What is your answer to this oft-repeated question? It probably keeps crossing your mind whenever you are dealing with complaining customers who grit their teeth and make unreasonable requests. Working in the service industry is undoubtedly a stressful job. From time to time, it is inevitable that you have to deal with different kinds of difficult customers. No matter whether the complaint lies with you or about things that you can’t control, you still need to handle the upset customer and the situation.
In fact, according to a study conducted by Harvard Business Review, researchers found that customers who have a complaint handled in less than five minutes will spend more on future purchases (Harvard Business Review, 16 January 2018). So, how can we defuse the complaint effectively and turn the difficult customer into a loyal one?
Talent Academy recently delivered a series of complaint handling workshops to over 100 beauty consultants of a multinational personal care company, helping them to equip with the skills of handling different types of complaining customers in a professional way. During the workshop, they learnt how to spot and react to difficult customers’ underlying needs, both rational and emotional, and put these techniques into practice through role-playing. At the end of the workshop, participants realized that handling customer complaints is not rocket science. This simple change in mindset gives them the confidence to turn dissatisfied customers into satisfied customers, hence business opportunities.
Bill Gates once said, “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” If you want to give your employees the skills and confidence to handle difficult customers and enable them to learn from complaints, simply contact us at info@talentacademy.com.hk.
