Keeping Customers Happy Without Giving Away the Farm

The customer is always right. It’s a famous expression in the customer service world, but it couldn’t be further from the truth.

The sentiment of the expression is this: If the customer is upset, you should do anything you can to resolve the problem. On the surface, that makes sense. The happier your customers are, the more likely they are to be loyal to your business and refer others to buy from you.

But, what happens when customer concerns get outrageous? What happens when your associates are drowning their days with unhappy customers, neglecting other customers who need assistance, and feeling serious burnout? The end result isn’t good for your business, your customer base, or your team.

The red flags to look for in unhappy customers

There are several types of unhappy customers. Some have valid complaints; some do not. Knowing the red flags to spot are essential in deciding how you will proceed in resolving a problem. These include:

• Customers who will never be satisfied
• Customers who always have a gripe, no matter the circumstance or purchase
• Customers who are always asking you to bend the rules on their behalf

These customers are the ones who are difficult to make happy, if not impossible. There will always be something new for them to be upset about, which means you’re fighting an uphill battle. Although it’s a struggle to pinpoint which customers are causing the headaches or fall into these categories, the benefits of doing so are undeniable. Your team will be happier. Your other customers will be happier. And, you’ll end up getting more revenue, even though you might have lost one buyer.

To deal with these customers, here are a few ways you can put up customer boundaries.

Make your schedule public to your team

The best way to tackle customer complaints is to make sure you have the manpower to do it effectively. That means, your staff schedule should be full whenever possible.

Make the staff schedule public so if a team member needs a day off last minute, he can reach out to another team member without using managers as middlemen and request a switch. This way, you’re less likely to have holes in your staffing and more likely to have all hands on deck to deal with unhappy customers when they appear (and they will appear).

If your team schedules meetings with customers, another perk to having the schedule public is to not accidentally schedule someone for a meeting when he’s out of the office. Make it easy for your employees to see the work schedule in “real time” so you give your customers less of a reason to complain.

Give ’em what they want

This seems counterintuitive. If you’re supposed to have customer boundaries, shouldn’t you have stringent rules of what you will and will not tolerate? Not quite.

Your customer loves to feel like he is getting a good deal or that he was given something exclusively special to him. When he does, he is happy and generally won’t push back asking for more.

Giving special treatment can feel like you're crossing a boundary if it's done wrong, and it could backfire if another customer finds out about it. To get around this risk, give your team the authority to make judgement calls on how to resolve customer situations.

Zappos, a company built on customer service, does this exceptionally well. It lets its service agents do whatever is necessary to resolve a problem. This means there’s no rule book and no one’s hands are tied. Each person is able to do what it takes to keep customers happy. And it works.

Stick up for your staff

Ultimately, when it comes to disgruntled customers, you have to back your team members first. This can be hard when you're standing face-to-face with a red-faced, unreasonable person, but it’s important if you want to show the rest of your customers that your team knows what they’re doing.

Take control of the situation by taking the customer away from the limelight and talking to them out of earshot of other customers. Then, listen to what the customer is saying. Respond empathetically but without budging. Do what you can to resolve the primary concern; any other problems or frustrations will fall to the wayside.

The benefits of putting up customer boundaries

Having customer boundaries are important, and when done right, your customers won’t even know boundaries exist. As conflicts arise (and they will), focus on calming down customers and solving their primary problems while still backing your staff. Communicate clearly why your business does what it does in order to help customers to understand. Do this and you will see the benefits of strong customer service: happier people and higher revenues.