How to Work With an Upset Client

Train All Team Members Who Come Into Contact With Clients How to Work With an Upset Client

By Keith Lee

We’ve used this system to take care of upset clients in all my businesses since 1991.

I suggest you train your front line people to implement the LEAR Principle and the “Make-You-Happy Guarantee” (which I’ll explain later).  You don’t need to advertise this new guarantee when you start.  Simply implement it and see how it goes.  If it works, go with it.  If it doesn’t work, go back to what you have now.

Here is the LEAR Principle

L is for Listen

Listen and don’t interrupt.  There are a lot of reasons we don’t interrupt upset clients.  We don’t interrupt because, number one, it’s rude.  Another reason is that when we’re upset, you and I and everyone else do the exact same thing: We practice what we’re going to say.  And we practice what we’re going to say from the beginning.  So if you interrupt, you’re probably just going to have to listen to the whole thing all over again from the beginning.  Then of course we listen to the client because we respect the client and know that they are, in fact, the boss.  They pay all of our bills.  They give us every raise we’ll ever get.  They pay for our kids’ education and for everything we own.

E is for Emphasize

Empathize means to put ourselves in their shoes.  Say something like, “Wow.  I understand why you’re upset.  I’d be upset, too” or, “I’m sure glad you told me that so we can do something about it.”  Or simply, “Thanks for telling me.”

A is for Ask

Ask, “What can I do to make you happy?”  Now, most of the time you don’t actually have to ask.  Often times it is obvious.  But, sometimes you will want to ask.  The main thing though, is the idea and your attitude of “What can I do to Make You Happy?”  It’s your job to make the client happy.

R is for Resolve

You will want to give your team members guidelines as to what they can and can’t do right then and there to make the client happy.  If what the client wants is reasonable, and it is within the guidelines you give, your team member needs to make the client happy.  Train them to take care of the client right then and there.

I know if is easy for me to say without an angry person in front of me to implement this LEAR Principle.  It’s a lot more difficult to implement calmly and rationally when someone is possibly screaming at you or showing a huge amount of disfavor towards you.  You need to train your team members to understand that the client is upset at the situation and not with them.  Teammates need to be trained to not take it personally.  They need to understand that the client is upset with the situation and not them personally.  Train your team members to take a deep breath, and tell themselves, “This is not me. It’s the situation.”  Train them to talk to themselves and make sure that they are the person who stays calm and collected.  Train them that there is never an excuse ot get angry or short.

If the client is terribly abusive with swearing or something like that, your team member needs to be trained to say, “Sir, if you could watch your language I’m sure I can help you,” or, “Ma’am, if you want to watch your language I’m sure I can help you.”

Now, what if what the client asks for is above your guidelines or is completely unreasonable?  In this case you simply say to the client something like, “I’m going to have to get a manager to see if we can do that.”  Or, “Let me see if my manager can take care of that for you.”  Or, “You know, we don’t have a manager here at the moment who can approve that right now, but can I get your phone number and I can have them get back to you tomorrow morning or whenever is most conventient for you?”

In order to use the LEAR Principle effectively I suggest you empower your front line people with your “Make-You-Happy Guarantee.”  I believe “Make-You-Happy” is the best and least costly guarantee for your business.

Here’s our Make-You-Happy Guarantee:  “When a client has a problem, American Retail Supply team members are trained to ask, ‘What can I do to make you happy?’  In 43 years we have never refused a client’s request to make it right.”

Does this mean we’ll do anything?  Just about.  We’ve never refused a client’s request to make it right yet.  But my guess is that someday someone will ask for something so outrageous that we don’t do it.  Then I won’t be able to say, “In 43 years we’ve never refused a client’s request to make it right.”

I’ve given my seminar, “How to Compete with the Mass Merchandisers” to many different organizations.  Each time I ask retailers if any have a guarantee similar to ours.  In every seminar a few people raise their hands.  Then I ask them how the guarantee works.  Every person, every time answers, “Great!”

Then I ask each of these retailers with the What Can I Do To Make You Happy Guarantee, “How often do people ask for more than what you would be willing to give them?”  The answer is “Almost never,” or “Never!”

