Customers can exist without your business, but your business cannot exist without customers.
Expectations of customers have risen along with the “you owe me something for nothing attitude” of society. Customers and clients can be more difficult to please than ever before due to the evolution of instant gratification and attitudes, which are summed up by the thought, “all problems in my life are the fault of someone other than me.”
Dealing with customer problems in the horse business is no easy chore. In addition to all of the other problems common with any business, the occasional unpredictability of the customers’ relationship with horses compounds the chance for problems. You may have noticed that the behavior of horses is more predictable than the behavior of some clients.
Customer problems will be resolved. Your choice as the owner of a horse business is to resolve them now or wait for them to be fixed later. Delay is the default method for fixing your customer problems and the most costly financially and emotionally. If you have ever postponed solving a customer problem (who hasn’t?) you know what I mean about the emotional drain of unsolved problems. It’s messy.
Here are some tips in dealing with angry customers.
- Hear the customer story and acknowledge the anger. Don’t defend, explain, pass fault or cause, just hear the story and let the customer do some venting and get the feeling out of the system. Some people need to stomp their feet a little to feel acknowledged.
- By diffusing the anger you’ll be in a better position to negotiate a solution successfully. Have you ever won an argument with an angry person? It can’t be done.
- Talk slower and softer than the customer. It works by helping to counteract adrenalin overdoses.
- Ask what it will take to solve the problem and repeat this back to the customer in your own words to make the understanding clear.
- Begin the process of solving the problem.
Why do you want to put all of this effort into customer problems? Because problems with customers demand energy, attention and disrupt the normal flow of business. And that lowers profit margins.
What if you can’t make the customer happy?
- Charge more for personal demands above the normal level of service when it absolutely positively has to be done right now, Think about overnight letter delivery. Sure we can do it and you will pay for it.
- Send a “Dear John” letter. Not apologizing, but simply stating we cannot provide the services you need and expect and suggest that you find someone who is able to deliver that level of service since we have done all that we can. Sometimes, customers need to be fired.
Dealing with customer complaints and problem customers is not a fun part of being in the horse business. The quickest way to get back to doing the fun stuff is taking care of the problems as they occur.