Difficult customer? Challenges and solutions

Most often, a difficult customer is a person who is aggressive, vulgar and makes it impossible to solve a problem, with which he came us to. The customer becomes difficult when his situation is complicated and almost impossible to be handled here and now. In many cases, it turns out that the given situation was so difficult for the customer, that he relieved his emotions on you, even if he didn’t want to. Why? Because you were the immediate person who had anything to do with his difficult situation, e.g. the lack of goods in the stock that the customer wanted to buy, the wrong colour of the goods, which he had previously accepted or the wrong size of the purchased item. He could have also been upset by the bad after-sales service, inaccurate information from the hotline or bad mood combined with foul weather. Either way – it impacted you – and now you have to deal with it.

Assertive attitude

On the one hand, we often say that “the customer comes first”, but on the other – you have to keep a bit of common sense and to not let yourself be offended. Should the buyer’s behaviour differ from the generally accepted norms, be assertive. Polite and courteous, but assertive, a person who has and expresses own opinion, emotions and attitudes within the boundaries that do not violate the rights and the mental territory of others, as well as your own. All this should be done without aggressive behaviour. In other words, assertiveness means respecting one’s own desires, needs, values and the search for the right forms of expressing them in the daily life, it is a willingness to stand in your own defence, being who you are openly and treating yourself with respect in all relationships with people.

7 rules in the approach to a “difficult” customer

Rule 1: Change the attitude

Instead of saying “a difficult customer” – use the terms “an anxious customer”, “an inquiring customer”, “an indecisive customer”. This will make it easier for you to talk to all other types of customers that you would not classify as difficult. It is best to throw this term out of your vocabulary. If the “difficult customer” concept will not function in your attitude, then it turns out that such customers do not come to you at all. You will be able to focus on solving his problem instead of stressing that the customer is difficult. Try to understand him, and only then try to get the customer to understand you and the situation that has arisen.