Common Sense in Selling B2B™

No one enjoys deal­ing with upset cus­tomers, and peo­ple don’t buy a prod­uct or use a ser­vice with hopes they can call cus­tomer ser­vice to com­plain.  You need to keep in mind the cus­tomer is not sim­ply call­ing you to ruin your day.  How you han­dle the customer’s com­plaint will either esca­late or dif­fuse the situation, which will make your life much harder or much eas­ier.  And, most importantly, deter­mine whether or not you have lost a cus­tomer or retained his or her busi­ness.  So how should you deal with upset cus­tomers to ensure the best pos­si­ble out­come?  Here are some tips to help you out.

The moment you encounter an upset cus­tomer, your very first step is to lis­ten care­fully and be patient. Allow the cus­tomer to vent and explain the prob­lem.   It’s nat­ural for your “hack­les” to go up when a customer is yelling or starts with per­sonal attacks.  But remem­ber, behind the emo­tion is a gen­uine prob­lem.  So care­fully lis­ten and be patient while the cus­tomer lets off their steam.  If you start off defen­sive, it will only esca­late the customer’s anger, and it will be harder to sort through the issue and get a sense for what the real prob­lem is.  Remem­ber not to take the attacks per­son­ally, even if the cus­tomer is mak­ing per­sonal accu­sa­tions toward you – the cus­tomer is look­ing for acknowl­edge­ment he or she is angry, so rec­og­nize there is a prob­lem and he or she has a right to be upset.  Chances are a patient approach will help dif­fuse the anger.  Once the cus­tomer is calmer, you can start work­ing on address­ing the prob­lem constructively.

Once the cus­tomer has started to calm down, it’s now time to start fig­ur­ing out how to address the prob­lem and start putting your soft skills to work.  Avoid phrases such as “that’s our pol­icy,” or “you’ll have to go to our web­site”.   The cus­tomer didn’t call to be shut down or re-directed.  The cus­tomer called to speak to a live per­son who will help solve the prob­lem.  By reit­er­at­ing the issue, you’re com­mu­ni­cat­ing to the cus­tomer how you clearly under­stand what is going on and affirm­ing to the cus­tomer you’re listening – and HEARING!

You risk being perceived as dis­tanc­ing your­self from the customer’s prob­lem by telling the cus­tomer another depart­ment will help them, or you’ll need to have a super­vi­sor assist with the prob­lem. Instead let the cus­tomer know upfront you, per­son­ally, will take respon­si­bil­ity to ensure the issue is solved, and you’ll work with them to make sure he or she ends up sat­is­fied.  By stat­ing your respon­si­bil­ity, instead of sim­ply pass­ing the cus­tomer off (even if you will need to coor­di­nate with another depart­ment or a super­vi­sor to solve the prob­lem), you’re com­mu­ni­cat­ing you’re on the customer’s side – you’re an ally. This per­sonal approach will rein­force to the cus­tomer he or she is being lis­tened to and the prob­lem is being addressed.  In a cus­tomer ser­vice world where cus­tomers are used to nav­i­gat­ing through auto­mated phone sys­tems and deal­ing with scripted call cen­ter reps, this per­sonal acknowl­edge­ment will stand out.

Instead of dic­tat­ing to the cus­tomer your company’s pol­icy or telling the cus­tomer what will hap­pen, re-phrase the process by say­ing some­thing such as: “What would you con­sider a fair solu­tion?”  When you do this, you’re helping the cus­tomer be part of the solu­tion and help set the start­ing point for a nego­ti­a­tion, as well as setting a level of expec­ta­tion for the out­come.  Even if the cus­tomer sug­gests some­thing that is beyond what your com­pany can offer, it gives you a start­ing point to work down from so the cus­tomer is com­pen­sated for time lost on a ser­vice or a bro­ken product.

Once you have ended the call, your job is not over.  After you’ve dealt with an upset cus­tomer, it’s vital you follow-up, after a few weeks, to make sure the prob­lem was suf­fi­ciently resolved and the cus­tomer is pleased with the result.  By check­ing back in, you’re demon­strat­ing your com­pany really does care and is focused on cus­tomer satisfaction.  And you’re let­ting the cus­tomer know his or her busi­ness really mat­ters and you’ll go the extra mile to keep them as a customer.

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