How to deal with difficult customers
May 30, 2008 by Phil Gerbyshak
Filed under Business
I frequently am asked by my team to help them solve difficult problems with customers, and this week I stepped out of my head and thought about what questions I ask that help get the problem fixed fastest.
- What is the real problem? Are you sure you understand the full scope of the problem? If not, go back to the customer and ask some more probing questions to understand the real problem.
- Have you thoroughly researched the question? Is everything you need to solve the problem there, only you just can’t find the answer, or is there more information you can gather that would help find a solution, or at least document it enough so we can ask someone else for help solving it? For my team, this means looking through our ticket tracking system, the help file, our wiki, Google Groups, and the entire Internet. This is why documenting the right things is a key to our success.
- What CAN you do? Customers hate to hear no, so think of 3 things you can do to help with the problem.
- Offer a choice of things you can do to the customer. If someone asks you to help them fly, and you know you can’t fly, focus on choices that work. If you can’t do something, and you offer that for a choice, you’re going to frustrate them when you say no, I can’t do that.
Typically these 4 things help get to the root of a problem and offer enough information that we can move forward to ask another team for help. We’ve exhausted all our resources, and we’re ready to escalate to another team.
Sometimes it’s just a matter of authority, in which case I ask them 1 more question:
- How can I help you fix this problem?
If we’ve been through all of these, and we’re still without an acceptable answer, then it’s time to get someone else involved.
What steps do you take with your team when they come to you with questions?
Are these methods effective?
Can you help me improve them?
Photo credit to amanky
Great topic! Since most of my angry customers are patients, I’ve found that most of the time they just want somebody to listen to them and say “I’m really sorry that happened to you.”
I’m also always working with my staff to help them seperate problems from symptoms which people tend to struggle with. “What is the problem” I ask. “Well the problem is that Jessica is upset about bla bla bla” they reply. NO! Jessica being upset is a symptom, not a problem.
My favorite angry customer fix is the old Feel, Felt, Found. “I know how you Feel, I Felt that way myself, until I Found out…
All good.
And, sometimes a professional “no” is what is needed. There are some customers who will simply see how much they can get from the supplier and will complain.
It’s not the first choice, but one needs to know boundaries and then say no if need be.