Never lose your cool
No one knows more about a company’s processes, products, services and procedures than the employees who work there every day. For this reason, it is easy for employees to get frustrated with customers who cannot seem to grasp a concept that an employee knows so well. Some customers will be adamant about being correct when they are not; this is where a client service agent must exercise patience and understanding. They must empathize and realize that this person may simply need a little more education on a subject or perhaps a different explanation approach. It is important for employees to never lose their temper or become noticeably upset or agitated with a customer. These behaviors may only enrage a person further or make a situation worse. This is also a sure fire way to lose business and begin building a reputation for poor service. Using phrases like “let me explain it differently” or “does that make sense?” are great dis-armors for agitated customers who are too frustrated to listen or understand.
Customers are not wrong
It is very tempting to tell someone they are wrong when you know you are right. This may be fine in a personal situation but in a business relationship, it is the kiss of death. Customers that are told flat out that they are wrong will feel alienated, discouraged or insulted. Once a customer feels this way, there is little that can be done to bring them back. If the relationship can be resolved, it may cost the company more than that customer is worth in most cases. That is why service representatives must never utter the words “you are wrong” to a customer. Instead, phrases like “tell me how I can help you” or “how can I help you understand” are far less volatile and prompt the individual to offer solutions to their own problem.
The underlying theory of “the customer is always right” is not that a client is correct all the time because they are not. Instead, service representatives should take this to mean that an individual should always be afforded patience, understanding and good service no matter what behavior is being displayed. Representatives should always remain calm and collected. Once employees lose their cool, the entire relationship is lost, which can have much further reaching implications for the organization. Tactics like choosing the right words or trying a different approach with a customer should be employed to maintain a business relationship even when the customer is wrong.
I think a far more interesting article (since this one seems to offer nothing new) would be to discuss treating customers like dirt from a financially motivated view. People that call for support too often for example, probably aren't worth having as a customer beyond a certain price point for the product or service they are buying. Nagging customers and problems that can't be resolve or don't go away, really begin to wear down a customer service rep, it tarnishes the reps view of the company, and depletes morale. Employee turn-over therefore must also be calculated into our equation. Why even have customer support? Consider having the customer navigate through a seemingly endless labyrinth of interactive voice response prompts, until (maybe, if they are lucky enough) after a very long hold, they might reach an English as a Second Language Customer Service Rep (ESL CSR) who will repeat to them everything already stated in the prerecorded messages. This seems to be a winning strategy for major companies, there must be something to it.