Have you heard the phrase “The Customer is Always Right”? Of course you have! We all have. Can I let you in on a secret … this phrase drives me crazy.
The first reason why it drives me crazy is probably the more obvious one; sometimes customers are not right, but they use the belief in this phrase to justify their words and actions. You’ve probably encountered more than your share of customers like this during your career.
The second reason this phrase drives me crazy is because of what it can do to people like YOU on the front lines of helping customers. Let me explain further. When customers are wrong but act like they’re right, doesn’t this often create frustration, anger, irritation (and whatever other negative emotion you want to include) in you?
Why is that??
Because the customer IS wrong! When someone is wrong and demanding something that they shouldn’t be demanding you will have a natural tendency to fixate on the fact that they are wrong … after all, they are!! The problem with this is that if you stay stuck on the fact that your customer is wrong, and your customer is stuck on the fact that they are right (even if they’re wrong) you will remain STUCK!!
I’ve seen this countless times in my career. Associate keeps arguing again and again with the customer. Repeating the same things over and over again. Expecting the “light bulb” to finally go on in the customer’s head.
Meanwhile the customer says the same thing over and over again. Digs in his/her heels over and over again. Expecting the “light bulb” to go on in the associate’s head, AND getting more frustrated when it doesn’t.
As I said before, everything remains stuck.
So…who’s responsibility is it to get the process unstuck?
(Hint: It’s not your customer’s.)
You have a choice to make when you are in these situations. You can either say and do things that make the situation better or worse. I recommend that you choose to make it better-which in turn will make your life easier.
How?
One: Help your customers feel like they’re right … even when they’re not OR Don’t make them feel like they’re wrong, even if they are!
I will probably expand on this in a future blog post, but the big picture point here is to be as gracious, patient and understanding as possible when customers are wrong. Don’t shame them for not reading the contract. Don’t guilt them for being demanding. Don’t criticize them for complaining.
What should you do? Show empathy (even when you’re not really empathetic!) when a customer is frustrated. Here are some empathy statements:
- I’m so sorry this happened
- I can see that you’re frustrated
- Wow, that must have been really confusing when that happened
- I totally understand-that has happened to me too
When you shower your customers with empathy it makes them much more open and willing to listen to what you have to say, especially when you have to say “no.” Skip the empathy step and they will dig in their heels with you and make your life harder!
Two: Take advantage of every opportunity to show your customers you care
Every single time you interact with a customer deposit some positive feelings into their account by smiling, acknowledging, helping, being patient and understanding, showing kindness and just being nice. This means that you smile and greet someone even when you’re “too busy.” This means listening to the same complaint, with compassion and empathy, that you’ve heard a zillion times from the same customer! This means not interrupting your customer when s/he’s trying to tell you something, even though you know what s/he is going to say!
I could go on and on and on … but if you start with these two things, you’ll find giving awesome customer service will be easier!
