You know you’ve wanted to. We all have. “You want customer service, I’ll give you customer service”. Pow!
Let’s face it, unless you have the moral fiber of Mother Teresa or Mahatma Gandhi, you’ve had a moment where you’ve wanted to pop a customer. I know I have.
But we don’t actually do it. Well, most of us don’t.
According to a story on CNET.com, a Radio Shack employee was charged with punching a customer, rather than letting him talk to the store manager, as he requested.
I don’t know the details. I don’t know exactly what happened. Maybe the customer deserved a good smack. But that doesn’t mean you should hit them. Violence is not the answer.
So, what is the answer?
There are many things you can do to resolve difficult customer situations. Here are a few reminders.
- Remember you are there to help the customer.
- Apologize if the customer feels they’ve been wronged.
- Listen and let them vent. (Don’t interrupt.)
- Get help from your manager or another employee.
- Do not explain, defend or justify.
- Find a solution. (Get the customer’s input as you do this.)
- Assure them you’ll fix the problem so it won’t happen again.
- Thank them for their feedback.
- Remember you are there to help the customer.
No, you’re not seeing things. Yes I wrote the same reminder first and last. Because it’s that important. If we ever forget we’re here to help our customers then we’ll never get it right. This has got to drive everything we do.
So what about you?
As a manager, how do you help your employees deal with challenging situations? Or, as a customer facing employee, how do YOU handle these situations? I’d like to hear your thoughts.
Other articles you might like:
- How to Handle Customer Complaints: Tip 2
- Never explain defend or justify (part 1)
- How to Handle Customer Complaints
- Don’t justify your policies from your perspective
- Don’t Interrupt Your Customer
You are really right because even if customers are somehow bad tempered employees should be disciplined enough for them to understand that there are just some hot headed people
i don’t think employees should lose their cool, they should be patient enough to deal with any hot headed customer
I had a similar set of experiences as rhe person punched by a Radio Shack employee. I went into the Issaquah, WA store took back my 2nd Virgin Mobile cell phone that did not work, the managewr programmed it with a non working number, went on vacation, a young man in his early 20’s tried fixing it and after an hour I left and came back the next day, it still did not work and the person behind the counter out $20 on this third cell phone on a Saturday.
The phone did not work as it did not recognize the phone number and on Monday I returned and asked the same man if there was anybody at any Radio shack store that can fix and make Virgin Mobile phones work..A heated exchange occurred and he told me to leave the premise and as I was leaving, he shouted to me “Go Fuck Yourself.”
This was my 3rd Virgoin Mobile phone, the second was programmed by a young man no more than 22 years old who set this phone on speed dial and it always called that store….I complained and was asked to leave that store….
In the month of august from the 2nd I have paid $173.73 to Virgin Mobile and today is the 26th of August..Virgin Mobile is crediting my Wells Fargo account all but the monthly $49.95 fee and I am sending this message to Virgin Mobile’s chief Executive Officer as I have been informed that these and other Radio Shack errors are common place.
The current Radio shack CEO has a scandal about his education and business practices.
Hi Gerald – your story is interesting because Richard Branson, who heads Virgin Mobile, is known for having a customer-first attitude. But it sounds like they picked a distribution partner that sees things differently. This is a good example of why every company needs to pick their partners with care. Thanks for writing Gerald!