When Customers Make Their Own Bad Customer Experience
If you're reading this blog, then the likelihood is quite high that your goal, and your company's goal, is to deliver a consistently outstanding customer experience. A heady goal considering that delivering even a consistently positive customer experience is challenging enough--frontline employees are often a wildcard due to varying levels of training, often misaligned compensation, or simply having a bad day; shipping or inventory issues may arise that make promised deliveries evaporate like morning mist; products may have an unexpected glitch (or a winning season that ends in the basement). The list goes on.
One often overlooked area of customer experience delivery is the customers themselves: Rude customers who expect to be treated politely; low-value customers who demand high-value service levels; customers who insist on low-cost parts, but want high-quality finished goods; customers who ask for advice but don't listen (or read instructions, for that matter), who then blame your service department or the product itself for issues they're having properly using your products. This list goes on, too.
The fact is that sometimes, no matter how much time, resources, investment, and focus you put into creating and operationalizing an ideal customer experience, factors beyond your control--in this case, customers--will impede your ability to achieve that goal. This includes customers' attitude and demeanor, their expectations, their previous experience with your organization and perhaps your competitors, and the like.
What I'd like to know is this: What was your most challenging customer experience issue brought on by a customer (or set of customers)? And, most important, how did you deal with it or turn it around? The best story will appear in the next issue of 1to1 Magazine.
Related Entries
- Guest Blogger Joseph Jaffe: It's Better to Be S.A.F.E. Than Sorry
- Guest Blogger Ralph Heath: What Has Happened to Customer Service in America?
- Preventing a Customer Experience from Going Downhill
Anh,
That is an interesting approach.
Some contact center managers I've spoken with train their teams to just listen while the customer vents, then, once the customer is finished, calmly move forward with the conversation--in an empathetic way that shows that the agent was indeed listening.
Sometimes I find the rude customers are just looking for a place to vent, and I just happened to be that place. One strategy I use is I tell them to call me back once they have cooled down, and ready to discuss things calmly. It's risky, but talking to an agitated customer will eventually get yourself agitated. Once the anger has subsided, the interaction is better for both parties.
My pick is a price/customer experience issue. A higher price assumes an excellent customer experience, but it's actually where the real battle is going on. You may have a great product experience coming at a moderate price and easily get frustrated with a luxury product. Once the bar is high, matching customer expectations may be a real challenge.
Thanks, Everyone, for your comments. It seems that the best approach to take with challenging customers is honesty and empathy, with a firm stance on the realities of what an organization can deliver.
I worked 5 years for a laboratory diagnostics company, 2 of them in customer support and the last 3 in the department that did the paperwork for those issues that the front line could not resolve.
Lab diagnostics includes both lab instrumentation and the reagents and refillables for them. Each diagnostic test came with its own information booklet that outlined exactly what that lab test was to be used for. Any other use was considered off-label and not supported by the company. In addition to that was information stating that a diagnosis should not be made on the strength of a single lab test; all other factors were to be considered as well.
In many cases, we would receive complaints about one test or the other and, in the course of troubleshooting, would find out the test was being used off label. We had to tell the customers that, while we would help make sure the control results were within range we could not support such a use of the test. Most accepted that.
Unfortunately there were those who could not understand the regulatory pressure were were under and that we could not support a use of a test that had not been accepted by the FDA and the liability for the choice to use the test off label was on them. The best we could do was to repeat that we could not support a use that was not listed in the informational pamphlet and to record the call, including how the test was being used and what our response had been.
Another time, a doctor used a single pregnancy test result as diagnostic. Many other tests had been run and, presumably a patient history taken. A medical mishap occurred due to the reliance on this single test. Not only did the patient sue the doctor, she also tried to sue the maker of the test. Again, the best we could do was record what had happened and our response. In this case, lawyers had to handle the rest.
Sometimes all you can do is to be calm yet firm and refer the customer to any documentation that limits the use of the product or service. In the cases above the company likely shipped free reagent and/or parts to the customer for troubleshooting and to make up for lost tests. In extreme cases, when an instrument became irreparable due to customer abuse, the company replaced the instrument, calibrated it and ran all required testing before patient samples were run.
In both these cases, the issues were caused by a customer who wanted to do anything they liked with our product without accepting the liability that comes with that decision.
Unfortunately, I have an unusually vast amount of experience dealing with unruly customers as I recently took part in a bank conversion. My role in the 'debacle' was customer service in one of the stores. Talk about customers making their own bad experience; retail customers can be unabashedly rude on their own, but when the topic of contention is their personal funds - whoa.
Not to mention the bank was making life miserable for its customers with countless errors and inconveniences and even more miserable for its branch employees who had near minimal instruction on how to resolve these issues. Pair that with a skeleton back office crew, which made the wait time on resolving customer complaints completely unacceptable.
Long story short, I was a walking, talking target during the conversion and for some time afterwords. That said, even after being called strange and 'inappropriate' names, screamed at, and threatened with lawsuits,I found the best strategy to be one of concern and agreement with customer frustration.
I found the most success by explaining to customers that I completely understood their frustration, would be equally if not more frustrated if it happened to me, and by the way I was in the same boat they were in. Bank employees naturally have accounts at the bank, which customers often don't consider. This strategy seemed to diffuse some of their anger, and showing them my willingness to do everything in my power to resolve their issue in a timely manner was the winning number.
Of course, not all customers can be won over, but for the most part being up front and brutally honest was for me the best way to retain customer accounts.
Here's a related challenge for you...what about customers who negatively impact the experience of OTHER customers. Part of what sets the experience of attending the live performing arts apart from the experience of listening or watching in the comfort of your own home is the electricity of the crowd. So how do you deal with customers who complain about the behavior of their fellow attendees? Some complaints, while still challenging, fall within the purview of our usher staff -- making sure that food does not come into the theater or that the guy next to you is not taking flash photos or talking on his cell phone. Others do not. For one attendee the performance experience is sacred -- no inappropriate clapping during the concerto, please. For others that spontaneous expression of appreciation is part of why they are there (and many classical artists, Yo Yo Ma among them, have told us that they love it). Some patrons can't imagine Latin jazz without dancing -- in their seats or in the aisles. Others come to the theater rather than a nightclub precisely because they want the music withOUT the movement. In these instances all you can usually do is listen and perhaps explain that those differences are part of what we, as an institution that thrives on diversity, promote. But the reality is that there will be people who defect because they don't like who is sitting next to them. And therein lies the rub.