As a hospitality manager, you know that dealing with difficult customers is part of the job. But how can you help your employees cope with the stress and frustration that comes with handling complaints, demands, and conflicts? Here are some tips to help you train, support, and motivate your staff to provide excellent service even when faced with challenging situations.
The first step to help your employees handle difficult customers is to help them understand the customer's perspective. Customers may have different expectations, needs, and emotions that influence their behavior. By empathizing with the customer, your employees can avoid taking things personally and focus on finding solutions. You can teach your employees to use active listening, open-ended questions, and positive language to show the customer that they care and respect their point of view.
The second step to help your employees handle difficult customers is to follow the service recovery process. This is a systematic approach to resolving problems and restoring customer satisfaction. The service recovery process consists of four steps: apologize, acknowledge, act, and assure. You can train your employees to use these steps to express regret, take responsibility, offer compensation, and follow up with the customer. By following the service recovery process, your employees can turn a negative experience into a positive one and retain customer loyalty.
The third step to help your employees handle difficult customers is to manage stress and emotions. Dealing with difficult customers can be draining and exhausting for your employees. They may feel angry, frustrated, or overwhelmed by the situation. You can help your employees manage their stress and emotions by providing them with coping strategies, such as breathing exercises, relaxation techniques, or positive affirmations. You can also encourage your employees to seek support from their colleagues, supervisors, or counselors if they need to vent or get advice.
The fourth step to help your employees handle difficult customers is to learn from feedback and mistakes. Difficult customers can provide valuable feedback and insights into your service quality, performance, and areas for improvement. You can help your employees learn from feedback and mistakes by creating a culture of feedback, where you regularly solicit, share, and act on customer feedback. You can also help your employees learn from mistakes by treating them as learning opportunities, not as failures. You can coach your employees to analyze what went wrong, what they did well, and what they can do better next time.
The fifth step to help your employees handle difficult customers is to celebrate successes and achievements. Dealing with difficult customers can be rewarding and satisfying for your employees if they manage to resolve the problem and please the customer. You can help your employees celebrate successes and achievements by recognizing and rewarding their efforts, such as giving praise, feedback, incentives, or recognition. You can also help your employees celebrate successes and achievements by creating a positive work environment, where you foster teamwork, collaboration, and fun.
The sixth step to help your employees handle difficult customers is to develop skills and competencies. Dealing with difficult customers requires a range of skills and competencies, such as communication, problem-solving, emotional intelligence, and resilience. You can help your employees develop skills and competencies by providing them with training, coaching, mentoring, and development opportunities. You can also help your employees develop skills and competencies by empowering them to make decisions, take risks, and innovate.
1- Deixar o cliente falar e escute, escute atentamente até o fim, sem interromper. Essa parte é muito importante. 2- Anote tudo que está sendo informado e quando tiver a oportunidade reconfirme se entendeu da forma que o cliente gostaria. é importante ele sentir que você n?o está na defensiva. 3 - Pe?a a permiss?o do cliente para ajudar. No momento que a pessoa diz sim; ela está te autorizando para si mesma. 4- Envolva o cliente numa oferta de solu??o; pergunte a opini?o dele sobre o que seria um cenário ideal para tentarem amenizar o que aconteceu. Isso evita o cliente se sentir comprado.
5- Se o cliente n?o estiver com a raz?o e tiver cometido algo que n?o tem tolerancia, como violência, abusos, etc, é necessário chamar apoio e ser firme num posicionamento justo.