Let’s face reality, not all customers can be pleasant to deal with nor are they all reasonable. I have put together a small list of tips to help you deal with stress management induced from the day-to-day interactions and situations that you are bound to encounter.
• Don’t take the criticism and sometimes verbal abuse personally. If someone has a problem with the product or service, don’t make it your own personal problem. If a customer is upset and angry at you and becomes verbally abusive, try and remember that the persons emotions are directly related to the product or service that you represent, "NOT WITH YOU"! When the upset person has left your facility, pull yourself up by your boot strings and remember that the issue wasn’t about you.
• Engage the difficult customer in small talk while working on the problem with the customer. Keeping the customer engaged about the weather, sports or their family eases the pressure and helps open the customer up to a workable solution. Get out of the habit of making the problem the only focus of the conversation, engaging the customer in friendly banter goes a long way in solving perceived issues.
• The next time a customer is on your last nerve and you feel yourself getting angry, redirect your angry thoughts into thoughts of empathy for the opposing person. Learn to tell yourself, “I can see this persons point of view”, instead of, “Man this person is really getting on my nerves”. Attitude is a choice! We choose whether we are angry, happy or empathetic. Make a conscious choice of empathy and watch your customer resolved issue rate climb and your bottom line GP grow.
• Knowing your options helps. Stress is caused by the feeling that you have lost control of a situation. To negate the feelings of stress know what your limitations are, for example – can you give the customer a discount, can you offer a detail or can you offer solutions to bring the issue to fruition. Once you know your options or limitations, you can gain control and counter the stress induced situations.
• If and when you have the angry irate customer in your office or on the phone, ask them straight out, “what is the issue and how can I help you with this”? Customers like a proactive approach to solving their issues. When you are unable to get the perceived issues out in the open it poses a problem to finding a solution. Be proactive with uncovering the issues and you will have better results in solving them.
• Networking with other department managers and your peers builds a support network that increases the control over how situations are handled and resolved. Having a great backstop by use of your team uncovers resources available to you to help solve issues that frequent day-to-day.
• When dealing with customers or employees always remember to use nonthreatening questions. Ask the person for help in understanding the issue. Asking non threatening questions provides you the technique to uncover the issues and as well reduces the amount of stress for both parties during the process. This also allows you to gain control of the conversation and the situation which greatly reduces your own stress level, this technique allows you to make an informed rational decision for the outcome.
• Use positive comments and compliment the customer on their choice of vehicle or how well they keep the vehicle. Remember to always use the customer’s name during the conversation, people like to hear their own name as well as they like to be complimented.
Using these techniques in your day-to-day dialogue will help foster a stress free environment. Once you start practicing these techniques and using them to deal with customers and employees, your employees will start to emulate your tactics to avoid the stressful situations. This is a win-win situation for everyone.
David
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