Noah Fleming - Dealing with Difficult Customers: How to Turn Demanding, Dissatisfied, and Disagreeable Clients Into Your Best Customers

DEALING WITH DIFFICULT CUSTOMERS

How to Turn Demanding, Dissatisfied, and Disagreeable Clients Into Your Best Customers

NOAH FLEMING and SHAWN VELTMAN

Copyright 2018 by Noah Fleming and Shawn Veltman

All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher, The Career Press.

DEALING WITH DIFFICULT CUSTOMERS
Edited by Roger Sheety
Typeset by Kara Kumpel
Cover design by Rob Johnson/toprotype
Cover illustration by Oakozhan/shutterstock
Printed in the U.S.A.

To order this title, please call toll-free 1-800-CAREER-1 (NJ and Canada: 201-848-0310) to order using VISA or MasterCard, or for further information on books from Career Press.

The Career Press, Inc.
12 Parish Drive
Wayne, NJ 07470
www.careerpress.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Fleming, Noah, author. | Veltman, Shawn, author.

Dealing with difficult customers : how to turn demanding, dissatisfied, and disagreeable clients into your best customers / Noah Fleming, Shawn Veltman.

Wayne : Career Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

LCCN 2017035957 (print) | LCCN 2017037756 (ebook) |

ISBN 9781632658890 (ebook) | ISBN 9781632651174 (paperback)

LCSH: Customer relations. | BISAC: BUSINESS & ECO-NOMICS Customer Relations.

LCC HF5415.5 (ebook) | LCC HF5415.5 .F583 2017 (print) | DDC 658.8/12--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017035957

I am a woman of the old school. I enjoy communication, human interaction, and I value great service. Whether it is in a restaurant, a retail store, a spa, a hotel or any service related industry for that matter, I always want to feel that someone took the time to appreciate my business and made a difference for me. The expectations I have might seem excessive to some, but after 35 years in fashion and retail, I am more convinced than ever that its the attention to detail and our ability to create great experiences that have allowed companies to thrive in todays environment.

Noah and Shawns book is an important reminder of all the little things that have impact. Its not about a deal or a freebie. Memorable experiences are the reasons a customer will continue to come back to you over and over. I realized there are so many opportunities for companies to succeed if they follow the human touch and get back to the basics. Too many companies focus on big changes, but in my view the most impactful improvements are created by doing just the opposite. Noah and Shawn stress the importance of creating simple but consistent steps to create a memorable customer experience. If you can get that right, youll spend a lot less time dealing with difficult customers. Instead, theyll be thrilledand luckyto be doing business with you.

What makes a certain airline, hotel, restaurant, or a retail store stand out from the rest? Its the friendly greeting from a flight attendant. Its a water bottle as you wait in a line. Its a concierge who takes the time to make a recommendation based on your interests rather than his own; a waiter who is excited about the food they are about to serve you, or a personal follow-up call or thank you note from a sales associate after a purchase. All these little things make a difference. This is exactly the approach that they describe in the book, giving fantastic guidelines and hard-won insights to ensure that these changes will take hold in any company.

Noah and Shawn tell us to slow down selling and get to know the customertake small measures and make decisions to do things consistently. That is how youll see significant results. That is where real growth comes from. It seems so obvious, yet today we are moving so fast that we leave out the gestures that can make a difference.

Ive seen these principles at work during my career, and I know that they are more important than ever today. This book is filled with tactics and strategies to help you realize these goals, and to create truly memorable experiences for your customers.

Word of mouth and testimonials are even more important today than ever before. In a global marketplace, its almost impossible to compete on price, or on information, or on inventory. Instead, you need to find a way to compete on experience, on creating connections. You need to demonstrate to anybody who walks in that you have their best interest at heart, and that youll do everything you can to truly understand what they want, what they need, and how they can get it in the easiest, most enjoyable way possible. The shift into digital, e-commerce, and social media make the pages that follow incredibly relevant as everyone understands how these areas have disrupted everything. Can we rethink the role of the retail store or other disrupted industries? Of course we can.

If you want to lie down and fall as a victim of change, then stay right where you are and stop reading right now. Or, if you want to thrive for many years to come, keep reading. These guys will show you the light.

Debra Margles
President of Michael Kors Canada and lover of great experiences

They should not allow topless sunbathing on the beach. It was very distracting for my husband who just wanted to relax.

We went on holiday to Spain and had a problem with the taxi drivers, as they were all Spanish.

We booked an excursion to a water park, but no one told us we had to bring our own swimsuits and towels. We assumed it would be included in the price.

We found the sand was not like the sand in the brochure. Your brochure shows the sand as white, but it was more yellow.

No one told us there would be fish in the water. The children were scared.

Although the brochure said there was a fully equipped kitchen, there was no egg-slicer in the drawers.

I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local convenience store does not sell proper biscuits, like custard creams or ginger nuts.

I compared the size of our one-bedroom suite to our friends three-bedroom and ours was significantly smaller.

I was bitten by a mosquito. The brochure did not mention mosquitoes.

My fiance and I requested twin beds when we booked, but instead we were placed in a room with a king bed. We now hold you responsible and want to be re-reimbursed for the fact that I became pregnant. This would not have happened if you had put us in the room that we booked.

As crazy as those previous 10 comments sound, theyre all 100 percent real. This creates an interesting dynamic.

Now, this is not to imply that all customers are difficult, demanding, or irrational. In fact, we consistently find that the stories about the craziest customers are often passed down through time, exaggerated for effect, and overestimated as the reason for difficult interactions between customers and your company representatives.