A person in customer sales and service comes across different types of customers in his everyday life. Sometime your life gets easy with some really lenient and understanding customers, but at times you could find yourself really unlucky when you are stuck with a bad and difficult customer. As your responsibility and duty, you cannot make the customer unhappy and leave them unsatisfied and upset, no matter how bad and difficult they are, yet you know that if given a chance, you would probably end up screaming and yelling at the customer who is standing right there in front of you and driving you nuts. In such cases, it is very difficult to think of ways and tactics of how to handle such customers who are so hard to deal with, and at the same time ensure of the fact that they don’t go unhappy and discontent. A person who cracks a deal with the so called ‘bad’ customer’s are no less than commendable for their thoughtful ways to deal with them with patience and perseverance. Here is a list of the top 10 ways of how to deal with bad and difficult customers, and make sure that you don’t disappoint them in any way with your performance.

10. Summarize the further steps to the customer

When you are on a call with a customer or interacting with the customer when he is in front of you, make sure to discuss the step involved further in the process as well. Be as clear cut as you can to the customer by giving them all details of what to expect and what would be happening in the next steps or processes, and also be sure to follow up with the customers regularly.

9. Call back on an update

Even if you have not told the customer of calling them back on an update, it is advisable to still do so as it is a form of assurance to the customer. It keeps the difficult customer still on the loop if you keep getting back to him through calls or emails on regular updates so that they know you are not trying to dodge them and give them any false hopes on anything.

8. Remember that they are humans too

Everyone has their bad days. When you have a bad customer at your deal, try to understand and remember that they might be going through a bad day as well. Some customers might have had a fight at home with their closed ones, or experienced a really bad day at work due to which they are in a bad and agitated mood. As you have your bad days once a while, it is important to understand your customers’ situation as well, and stay quiet about it and deal with the customer’s issues.

7. Don’t take their comments personally

A bad customer will try his best, or rather just vent out his frustration on you, because he can do so as you are a representative of the company. So remember that no matter what he tells you, just don’t take it to heart and don’t take the comments personally. The customer is probably just going through a bad day and venting his anger out on you, so try to avoid whatever he says and just turn the matter to what the main subject was, and do your best to resolve it.

6. Realize when to give in

When you realize that the bad and difficult customer is going to take a couple of hours out of you and is being a real pain in your head, that’s the time you need to give in to their demands and whatever they want. Compromise and do whatever they require so that you can efficiently provide your crucial time to the other better and productive customers who would actually help reap benefits for you. Don’t waste too much time on handling issues of one bad customer and don’t let the other good ones go.

5. Don’t get angry or upset

Keep yourself calm at all time. When the customer is going beyond being bad and starts verbally abusing you and saying things to you, just remember not to react and take a deep breath to calm your sense down. Showing your anger or getting upset is not going to benefit either the bad customer or you, so refrain from reacting in a negative way.

4. Behave for positive referral

When you are dealing with a particular customer, remember that this one customer would give a positive feedback and a positive referral to the other customers. So always keep in mind that you need to behave and keep you actions and conversation as positive and clear as you can. If you just remember the benefits you will get from other customers as well, it will help you keep a cool head naturally with a bad and difficult customer.

3. Build a rapport with the customer

When you know the customer is being very difficult, you need to understand that he himself is going through a bad moody phase and therefore try to build a rapport with them by placing yourself in their shoes. That way, it will help you understand your customers’ problems better and help you find a solution to it as well.

2. Tone down your voice

When the ‘bad’ customer starts shouting at the top of his voice or starts talking in a very demeaning and demanding manner, instead of increasing your voice tone as well, you need to lower down your voice in order to eliminate this feeling of anger and frustration from the conversation as well as from the customer’s mind.

1. Listen

When the customer is talking, remember to not abruptly break into his conversation or try and argue with him while he is talking. That is not only a bad manner but also annoys the customer out of his wits. So let the customer get done with what he wants to say and then begin to say what you want, after he is done talking. That ensures a proper and smooth two way flow of communication.