You can have a near-perfect product, or offer near-perfect customer service. But no matter how hard you try, you will eventually have an unhappy client.
So, what do you do when it does happen? Can you make an unhappy customer happy again? Or should you cut your losses and focus on the next potential sale?
The Dale Carnegie Training Knowledge Center offers some great tips for dealing with this situation, as difficult as it can be. Some of the things suggested include:
– Stay calm. Getting upset yourself will only make the situation worse.
– Thank the person for bringing the issue to you, and mean it. They obviously care about your product enough to be upset when something doesn’t go right.
– Find a few points of agreement. Surely, they’ll have at least one or two valid arguments. And if you show that there are some things you agree with, they’ll know you are listening.
Visit the link above to view the rest of the tips.
Of course, is the customer is angry enough, nothing you say will be able to placate them. But if you keep calm and actually listen to the customer, you’ll be able to diffuse most of the unhappy customers.
I can speak from experience that I have walked into a business furious and left satisfied more than once. Why? Because the person I spoke to handled my problem quickly and compassionately.
Tell us — what tips do you have for dealing with unhappy customers? What’s your best “save” story?
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