remember that he is not always right.

A customer may be difficult because of some personality trait or some genuine reason, in both the cases educating the customer can help. This can be done through customer-orientation programs and greater personalization when interacting with them.

Customer Service Basics

CRM software is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg that is customer relationship management. The basics of CRM do not change. The human angle to it is all important and it is these good old-fashioned virtues that decide the success of your CRM initiative.

Whether you run a mom-and-pop store or a multinational there are some facts that are common to all forms of business. Remember to treat your customer as you would want to be treated if you were a customer. A smile to welcome a customer is the best way to make him feel relaxed; it gets him to open up. A happy shopping experience with smooth transactions invariably leads to repeat business. Friendly conduct and attentive customer service can make a customer’s day.

As a business owner, it is imperative that you practice the customer care mantras that you preach to your staff. Customer concerns should be addressed immediately with minimum discomfort to the customer, ideally you should absorb the transaction costs of returns and refunds so apportion for these in your budget. Offer incentives that encourage prospects to convert into customers. Remember, there is more to selling than selling at a low-cost. In a competitive market, your service is the only true differentiator.

Some CRM Don’ts to Keep in Mind

There are some strict no-no’s that you should be aware of with reference to offering customer service. The key is to keep the negatives out and accentuate the positive. Remember never say “we never”, “we don’t”, “we can’t”, “you’re wrong” or other such phrases.

It’s all about the customer’s comfort and well-being and not about operational efficiency and protocol. There will always be situations when the customer demands a little bit extra, for example a refund without a purchase receipt. You would be within your rights to refuse but try and put a positive spin to the situation. Offer alternatives like the current sales price of the article in question or bonus loyalty points if you are running some kind of a scheme.

Make good a promise and deliver on what you say. The easiest way to put off a customer and ruin a lot of good marketing effort is to not deliver on time or worse, renege on a promise. Keep your end of the deal if you wish to see the customer again. A lot of CRM don’ts are related to contact center activities. Your contact center employees should not come across as ignorant or uninterested in the customer’s complaints.

How Crucial is Proactive Customer Care

One of the oft cited facts about CRM is that it is most effective when you exceed customer expectations and the best way to do it is by providing proactive customer care. One of the great things about proactive customer care is that it does not let problems arise so that time and effort spent in problem solving is less. Needless to state that customer satisfaction with a business is greater when transactions happen without ever having to resort to calling the contact centers.

Businesses benefit by a reduction in costs of running the operations as reactive customer care is usually an expense in terms of time and money. Proactive customer care is actually the essence of CRM; it is what a company should ideally strive for with all the data that is thrown up by CRM systems. Call center costs are also reduced. Proactive customer care can be that key differentiator between you and your competitors, you can achieve it without any extra spending, however you require is right thinking and effort, especially from the customer-facing staff. The front end should be allowed decision making powers so that they can make judicious use of their training, experience, and their on-the-spot judgments in dealing with a customer.