Dealing with difficult people

Dealing with easygoing people is easy but dealing with difficult people is difficult.

We have read that it is unofficial policy at large call centres to simply hang up on a difficult customer.

Why?

It must be very hard to try and explain to someone how to make their appliance work when you can’t see them or the appliance. It would be virtually impossible if they are screaming down the phone at you.

And so that’s it – just hang up and hope when they ring back, they don’t get through to you.

However, the truth is more subtle than that – so subtle that it is almost a secret.

Very few people seem to know, understand or accept this secret.

And it’s this

“Staff will treat customers no better than they are treated themselves”

Why should they? What part of a person is built to believe

“That’s OK, I get treated like a servant, but I must be nice to the customer, after all, they pay my wages”

The truth is something like a stepping stone effect.

However well you treat staff, raises the level of customer service because staff feel increased pride in the job and pass this on almost subconsciously.

If you subscribe to our weekly update, we touch on this in point 1 of our report “The 5 mistakes most employers make”

If you haven’t subscribed, you can do so here.

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