You’ve likely heard the old saying that the “Customer is always right”–meaning that good customer service involves treating the customer as though whatever, whenever and however he or she wants to be treated . We’ve been brought up in the business world to believe that the focus is on pleasing the customer and making sure he or she gets what they want. Okay, but what if the customer is wrong? How can you tactfully deal with a customer who is making unreasonable demands, has made a mistake in payment or is otherwise being difficult?
The challenge with a situation where the customer is wrong or has made an unfounded and untrue complaint is to let them know that they are wrong, without driving them away as a customer. Sounds tough, doesn’t it? Well, it depends on your own communication skills and the personality of the customer. You’ll want to come through the situation with the customer still happy to be dealing with you and your business, while still not giving in to unreasonable demands.
I think the first step is to make sure that you really know the situation and have accumulated all the information and facts. Having the specifics, dates and details will help you to feel calm and confident and give you the tangible evidence you need in addressing the customer’s unfounded complaint or problem. Next, you need to show your customer that you really, truly appreciate her business and her taking the time to share her “concerns.” Only after you’ve sufficiently shown appreciation and seriousness over the issue, can you then share the facts and carefully refute the complaint or the customer’s “wrongness.”
The trick here is to carefully, thoroughly and quickly let the customer know why he or she is wrong–making sure that you don’t throw in any apologies or other confusing admissions of guilt or wrong-doing and then move on to a solution–giving the customer the power and options for how he’d like to proceed now that you have pointed out the error or unfounded complaint. By not dwelling on all the ways he or she is wrong, you can get to the fence-mending part and focus on the solution and moving forward.
Some customer’s will be downright stubborn and wrong–it will take all your psychology and customer-service (or parenting) skills to try to get from the conflict stage to a solution, but it is possible to let a customer know he or she is wrong, and still deliver excellent customer service.