Difficult customers or guests are made, not born. Somewhere, somehow, something went wrong in this person’s recent history, and now they stand before you, the service provider, seeking a way to put things right again. How you manage this touchy exchange may well determine the future loyalties of the irate customer and all those who travel in his or her tow.
The stakes are high, and so is the tension in this charged atmosphere. Perhaps the customer has already lost control of his or her emotions, making this moment the least enviable part of your day. But if you manage the moment correctly, you may not only solve the problem but actually enhance this customer’s loyalty to your operation.
The Back Story. In Hollywood script parlance, the back story is the history behind the plot that the viewer doesn’t see. Behind nearly every irate customer is a back story that they may or may not share with you as they dump their bucket of complaints. But this back story probably contributed to their ire. So empathize with the unhappy person in front of you.
This back story can include almost any woe. Most of your customers travel, sometimes a very long way, to reach your doorstep, and travel is often a wretched experience that can exacerbate the slightest wound. There may also have been an argument at home, a setback in business, an accident en route; when things go wrong, they tend to go wrong in streaks. So the purple-faced customer in front of you may be in a heightened state of agitation that is independent of their beef with you. Your sensitivity to the irate customer’s back story doesn’t directly help you to solve the issue at hand, but it should increase your customer empathy and inform your willingness to guide them to a solution.
Listen and Learn. The first step in dealing with the difficult customer isn’t an action, it’s an attitude. You need to adopt a learning stance and soak up all you can about the circumstances that led this person to such an agitated state. Don’t get sucked into the emotional whirlpool that has already engulfed the customer; you have to remain calm in the face of the storm. Focus on the details of what has set this person off and try to disentangle the facts from the emotions.
Despite all appearances to the contrary, difficult customers aren’t really mad at you; they are upset by a sequence of circumstances that, in a calmer moment, they might realize you personally played no part in. Let them dump their bucket until it’s empty. Often, if customers are allowed to release their frustrations in a diatribe, they arrive at a slightly more tranquil state where it’s possible to offer solutions. But don’t offer solutions too early. Let the customer vent (as unpleasant as this may be) and try to pick out the central details that, if resolved, will turn this customer from volcanic to contented.
Backpedal. When someone seems to be assaulting you, the natural tendency is self-defense. He is telling you, in essence, that you’re wrong and you want to protest that you’re right. This is not the time or place to argue. This person wouldn’t be so upset if he wasn’t confident that he was right. Resist the urge to self-defend, and instead, backpedal. Acknowledge his anger and frustration and don’t offer reasons why he shouldn’t be so exercised. Let the volcano blow. If you let your emotions get the better of you and you respond in kind to the irritated customer, you’ll just throw gas on the fire. You may win the argument, but you will almost certainly lose the customer.
It’s entirely possible that the customer is dead wrong in his assertions, but you won’t get anywhere by pointing this out while he is still in high dudgeon. You have to let his out-of-control emotions run their course. Then, and only then, will it be possible to propose solutions and get his resort experience back on the right track.
Abandon the Blame. The goal of your interaction with the irate customer isn’t to assign blame to one party or another, it’s to create (or re-create) a happy customer. If there is a conflict between the customer and some aspect of the resort, try to understand its origins, but don’t worry about condemning whomever you or the customer believes is responsible. Above all, you have to avoid becoming yet another component of the crisis. All it takes is one careless, confrontational remark on your end and you’re part of the problem, too.
Separate the Problem from the Person. In an emotionally charged exchange, it’s easy to confuse the customer’s irritation with the situation with their feelings about you. But unless you just insulted him, chances are that the agitated customer isn’t trying to upset you, even though that’s the impact that you feel. His intent is to explain a problem he hopes you can solve. It’s up to you to separate impact (on you) from the customer’s intent (to arrive at a satisfactory result).
The skill that will help you to do this is called triangulation. The three sides of the triangle are you, the customer and the problem. After you have let the customer vent and have discovered the root causes of all this emotion, it’s time for you to separate the issue from the personalities involved. Talk about the “it,” the problem, and not about the “you,” or the person. Instead of saying things like, “You’ve got the situation all wrong; please let me explain,” say things like, “I’m so sorry about the problem you experienced; it’s something we need to work on. May I make a recommendation on how we can solve it?”
Of course, that presumes that you have thought of a solution to the problem while the customer has been raging at you. But it’s very likely that, once you have identified the source of the individual’s complaint, the solution will be relatively simple. The silver lining to this cloud is that satisfactorily and creatively solving a customer’s problem often increases their loyalty and connection to your resort.
The world is a vast and confusing place, and people adopt all kinds of attitudes and behaviors to help them get through it. As we say in Desperate Measures, a retail training program for selling technical products, “Customers are people and people are weird.” Some people work themselves into an emotional state over the slightest trivia, while others are able to look at most problems dispassionately. It takes training to recognize different customer types and learn how to defuse problems according to how these customer types process information. But there are some tactics that are successful with all difficult customers: listen to them carefully, separate the personal emotions from the factual issues, and propose solutions only when you’re sure you understand the problems and the customer has had a chance to vent. This way, you can defuse the bomb that is the distressed customer and keep your customer relationships from blowing up in your face.
Jackson Hogen is co-creator of Desperate Measures and Planet Hospitality, training programs. For more information, visit their website at itrainingsolutions.com or e-mail [email protected].
The Guest Editor’s Take
The collection of predictions for the future (page 49) has me thinking about “change culture,” and that raises interesting questions relative to Jackson Hogan’s great prescription for turning difficult customers into satisfied guests. We know we’ll have a more culturally diverse customer and employee base in the future. That means many more value systems, ethical standards, hot buttons, etc., than we manage today—with more opportunities for the misunderstandings and frustration that often make customers irate. How we build guest service teams and match them to customer groups will be critical to maintaining positive and long-lasting customer relationships.
For example, family values are particularly important for Hispanics. Servicing the non-skiers and riders and integrating their programs with the snow sliders in the group (escorting foot passengers to a mid-mountain barbeque, say) could decide which resort they visit, or whether they choose to visit us at all. Social aspects may be more important than the ski/ride aspects.
In-depth cross-cultural and guest service training for service “SWAT teams” is one short-term solution. These teams could work in advance of a group’s arrival and then on-site as needed. They could remind touchpoint departments of the guests’ expectations and how to best service them. These teams can also help develop new products and services as they identify the guests’ needs.
“Reverse fam” trips for key service employees and managers will also be valuable. We need to spend time in the world of our guests, attend their group meeting, see where they shop, what competes for their discretionary time and money—walk in their shoes and try to understand what matters to them.
Lastly, we must integrate this learning and the resulting service improvements throughout the vacation experience—from the airport shuttle to the local community.
—Lucy Kay
