Handling Challenging Situations with a Customer

Handling Challenging Situations with a Customer - Transcript

Handling Challenging Situations with a Customer Focused Mindset
By Terence R Traut

Most Customer Service Professionals deal with many challenging customer situations These situations may include A customer who is upset about the quality or delivery of our product service A product return or a cancellation of services Incorrect information given to the customer A customer who is negative toward your company due to past experiences Confrontational issues and conflict Angry customers Explaining a company policy or procedure Fielding a request to escalate a call to management

The ultimate goal in these challenging situations is to provide a win win solution We want our customer to leave the interaction feeling listened to well taken care of and valued A customer focused mindset will have a tremendous impact on accomplishing these goals Along with customer focus an invaluable tool for dealing with challenging situations is the Five Step Process The Five Step Process Have you ever been an upset customer calling your product or service provider with a serious problem If you receive a satisfactory resolution AND you feel listened to well taken care of and valued during your interaction aren t you likely to consider doing business with this company again The Five Step Process will help us to provide our customers with this positive experience Aside from reaching a win win solution the goal of the Five Step Process is to leave our customers feeling listened to well taken care of and valued Let s examine the specific steps of the Five Step Process Step 1 Strategize How do you develop a strategy Develop your goal for the interaction What do you want as the end result i e save the customer resolve an issue etc Identify your parameters what can you do or provide the customer independently or with your supervisor s approval What CAN T you do because of policy or business reasons Prepare by identifying common problems and win win solutions





Your strategy should be to arrive at a solution that will be a win for both your company and the customer If you are successful you will retain the customer exceed the customer s expectations and provide a very positive customer experience so that he she will want to continue doing business with your company Step 2 Acknowledge The acknowledgement is essential to communicating in challenging situations Use phrases like I understand how you feel I see I apologize I am sorry I can see how you might feel that way so that customers feel that they have been heard and that we respect them It clears the way for us to move forward by helping diffuse the emotion and placing us on the side of the customer Step 3 Clarify Sometimes we mistakenly proceed to resolve a problem based on what we THINK the customer was saying This third step of the process allows us to clarify and draw out information to make sure that we understand the customer s true concern Examples of clarifying might include What I hear you saying is is that right Can you tell me more about How may I help you What were you hoping would happen

Clarifying leads us to the appropriate solution in a more efficient manner Step 4 Present Resolution The fourth step is to present a resolution Presenting a resolution is not a challenge if we ve done the first three steps properly As we present the resolution we want to state specifically what we are going to do for the customer We may also offer alternatives Note As we discussed in Step 1 Strategize it is critical to understand your parameters what you CAN do for the customer and what you CAN T do

Step 5 Checkback The checkback is our opportunity to make sure that the customer is satisfied and feels good about the resolution Examples of checkbacks include How does that sound What do you think about x Are you with me Does that make sense Will that meet your needs Would that be satisfactory

Applying the Five Step Process The following example illustrates a customer focused approach using the FiveStep Process Step 1 Strategize Our strategy is to retain the customer whenever possible We want to provide the customer with a positive experience while balancing both the

business and customer needs We don t want to simply accept return merchandise since we know we will lose the customer A customer calls to complain about the quality of the product he received Acknowledge I apologize that the product was not of the quality that you expected I understand your frustration I can help Clarify In order for us to improve on the quality and for me to better serve you may I ask what specific areas were of poor quality Present Resolution We would be happy to exchange the product for a similar product of higher quality Checkback Would that be satisfactory Depending on the customer s responses we may actually have to go through the Five Step Process many times during one customer interaction The Five Step Process will help you to avoid becoming argumentative by lessening the conflict and opening dialogue with the customer It will assist you in providing a more positive customer experience

This information comes from Handling Challenging Situations a module in Entelechy s High Performance Customer Service program Contact us at www unlockit com Terence R Traut is the president of Entelechy Inc a company that helps organizations unlock the potential of their people through customized training programs in the areas of sales management customer service and training Terence can be reached at 603 424 1237 or ttraut unlockit com