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Do impatient customers drive you crazy? Does their communication style make you feel angry and cause you to be less willing to help them? This energetic video clip shares some tips on how to communicate with those aggressive and fast talking folks. As my gift to you for watching, click here to receive your FREE copy of my 21-point customer service leadership tips checklist (5 sections broken down into 21 points).
Real World Story: Yes, impatient customers can be difficult to deal with. But what if I told you that an impatient customer might be a blessing in disguise? Yes, a blessing! And that’s because impatient customers will express a problem they need solved and will, therefore, give you the opportunity to fix it. In contrast, customers who never say or write a word about a problem they are having will give you zero opportunity to help them. They will simply go away, never to be seen again. They’ll also take their business with them. But how can we better deal with impatient customers?
Strategies that Turn it Around:
- Adapt to how people communicate with you. Simply put, people want you to communicate with them just like they communicate with you. If a customer walks in or calls and talks loud and fast, then that’s how they want you to communicate with them. If they are loud and you speak softy and slowly, you will drive them crazy! But there is a caveat to this tip: you then need to be able to turn around these customers to diffuse the situation.
- Connect with customers so they begin to mirror you. Once you connect with an impatient customer at their communication level, begin to talk more slowly while acknowledging that you understand their problem. For example, once you begin to explain things in a slower pace and tone, you customer will begin to mirror your communication style. Simply put, impatient customers want first to feel heard and understood, and then they want to feel that you are going to take care of them.
Remember: You’ll never know you have a problem to fix if no customer ever says a word. When you are faced with an impatient customer, you are given the opportunity to be of service, to help out a customer. And if you fix the problem expertly and efficiently, you will not only have a happy customer but a loyal customer who will keep coming back time and time again—and who knows, they may even tell others about your great service!
What do you do to ensure that impatient customers are heard and treated like a priority and not an annoyance?