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Are You In Business To Help Customers?
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Invite Self-Managed Staff
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The Customer is number one!
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Is the Customer Really Always Right? No!
How do you handle a customer who is clearly in the wrong?
People always tell you "the customer is always right" - but
that is not always true. However, the way you treat your right
or wrong customer is what will make a world of difference to
your business success or failure. Remember - it's always a
numbers game - and you have to deal with a lot of no's and
a lot of turkeys sometimes to get to the golden client.
Here are some very recent dealings my associate and I have
had to deal with, and how we handled it:
1. I got heavily chewed out because I didn't receive a fax
reply from someone to whom I faxed paperwork to TWICE.
She didn't check to see if her lawyer received my fax - only
asked me if I had received the reply. I told her I hadn't, and it
became "my fault" that her lawyer didn't reply to me. I faxed
the papers out again, and she again chewed me out for her
lawyer not replying. I was not given the lawyer's phone
number to follow up with, so I could never follow through to
see if the fax got through. It is the client's responsibility to
"push" her lawyer to act, however, and not mine. So she
said she will take her business to another company.
I let her know I did fax out the papers more than once, and I
had no phone number to follow up with - if she would provide
me with the phone number I would call, but ultimately it is her
responsibility to get her lawyer to act. I told her I would work
with her if she chose, but if she felt she needed to go
elsewhere, so be it. I would be here if she ever needed my
services. I suppose the client may be difficult to deal with,
so perhaps I am better off. But I didn't try to burn any bridges
in the matter. If she finds the same situation with the next
company, maybe she'll forgive me (or just get angry at one
more person). Whether she refers me to anyone else is not
a goal at this point - the goal is to appease her enough that
she won't try to tell people to stay away from my business -
to try to cool her anger.
2. I emailed a reply stating that I was sorry I took awhile (6
hours) to reply to an email. I told the person I had an
emergency with my daughter and had to go to the hospital.
I figured this person would perhaps understand that it was
serious. Guess what reply I got? The email said "WHAT??
I'll just find another source."
OK, now I was taken aback by that. I thought a family
emergency was a legitimate reason to excuse a less than
prompt reply. I guess I will have to just say I was "out of the
office." Or say nothing and just reply. Is 6 hours really that
late a response? I think not, to tell the truth. But, I did email
back and tell this person that I can work with im if he would
like, and will give him my full attention in the case. Again, I
am just hoping I won't get him telling others not to use my
service. (He obviously doesn't have kids or feel the same
way.)
3. I had a potential client who was very happy with my
attention and said he was going to use my services if I could
match the price of a competitor. I got the "go ahead" to do
this. The client got all the way to the signing process and
suddenly decided to go with another company - and didn't
have the courtesy to let me know. I know he got a "one up"
better offer at the last - the other company wanted his
business, so they scraped in order to make a better offer. It
could have worked to his advantage to tell me - we might
have been able to outdo that offer, as well.
That is life - the competition can be outright sneaky and can
cause havoc in your day. Just smile, send a message to the
client that you lost to let him know you will still give him or
his friends the same service he enjoyed prior to the deal not
working out, if he chooses to work with you again.
4. I gave an answer to a 2 part question and replied that the
first part cannot be done as stated (it could not be launched
on its own - one would have to launch a separate application
within the program to make it work), and I answered the
second part (which was an alternate choice that was better).
The person replied that I had a "poor" response because I
just obviously didn't know "how" to do the first part.
Obviously a "know-it-all" with an attitude. I just let that one
roll off my back, not even to try to tell him I know "how", but
it needs to launch in a different mode rather than directly. In
any case, this person was just being a turkey, and some
turkeys are not worth one's time to deal with.
5. We fixed a laptop and spent over 7 hours overall on it. It
was so screwed up that it ultimately needed to be formatted
and reloaded, but the owner had no driver disks or anything.
We had to search for the components and find drivers to load.
They needed to be done in a certain sequence, as found out
after the loading, so we reloaded again. We charged a mere
$225 for all the work - a low priced fix for what we did (we
figured that a good part of the time was loading and
downloading, so we were able to walk away from it on
occasion). This is much less than any other repair shop would
have charged for the troubleshooting and the formatting and
repair. The owner blasted my associate for charging "too
much" and called him names. Turned out he wanted the fix
for "free" even though he was quoted and updated at every
step.
We just printed the bill and wrote the procedures involved. We
gave the client his laptop and gave him 2 weeks to pay. We
figured he'd not refer us to anyone (would we want to be
referred as the repair team who does work for free?), but we
didn't care. We also decided not to back down on the amount
due because the customer was belly-aching so badly with no
real good reason - and it cost us our time to do the repair. We
also decided we would not take on any more repairs from him,
if that ever came up again. We also are placing new policies
prior to taking on jobs.
So, to sum things up - there are difficult people out there, and
some of them try to become your customers. There are people
simply having a bad day and they are lashing out without
cause. The best thing to do is not necessarily apologize and
tell them they are right - but mainly to try to appease them in
some way. Let them know you are still on their team, if they
want, and leave it at that. The next person they try to work
with will probably end up making them realize that you and
your company weren't so bad after all. They just haven't found
out that others don't give the same pricing or
service or care - yet. Offer the person a discount of their next
purchase from you. You might still come out ahead (and at
the least, not come out "behind").
Oh yes - thankfully the bulk of our customers are considerate
and appreciative. These other types are always the exception.
About the Author
Pauliina Roe has been running her business on the Internet for
over 6 years and has learned a lot of do's and don'ts. The main
business is helping people find funding resources, particularly
in sales of assets. See http://doubleii.com/funding.htm
On the side, she works with her associate in troubleshooting
and repairing computers - see
http://doubleii.com/troubleshootcomuter.htm
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