5 Simple Tips For Dealing With Nasty Customers
No matter how many times you might be tempted to feel put upon by those less than pleasant customers at work, you need to remember that they can only make the decisions they do because of their personal beliefs and pre-existing attitudes on life. It is important that we are patient, understanding, and give each customer the chance to learn something new. By using these five tips in your day-to-day interactions with bad customers, not only will you be a more effective team member but also help develop future business relationships!
1) Believe in yourself
Never forget who's responsible for setting the bar high for your work and keeping it high by consistently providing excellent service. You are the reason that people come back to your business. You have a very special gift and you must take care of it in order to keep it from being squandered.
2) Show them what you can do
Sometimes a customer feels too threatened by your personality, or does not respect you because of your perceived gender, race, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation. Show them that even though their sense of personal security may be threatened, there is nothing you can do about that because your career depends on this job and these customers.
3) Send the message that you love them
You need to let your customers know that they play a very important role in the success of your business. After all, without people, who would you be serving? So tell them how much you appreciate them. Say "Let me know what I can do for you", or "What's on your mind?" or "You have my undivided attention".
4) Do not allow insensitivity to get to you
Be cool and calm and look for ways to satisfy the customer's needs instead of taking things personally. Don't allow the customer's behavior to affect your work environment.
5) Learn to understand the customer
Every customer has different needs. So listen and learn what they want to say. Try to develop a relationship with them so that you know what motivates them and gets them off their duff. Treat each customer as if they are the only one in your world, because most likely that is true.
There are times when customers' actions make it difficult for us to perform our job; this is usually the case when dealing with rude customers in restaurants or retail stores or even at work.