Demanding, especially unreasonably demanding, customers can frustrate customers service staff who aren’t trained to deal with it. What can we do to make these situations less stressful?
Anyone who has been in customer service can attest to the fact that some customers can be especially demanding. Sometimes, their demanding nature is justifiable—customers have certain expectations when purchasing a product or service, and when those expectations aren’t met, they are understandably upset. On the flip side, sometimes demanding customers are simply being unreasonable. They may be venting frustration about something else by being demanding toward a vendor.
In a B2B context, where a customer service representative often has an ongoing relationship with the same customer, a demanding customer can have a number of issues open with his or her vendor at once. This can be overwhelming for the rep; however, coming up with a prioritization process can help reduce stress while managing customer expectations.
Set Expectations
The Ritz Carlton hotel chain knows a thing or two about customer service. As one of the premiere luxury hotel chains in the world, it understands the importance of setting realistic customer expectations. Setting those expectations has a lot to do with understanding a customer’s expected time frame for service.
“Organizations often make promises related to time,” the Ritz Carlton says in a blog post. “‘Someone will be with you in a moment,’ ‘You’ll have the shipment by Thursday,’ or the ever-so-vague ‘This won’t take long at all.’ When time is part of the expectation, you’re in greater danger of losing trust if you get it wrong.”
When working with limited resources, it’s important to set realistic expectations in terms of priorities—especially when you have a number of expected deliverables for a client or customer. There may be a handful of medium-priority items outstanding but one or two critical items. Let customers know that, while you haven’t forgotten about the medium-priority deliverables, the immediate priorities are first on the list.
Stick to the Priorities
Prioritization only becomes a best practice if you actually stick to your priorities! One best practice here is creating priorities with customers involved. That both sends the message that you’re serious about meeting customer needs and, psychologically, boosts the odds that you’ll actually do so because of your mutual commitment to a specific deliverable on a specific date.
Escalate if Necessary
Let’s face it: Even with a clear prioritization, your customer’s perception may well be that certain items are not being addressed quickly enough. Your customer-facing staff should know the appropriate escalation process if, or when, additional support or resources need to be brought in to bring down the queue.
It’s not uncommon for some customers to throw multiple issues at their vendors at once. An untrained customer service representative could become overwhelmed with so many balls in the air at the same time. But, by working with the customer to prioritize the outstanding items and tackling them one by one, both customer and vendor can work toward a more organized and productive relationship.