Shiny Companies and Happy Customers Holding Hands

A funny little man who came in one day, asking for simply a "French vanilla," which I took to mean a coffee with French vanilla syrup in it. [OK, maybe I should have clarified beforehand]. When he got his beverage he made it very clear that this was not what he ordered.

He all but threw it back at me. "I said FRENCH vanilla," as if that were supposed to have made a difference in how the coffee looked.

I explained to him that it was indeed a French vanilla coffee,

"NO, NO, NO! There is supposed to be whipped cream on this!" he thundered. The other customers gaped, he was causing quite a scene.

Apparently he meant to order a vanilla "cappuccino," a la your local mini mart, and we ignorant baristas just weren’t getting it.

My co-worker Melanie, who has a terrific way of handling situations like this with much more grace than I was capable of that day, said,

"Are you talking about the cappuccinos you get in gas stations? Because we don’t make them like that here."

By determining what he wanted she made him a French vanilla latte with whipped cream, which he probably liked more than his "French vanilla."

Anyone who works in customer service knows you are going to deal with difficult people. This is actually a good thing.

Hear me out on this. How we handle ourselves, and the customer, go a long way. Your class or your lack thereof will be PERMANENTLY etched on not only the offending customer’s mind, but the onlookers as well.

By reframing it, thinking of it as problem solving at its most intricate and complex form, we take our control back. It takes true wizardry to deal with a client or customer who feels they’ve been wronged.

It gives us a tremendous opportunity to show our service at its purist. [It also gives us a very good opportunity to screw up.] So we must be ready when the opportunity arises. Because it will.

Really listen to the customer. Make sure you know what the customer is really asking for. If you are not sure, ask questions.

Empathize with the customer. We all know what it’s like to be misunderstood or mistaken. Don’t add to their frustration, by being mean, even if they don’t show you the same courtesy.

Be gentle when they are in a superior mood. If my co-worker hadn’t stepped in and empathized with him, anyone else [myself included], would have yelled back or said something snarky, only exacerbating the problem. He would have walked away mad, never to return.

Offer a solution or alternative. In many cases, solutions are easy. When they’re not, a sincere apology works just as well.

I have seen many customer relationships salvaged in the face of discontent, simply because of the way they were dealt with. By not feeding their fire, it hopefully will snuff out fairly quickly. Be apologetic, even if you are not wrong.

As witnessed above, irate customers can cause potentially embarrassing scene. I’ve done it. One time I yelled at the manager of a restaurant because he cancelled our trivia show indefinitely.

His gracious response, made me feel like such a jerk; I won’t go there unless I have to because I’m so ashamed every time I think about it. When I do go back, they are always so nice [darn them].

So next time you encounter a difficult client or customer, think of it as an opportunity for you to shine.

Brooke is the author of Reptiles on Caffeine which draws from her experience working as a Starbucks barista, and she joins CMIQ to share that unique, front-line perspective. For more details on Brooke’s work and insights, visit her "Reptilian Rantings" blog.