According to Wikipedia, the “Customer experience, sometimes abbreviated CX, is the totality of cognitive, affective, sensory, and behavioral consumer responses during all stages of the consumption process including pre-purchase, consumption, and post-purchase stages.” Put more succinctly by Zendesk, the “Customer experience (CX) is the relationship between a company and its customers.” Thus, it is your business’s first, and perhaps most important, product. As a consequence, the businesses with the best customer experience are the ones with the most success.
But does that mean everything is smooth sailing, that customers are always happy? Of course, we all know the answer is no. As the world-renowned customer service and experience expert, Shep Hyken, admits, “no matter how good you are at creating an amazing customer experience, the customer’s perception counts. Their perception is their reality.” And some people seem impossible to please, making their reality quite grim.
Why Customers Are Difficult
There are a number of factors for why a customer is being difficult. Understanding and accepting this fact will make your employees’ lives much easier. But to understand, they must first do their due diligence with good communication to learn why a customer is unhappy.
After all, no one is perfect, and every now and again, even a well-run business makes a mistake and the customer is justifiably aggrieved. On the other hand, the situation may be entirely out of your control. Hyken mentions a post from the director of a senior-healthcare network regarding difficult patients, pointing out that if a patient is in severe pain, you’re going to have a hard time delivering a great experience: “Patients are not purposely GIVING us a hard time. They are HAVING a hard time.”
Uncovering the reasons behind why customers are being difficult is crucial for your employees to offer sympathy and understanding, which may allow them to pivot enough to blunt those issues. Remember that some customers are just having a bad day, and we might be able to make it a little better by remaining patient.
The Cold Reality
However, not all problems are solely circumstantial. Some customers are difficult because they are, in fact, difficult people. Hyken continues, “some people are chronic curmudgeons. You may never be able to make them happy. Accept it.” Further, he adds, “Not every experience you create for your customers will be exceptional, no matter how hard you try. But the point is that you try.”
Truly difficult people are tough, especially if the nature of your business means seeing them again and again. Deep down, you may wish they weren’t your customers at all. But the grace your employees extend to the persnickety is both good practice for dealing with the problems they really can fix, and it also reflects well to other customers who might bear witness to your herculean efforts. Indeed, your other customers may admire and even appreciate the hard work you invest into dealing with obnoxious situations, even if the obnoxious people don’t.
Endurance
In the end, it’s a game of endurance. Most of the time, being a great employee who offers a superior customer experience is a well-appreciated job. Most customers will be gracious, and the work environment will be even better for the effort. That said, sometimes the job is thankless—at least where the difficult customer is concerned. But that doesn’t mean your hardworking employees should go underappreciated.
One of the great benefits of mystery shopping is that it allows you to receive candid, real-world observations about the hard work your employees do every day. These evaluations will document the kinds of experiences that aren’t easily quantified when looking at sales targets, but are nevertheless paramount to making your business the king of the customer experience.
Don’t let your employees go unacknowledged for their dedication and patience. Use mystery shopping services like we at The Brandt Group offer to measure what’s normally unmeasurable: the relationship your employees have forged with your customers. That’s how you sustain success, through loyalty and referrals.
Ready to learn more? Please take a look around our website, and then drop us a message here. We’d love to hear from you and learn all about your business, and then we’ll brainstorm new ways to help you achieve even greater success, built upon a culture having happy employees and a customer-first experience.
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