COMPLAINERS FROM HELL
... Cynthia
by Alan J. Zell, Ambassador of Selling

Q. Mr. Zell, Do all businesses have "customers from hell?" We do! We had a staff meeting earlier this week on customer service. The whole meeting was in chaos as soon as the topic of complainers came up -- those customers who complain, complain, complain. They are the ugly aspects of what could be a very pleasant business to be in. The meeting was chaos! Everyone had something to say and none of it was positive. What is wrong with these people who complain? Did they all get out of bed on the wrong side?

Cynthia

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A. Cynthia, Everyone has complainers. No one likes complaints. If a business doesn't have complaints, it's not doing anything . . . and that will bring on the complaint from someone that the business isn't doing anything.

My father used to say that every business deserves the customers they have. By this, he meant that when one has a demanding customer one has to understand why that person is so demanding. There could be many reasons:

* the customer does not believe they are getting "added-value" -- they want to get more than they are paying for or, as with a complainer, they want to pay less, i.e., complaining with the idea that they will get their money back.

* they have a problem, they are being challenged by someone else and in order to come up with an answer to alleviate the problem they will be take that problem back to the seller. This is known as the-squeaky- wheel-that-gets-the-grease syndrome.

* it could be that they had "buyer's remorse" in that they could not justify their purchase without getting something additional from the seller that would give them the "power" to justify the purchase.

When people find that their or others' complaints are not met, they will get even in any way they can. This could be to come in an yell where others can hear them, delay paying or not paying, telling others their side but not the seller's side, of the problem, story, etc.

There are many ways to handle complaints and "customers from hell." The first thing is to let them know that not only are you listening to them, you are writing down what they are saying as they are saying it because they see you do it, and that you want them to repeat the complaint several times so you know you have it right.

If a customer keeps calling about trivial things it may be due to any of the above or it may be that doing so makes them feel that, by doing so, they are letting you know that they have confidence that you will not steer the wrong. It may be that calling you makes them feel that they are an important customer even if you don't think so.

Customers from hell are not those that come in to give you a rough time. Customers from hell are those that do not come in but tell hundreds of others that you are a vendor from hell. When that happens you may both meet in the same place.

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