Writing about difficult clients is complex. The fact that a customer is upset can be due to a number of reasons.
In my personal experience I consider that most of the time it is due to internal failures in companies.
For example, we can fail to lie to the client, by not sending the information that he asked us, by not complying with the opening and closing hours of our company, by the computer system that is constantly "dropped", in the area where we serve the customers etc. all this can bother them.
In the case of external situations we can list other types of reasons. For example, the client who has a difficult personality, or who has a very “inflated” ego, or people with personal problems that make their relationships with others not the most pleasant.
Regardless of the reasons for the anger or annoyance of a client, we must attend to them, in the best possible way.
To achieve the above I am going to recommend 3 basic steps for the person who attends clients and who requires obtaining the best results from the situation they are experiencing with them. Let's see them:
1.- Breath management:
It is natural that when in a conflict situation with a client, the company worker has an emotional reaction, which can block his ability to reason. If the worker manages to maintain an adequate level of control, he will be able to cope with the situation. To achieve this we must activate our breathing management. This is achieved by increasing the air flow in our body, breathing slower but more deeply. If the worker manages to do this, he will obtain the following benefits:
to. Capture more oxygen to be directed to the brain and thereby maintain proper functioning of the neural system. This will help you think better.
b. It will control blood pressure and therefore will avoid falling into cardiac acceleration processes. This will help you not have a lot of energy going through your body.
c. It will allow you to keep your muscles more relaxed and therefore decrease tension.
2.- Positive thoughts:
By achieving adequate breathing, this second recommendation will help you.
When the worker is in front of an irritated, upset or angry client, he should try to generate positive thoughts.
When in doubt about this second recommendation, I will explain what normally happens when a worker is being attacked by a difficult client.
Negative thoughts emerge in the worker, for example: "why are you yelling at me", "ah most unfortunate customer", "what do you think, piece of% & # /%?", "You'd better die…", "no I'm going to help you… "," now you're going to pay me… ".
If this happens it will be reflected on a physical level, that is, a negative thought will lead to a gestural response. The person changes his tone of voice, becomes tense, his eyes reflect his anger, tends to decrease his energy, etc.
In the case of this second recommendation, what I am affirming is that we must make a great effort to generate positive thoughts so that my physical reactions help me to serve that client.
For example, we can generate the following thoughts: "this client is important to the company", "it must be that something happened to him at home", "a few days ago he came in a very good mood", "surely we failed him in something", " I know I can help you "," I will wait for your anger to go down and I will give you the solution ", etc.
When we build positive thoughts we manage to project adequate energy. Besides, it keeps me in a rational state.
3.- Targeting
Targeting is a good working tool. It has to do with visualizing thoughts.
When a worker is with a difficult client, he must exercise the focus and foresee what can happen with his own actions.
For example, if a client is very irritated and I think about the consequences of yelling at him, I am focusing. So I can better control my impulses.
I can focus when I see myself hitting the client and the consequences that this can bring me. In this case I can control my impulse and look for the best alternatives.
I can also focus on seeing myself sitting in my chair listening to the client and waiting for him to conclude his arguments to indicate the procedure we are going to perform.
Targeting is a conscious action of analyzing the consequences that an act carried out by a person can have.
Targeting can also be done by imagining what the solution we are going to give the client is. In this case, I focus on seeing myself giving the client explanations of what he should do to solve his situation when he has already finished his "tantrum".
Conclusions
The best recipe for serving difficult clients is personal control. If the worker falls into the same channel as the client, he will not achieve anything, on the contrary, it can make it worse.
These three steps can help a difficult customer work better. The 3 can be applied at the same time or some of them, as the case may be.
Good luck in any case.
