What to do When the Customer Isn't Right: Customer Service Training 101

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What to do When the Customer Isn’t Right

Is the customer always right?

Of course not!

Still, our ability to handle difficult customers with finesse and grace is how we create great customer experiences.

Are You Creating

Advocates or Detractors?

Death by water cooler?People talk about us behind our backs. Will they speak well of us? Will they come to our defense when someone else speaks poorly of us?

Our caring behavior today helps determine what our customers feel about us and what they say about us tomorrow.

Dealing with a difficult customer starts long before the customer arrives.

Gricean Maxims

• Maxim of Quality• Maxim of Quantity• Maxim of Relation• Maxim of Manner

Created by Professor Paul Grice.

Gricean Maxims for Cooperative Conversations

Maxim of Quality• Do not say what you believe to be false.• Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.Maxim of Quantity• Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the exchange).• Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.Maxim of Relation• Be relevant.• With respect to this maxim, Grice writes, "Though the maxim itself is terse, its formulation conceals a number of problems

that exercise me a good deal: questions about what different kinds and focuses of relevance there may be, how these shift in the course of a talk exchange, how to allow for the fact that subjects of conversations are legitimately changed, and so on. I find the treatment of such questions exceedingly difficult, and I hope to revert to them in later work."

Maxim of Manner• Avoid obscurity of expression.• Avoid ambiguity.• Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity (verbosity).• Be orderly.

Dealing with Anger

What is the customer angry about?

What is the customer angry about?

Hint: It’s often below the surface and not obvious.

First Steps When Someone is Angry

• Listen with empathy• Apologize when necessary• Headline (Tell what you’re going to do.)

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Three Tips for Dealing with an Angry Person

1. Pause and keep calm2. Don’t try to reason while they’re angry3. Express empathy

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When You Get Angry

• Pause• Be assertive, but not aggressive• Breathe

How Responsive Are You?

• Respond quickly• Adopt a can-do attitude and willingness to

go the extra mile for the customer• Positive attitude

What customers Really Want

• Dependable and reliable service• Responsiveness• Competence• Empathy• Professionalism

The problem with “Not my problem”.

We’re all part of the same organization. A problem in one area or department is potentially a problem for the entire organization.

Find a way to help your brothers and sisters, even if it’s just helping them find the right person or department.

Avoid terms of non-endearment in the workplace.

• Dude• Bud• Honey• Sweetie• Buddy• Pal• Son• Young man• Young lady• Hoss• Bro

Sir or ma’am are usually appropriate.

Flow for Handling customer CallsHandout: Page 16

Flow for Handling customer CallsHandout: Page 16

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Always get a call-back number…just in case.

Flow for Handling customer CallsHandout: Page 16

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Sometimes it can help to explain the process

Flow for Handling customer CallsHandout: Page 16

Flow for Handling customer CallsHandout: Page 16

Flow for Handling customer CallsHandout: Page 16

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Order Matters!Problem solving is the next to last step.

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Be careful about the use of jargon

Be careful about the use of jargonDifferent people have different levels of technical understanding. When a customer or end user asks you about the problem, use your judgement as to the appropriate technical level of your answer. It’s usually safe to ask how technical they want you to get.Accurate, but Bad• “Our BIND DNS server was using Dynamic DNS with our ISC DHCP server. Some of the A records weren’t getting updated,

which caused name resolution to fail.”Simple and Good• “It was a DNS problem and it should be working now.”Accurate, but Bad• “The VPN was down because of a key length mismatch, then we had an issue due to AES on one end and 3DES on the

other, and you know what happens then!”Simple and Good• “It was a configuration problem. It’s fixed and should be working now.”Accurate, but Bad• “It’s a routing issue due to a misconfigured OSPF autonomous system number. None of the 10.100.200 slash 24 subnet

routes were being propagated.”Simple and Good• “It was a routing issue. Thanks for letting me know. Everything is working now.”

• In fact, it’s usually safe to say, “It was a configuration problem. It’s fixed and should be working now.”

• It’s not a matter of being coy. It’s a matter of respecting your customers or end users by realizing that most of them do not want a detailed technical answer. Certainly, there are exceptions. For more technically oriented customers or end users, a more technical explanation is appropriate. If you’re not sure, it’s usually okay to ask, “How technical do you want me to get?”

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Respect your customers’ time. Consider placing a soft limit on first calls, just in case the issue takes longer that you expect.

For Reflection and Discussion

• Have you ever gotten disconnected?• Did you ever receive support for the wrong

version?• Did a support person ever end a session

without confirming resolution?

To-Dos

• Set up a test lab with the software or hardware you support

• Study your processes and systems. Are there things that would irritate you if you were the customer?

• Make it habit to leave for your destination 15 minutes earlier than usual