If people never, or almost never ask for more than you would be willing to give them, why ask them to jump through hoops, or talk to a manager to give them what they want?

This guarantee will most likely cost you less than a guarantee in which you make an offer to the client.  More often than not the client will ask for much less than you would have offered.  This savings will more than make up for the few times that clients are unreasonable.

You certainly will want to give your staff some guidelines.  Give them a limit as to what they can do without a manager’s approval.  Then, unless the request is ridiculous, train them to take care of the client on the spot!

Again, if the request is ridiculous or over their limit, train them to say something like, “I’m sorry, but I’m not authorized to do that, but if I can get your name and phone number I’ll be sure that our owner gives you a call tomorrow.”

So What Happens When Someone Asks for Something Really Unreasonable?

In my next blog post, I’ll go over some tips on what to do in the rare event that someone asks for something really unreasonable. Stay tuned…

In the meantime, are you wondering where these guidelines come from? And how do you handle other things like greeting customers, talking with customers on the phone and working together as a team to deliver better-than-average customer service? Click here to find out more about how we do this in our businesses.

For a limited time, you can also get a free copy of my book – The Happy Customer Handbook.

Beating The Odds – Part 2

Beating The Odds – Part 2

We’re picking up our conversation on one of our great clients at American Retail Supply, McLendon’s Hardware, which has seven locations throughout the Seattle area.  To review part one, refer to the last blog post (Beating The Odds).

Competition Makes Them Better

I’ve done a lot of research over the years on how to compete with the national chains.  I’ve been sharing that information with my clients in my monthly newsletter for 21 years and my bi-weekly email retail tip since 2004.  In my research I found that those companies that survive and thrive look at the new competition as a challenge to get better themselves.  McLendon’s has done this also.

For years McLendon’s knew they should be looking into better automating their inventory and point-of-sale computer system.  When the retail giants came to town they made the investment in their future but also were sure to invest in new software that really helped them stay focused on their customers and not allowing the software to take away from their exceptional customer service.

Other areas in which McLendon feels the competition has made them better are display, advertising and pricing.  McLendon says, “We never really concentrated on end caps other than to put things on them.  Now we have a person in every store hire just to do that.”

McLendon’s realizes that with the big guys right down the street they need to be much more aware of price competition so they can be seen as having “good” prices.  Their advertising person consistently pushes to have “hot buys” in their ads.

What can you learn from the competition to make you better?

Variable Pricing Structure

McLendon refers to his variable pricing structure as A item, B item, C item pricing.  “A” items are very competitive, commodity items, that everyone uses and everyone knows the price.  McLendon knows his prices must be “good” on these items.  They don’t need to be the same or lower than the retail giants, but they need to be very close.  “B” and “C” items are not as competitively priced and the company can get better markups.  Sadly, too many independent retailers refuse to accept this type of pricing strategy.

Buy Right

McLendon’s, like many who compete well with the mass merchandisers, is a member of a buying group.  They buy a lot of their product though True Value.  With the exception of direct import items, McLendon feels their costs are in line with the retail giants.  But he believes the retail giants often get advertising allowances that he does not get.

Don’t Compete Directly With the Retail Giants

McLendon’s knows their niche-huge selection and great service.  In addition, McLendon’s now very carefully considers location as a niche when opening a new store.  When opening a new store McLendon asks, “Is it their market?”

The retail giants in the hardware business like to be near freeways and locations that attract large number of people.  McLendon’s looks for a niche that is not close to freeways, has a good population base, but isn’t a place that the retail giants are likely to put a store that requires a huge population to support.

This is huge.  How can you position your product and/or services to go where the competition ain’t?

Brand Names

A strategy retailers like to use to compete with the retail giants is to carry brands that the giants don’t carry.  In the past, McLendon’s tried to carry brands that the big guy didn’t carry.  With the number of competitors now in the market, and the huge popularity of a few brands in the hardware business, that strategy doesn’t really work.  As a whole, McLendon’s tends to carry quality brand products.

