Handling Customer

Fielding customer complaints is tough business: for starters, there's not always a clear-cut solution to the problem. Then there are the customers who seem to be spoiling for a fight....

When a customer calls with a problem, it indicates that the customer is sufficiently motivated to engage your company. Sure, your company could recite its standing policy back at them, or attempt some other defensive measure. But all you’ll wind up doing is alienating a customer and eliminating any possible of repeat business.

So try this approach: 'We try to deliver a quality product, but we know we aren’t perfect. Tell me about the problem.'

This approach SEEMS commonsensical but it's amazing how many companies don't set this sort of policy in stone. You’ll be surprised how a little courtesy and diplomacy can diffuse a tense confrontation. At the very least, you won't be picking fights with the very people who make your business possible--the customers!

Best Quotes for the Day!!

"Remember where you have been and know where you are going. Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way."
Nikita Koloff

"Life is like a parachute jump: you have to get it right the first time."
Margaret Mead

"One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others."
Archibald Rutledge

Best Quotes of the Day!

"Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect."

--Margaret Mitchell

"There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what 

you want; and after that, to enjoy it.  Only the wisest of 

mankind achieve the second"

--Logan Pearsall Smith

"Faith is the only known cure for fear."

--Lena K. Sadler

Best Quotes of the Day!

"Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect."

--Margaret Mitchell

"There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what 

you want; and after that, to enjoy it.  Only the wisest of 

mankind achieve the second"

--Logan Pearsall Smith

"Faith is the only known cure for fear."

--Lena K. Sadler

Motivation for the Day: "Make the other person happy doing the thing you suggest." - Dale Carnegie

Nobody enjoys doing chores, but almost everyone will perform a task if its to their benefit.

The trick, then, is to present an assignment to a subordinate in such a way that it appears to be in his or her interest to tackle it.

For example, don’t tell your assistant, 'The stock room looks like a pig sty. Straighten it up before you leave tonight.'

Instead try this approach. 'I told the boss how efficiently you re-organized the stock room. She wants to stop by tomorrow to see it. Could you make sure that the room is still in good order?' Manipulative? Not if there is a clear reward to the responsible employee who views an onerous task as an opportunity. Just be sure that this worker's efforts ARE noticed by the powers that be....