Recent work events have made me question this adage.
How do you all handle your ‘customers’? How much verbal beating do you take before you put your foot down?
Personally, when my company is insulted without reason (happened this week) or I am directly insulted (happened today) I tend to stop back pedaling and ‘check’ their statements to maintain credibility. I imagine this may not be well received by some.
What say you? From a business standpoint, how much are you pushed before you push back?
I keep track of every conversation I have with clients or subcontractors. Each phone call I write down notes, each email i categorize whether its approvals, budgets, project notes, etc. I do my best to get everything that could come back to bite me in writing.
If a client is irate because he made an approval on something and thinks it should be different, the signed contract comes out. If it’s a screw up on our end, we calmly diffuse the situation and make it right.
Mind if I ask what line of work you’re in?
That’s a great idea and something I need to make sure I keep doing and get better at. It’s hard for them to argue with an email trail…
No problem, right now I run a medical sales division in the packaging industry. I also handle major national accounts for our food side (Panera, Sam’s, Starbucks, etc). Great work but I’ve been knocking at the LE door for a while. To no avail but still trying!
Here’s how Herb Kelleher, the founder/former CEO of Southwest Airlines, thought of the “customer is always right” adage:
(from the book Nuts!)
A woman who frequently flew on Southwest, was constantly disappointed with every aspect of the company’s operation. In fact, she became known as the “Pen Pal” because after every flight she wrote in with a complaint.
She didn’t like the fact that the company didn’t assign seats; she didn’t like the absence of a first-class section; she didn’t like not having a meal in flight; she didn’t like Southwest’s boarding procedure; she didn’t like the flight attendants’ sporty uniforms and the casual atmosphere.
Her last letter, reciting a litany of complaints, momentarily stumped Southwest’s customer relations people. They bumped it up to Herb’s desk, with a note: ‘This one’s yours.’
In sixty seconds, Kelleher wrote back and said, ‘Dear Mrs. Crabapple, We will miss you. Love, Herb.’”
What I have found out is that verbal approval and confirmation does not mean a thing today. No longer are people “men of their word.” Get EVERYTHING in writing.
A buddy of mine has done and continues to do customer service, he has been a business owner for the better part of 20 years.
He initially started with this concept, trying to please everyone. Then, slowly, he realized that while initially feelings could be hurt and you could lose business “there are plenty of fish in the sea,” and unless your business is dependent on specific contracts from a specific company you do not really have to really worry about pleasing everyone.
Put everything of any importance in an email. Lots of my emails are a confirmations of meetings or phone calls that just transpired.
To accurately answer the question, you have to narrowly define what a customer is…
As far as I’m concerned, in a retail environment, the second a customer swerves out of their lane they are no longer a customer, they’re a problem. The only question is how many problems do you want to deal with each day. That being said, there is no such thing as a potential customer, only potential problems. :big_boss:
Munch, I think I’m tracking. I learned from my father who successfully ran a business for over 40 years until his demise this simple fact: you can try to kill them with kindness, but some people you can’t please. Or kill.
I just smile and nod my head. And repeat over and over"well, you can have another product or your money back. We want satisfied customers" when I know damn good and well I can satisfy everyone. They go away soon, especially when you are busy.
But that is face to face, with you it might be more phone or email,etc…
Haha I like your dad’s saying. I respect everyone from the get go, assuming they’re decent people. From there my reactions are based on their actions. I can handle a certain amount of verbal beatings but I’ve drawn the line a couple times recently. I believe I was justified in doing so. Recent example and the reason I was questioning my approach:
-9/1/13: Prospective customer asks for quote on ‘stock item’. Quote given ($) with current floor stock numbers of 110 widgets. Cannot get any opportunity detail from them, don’t know what QTY to expect.
-Mid Sept: Follow-up.
-9/27/13: Order finally received for 100 widgets. Current floor stock is 85 widgets. Acknowledgement given with immediate shipment of 85, with 15 to be rushed out in two weeks. Customer is irate and cannot ‘count on us if we can’t manage our inventory’. They ‘cannot continue to do business with us if we will continue to be inept with stock levels’.
It was at that point I stopped apologizing, offering solutions and said listen…we had no PO, min/max, etc. to hold floor stock for you. We had no order history with you, Thus, we will continue to have this item at our current inventory levels until we can establish a baseline, order exception, etc.
It sounds like I’m on track then. I’ve been doing it right as far as my superiors are concerned but I just wanted to get a take on how the rest of you handle the crap customers can dish out.
A business has every right to fire a customer. At some point, the cost of doing business with them is not worth the aggravation. Like the Southwest story, continuing to do business with them when they are complaining can cause more harm than just telling them to go pound sound. You have to have a limit and take precautions to allow employees to say enough is enough.
A lot of people have the attitude that since they are the customer they can treat employees of a business however they want. Like they can walk into any store and act however they want towards other people. A good business will do their best to not allow employees to take unnecessary crap.
In this particular instance, could you have asked how many widgets they would like and advised them that if they waited you could not guarantee inventory would be available at a later date?
I think to a certain extent, the big box stores (Lowes, Walmart, etc) have ruined the customer. For example, you can buy something, use it and then return it for a full refund or store credit. I get people that will use a gun, part, etc and then want to return it for a full refund. :rolleyes:
If we caused a problem we fix it. If you (the customer) are rude or obnoxious in any way, we stand our ground and call you on it. In my experience, most rude people have NEVER BEEN called out and about 75% of them end up apologizing to us.
If you REALLY piss me off like we will blacklist you and call all our dealer friends to put you on their “do not sell to” list. 
C4
Exactly…
The nexus of this situation is twofold. People who believe they are entitled to act this way and credit cards.
Ya, CC companies allow people to be AHOLES to merchants (and get away with it).
C4
If the customer is always right, plan on being taken advantage of.
The customer is right when they are right and wrong when they are wrong.
the customer may not always be right, but they are always the customer (the one who has the money)…
There is a reason why companies are constantly looking for salespeople. Dealing with the average devil-may-care moron member of the public is a stressful endeavor. Add to that the fact that fewer and fewer people are taught any sort of courtesy or demeanor and you have a recipe for customer service becoming more and more of an adversarial relationship.
Glad I don’t have to deal with it anymore.
:haha: yeah right - never happens! That quetsion always goes unanswered or answered inaccurately. I asked the question a few times and was given no answer. I didn’t spell out that there would be no guarantee, but this is a purchasing veteran I was talking to. She knows it was a stock item quoted weeks before, so there would likely be movement on it while we waited on their PO.
One of the funniest places in Walmart is the ‘customer service’ desk. If you’ve ever waited in line to return anything there…you can hear some crazy stuff. And likely a verbal confrontation or two.
True. Is there a shortage of customers though? What’s the opportunity cost of spending resourced on a PITA?
I do my best to switch the situation from name calling and complaining to what is the problem and how can I best fix it. I’ve had some very upset people quickly change their tune simply because they finally came across somebody actually interested in helping them with their issue.
If they are more interested in verbal abuse then having their problem addressed and fixed then I’m done.