Hours of Operation

Historically hours of operation for McLendon’s shows the company’s long roots and reflect the work ethic in the community – early to bed, early to rise. The company has always opened early and closed early.  Today they’re finding they need to extend those hours.

Store used to close on Sundays.  Today, Sunday is the company’s second busiest day of the week.  McLendon’s stores used to close at 6:00 PM.  Now they close at 8:00.

Temporary Sales Decline

McLendon’s has found that retail giants moving into their market is a cause for concern and an opportunity to improve, but it is not a cause for panic.

Like retailers across the country, McLendon’s has found that stores sales drop somewhat when a retail giant opens a store close to McLendon’s.  but like many independents, McLendon finds that within nine months sales are back to where they were before and growing… maybe not growing as fast as they did before the big guys moved in, but growing.

You Can Thrive

Mike McLendon and McLendon’s Hardware have proven that yes, you can thrive in the shadow of the retail giants and compete with them, but not directly against them.  McLendon’s focuses on a broad product line, great customer service, and a niche location to not only survive, but thrive in the shadow of retail giants.

Discover more ways to improve your business by requesting one of my free books: How to Control Your Business and Your Life and The Happy Customer Handbook

by Keith Lee

Temptations by Dan Kennedy

Dan Kennedy

Intro given by Keith Lee

Dan Kennedy is not only the leading expert in Marketing; he is the highest paid Copywriter in the world and is my personal mentor.  Everything Dan says to do, I do because I know what an impact it has had and will continue to have on my businesses.  If you are a small business owner looking to grow your business you’d be wrong to NOT listen to Dan.

Temptations by Dan Kennedy

Success and productivity are not the same things nor does maximum productivity necessarily translated to success. You might, for example, achieve a very high level of productivity at cold-calling prospecting and pushing through CEO’s doors in order to sell your services, but come to understand that you do not feel at all successful as a result; instead, perpetually stressed and anxious, demeaned by the ‘numbers game’ and the rejection; burnt-out…and come to realize you would have been better served devoting productive energy to building a marketing system that brought interested prospects to you.

As you set out to get a far stronger grip on your time, to enhance your performance, it’s important to be constantly assessing your reasons for doing so and the validity of the objectives you are pursuing and achieving.

Entrepreneurs tend to be under more constant assault than executives or others, so it is easier to lose grip on the thread that leads through the muddle to the prize. Prizes you don’t really want to get set up in front of you by others, and you race to get to them while losing the critical thinking that questions the appropriateness of the prize. This takes your time and invests it where it can’t get a desirable return. Entrepreneurs are, by conditioned habit, often by ingrained compulsion, perhaps even by nature Problem Solvers and Mountain Climbers. It’s what we do. But not every problem is one you need to solve or should care about solving. Not every mountain you are led to needs conquered by you.

My racehorses are incapable of critical thinking. They are bred and trained and conditioned nearly from birth to race. They are notable and fierce and automatic competitors. When I climb into the sulky and drive the horse to the track, get him moving behind the starting gate amongst the other horses, never, never, never does he stop and think—gee, maybe this is a race I don’t need to run. But you and I are capable of such critical thinking. We can reign ourselves in. As entrepreneurs, we are automatic competitors, automatic problem-solvers, automatic mountain climbers—but we are capable of overriding our automatic inclinations.

If you put a business problem or opportunity in front of a true entrepreneur, he automatically leaps upon it and begins solving it or capitalizing on it. He reacts as if a lion is thrown a hunk of raw, red meat. The lion will respond even if he has just had a big meal and is not hungry.

The entrepreneur will respond even if he has more on his plate than he can handle, no need to respond, no time to respond. In this way, entrepreneurs are dangerous to themselves.

You can reduce that danger with more disciplined time management. With entire weeks scheduled and scripted in advance, the new and unexpected must take a place in line, patiently wait, and instead of reacting impulsively, you can attend to it more calmly and thoughtfully. One of my principles is that nothing is ever as bad or as good as it initially appears. Before acting hastily based on first impressions, each new thing—problem or opportunity—must be carefully inspected.

Temptations by Dan Kennedy

Click here to find out what Dan Kennedy is giving away!