Facing challenging customers

In context of customer service, challenging customers are often dissatisfied; dissatisfied customers are often difficult; and difficult customers are often illogical and angry. The top reason why customers get upset and perhaps appear difficult is the feeling that no one is listening to them. Customer interface is about a customer service provider having face-to-face interactions or phone conversations with the customer to try to understand his/her needs, concerns, problems or issues. Customers want to be listened to, and in moments of dissatisfaction when their needs are not met, they do not want to listen to anybody.

Research shows that customers can become boiling mad when service providers are rude to them. No one in the right frame of mind can stand someone who is rude to his/her face; especially not customers who are paying for service from these providers.

Communications comes in the form of verbal expression and, in what constitutes a surprising majority of communication, the non-verbal. 55% of our language comes from our non-verbal expressions. Customer service providers often come across as being rude to customers without saying anything: this is usually expressed through the providers' non-verbal behaviour, such as facial expressions, intonation, withdrawal, body language and all other types of signals or gestures that they use to represent their involuntary feelings. Customers are sensitive to every gesture and every word said by a service provider. Hence, any rudeness that is put across to the customer will be received and will immediately be reciprocated.

Another contributing key factor that makes customers challenging is when service providers do not deliver on their promises - a consistent winner amongst the list of most common customer complaints. The most challenging customers manifest certain behaviours, either verbally or non-verbally, in the way they express themselves or engage with service providers. Many times, however, the service providers perceive customers as challenging when the facts show otherwise.

When customer get angry, they become illogical. One key point to note is the illogical customers do not respond to logic; illogical customers respond to emotion. Therefore, the key is to resolve the customers' emotional issues before resolving his/her problem through logical explanations. When customers know that their complaint has been received and acknowledged by service providers, they calm down due to positive feelings of being understood. Hence, it is important for service providers to listen and be sensitive to resolve the customers' emotions before resolving the problem. When a service provider is able to manage his/her verbal and non-verbal when faced with a difficult customer, he/she will be on the way to managing the customer better.

Challenging customers calm down when their complaints have been received and acknowledged by service providers.