Difficult clients: how to behave with them

In fact, difficult clients have their own. By the type of customers you consider "difficult", you can determine what you need to work on. Someone succumbs to rudeness and aggression, andsomeone is lost when he needs to help make a choice for a hesitant client. Plus, its difficult customers are in every kind of business, and this "difficulty" is determined precisely by its specificity.

But despite the fact that difficult customers can be very different, there are several common rules for communicating with such customers. Communicating with the client, you need to follow a neutral, benevolent tone, no matter what tone you are addressed to you. This can be difficult, especially if the clientshouts at you or just behaves as if he is a king, and you are a servant. But all the same, try not to lose your temper, restraint is one of the indicators of professionalism.

It is very important to observe the golden mean here. Excessive restraint can be perceived by the client as indifference: he thinks that you do not care about him. And benevolence does not necessarily have to be accompanied by a smile: often difficult clients perceive a smile as a mockery, considering that you are laughing at them. An ideal strategy of behavior with difficult clients is developed with experience.

The potential conflict with the client should be suppressed at the time of its inception. Calm down and understand one thing: you and the client are not on different sides of the barricade. There is a problem that you need to solvetogether, coming to a consensus. Difficult clients are not your enemies; they are your potential allies, which you need to win over to your side. You need to understand this yourself and let the client know.

In conversation, be sure to agree with the sound thoughts expressed by the client, but gently direct the conversation in the direction you need. If you need to object to the client, do not do it "on the forehead". First agree, and only then object: "I agree with you regarding ..., but I want to note that ...". Put yourself in the client's place, understand his needs and build a communication strategy based on this. Remember: your task is to help the client, no matter what.

What can not be done in any case, dealing with difficult clients?

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  assimilate to customers, answering rudeness to rudeness;
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  try to convince the client "in one fell swoop": he will not agree with you from the principle;
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  Try to put the customer in place, demonstrating their superiority;
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  automatically take the blame: perhaps you are not guilty of anything;
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  automatically blame the client: maybe he is not guilty of anything;
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  try to "untwist" the client to sympathy.

Sometimes, in fact, it turns out that difficult clients - this is just an excuse for the unprofessionalism of those who work with them. Therefore it is very important to be able to look at yourself fromhand: why do you have difficulty working with this or that type of client? Perhaps, having understood your own problems, you suddenly find out that the number of difficult clients has become much less.

If you work with clients, you need to accept that difficult customers are an indispensable attribute of your professional activity. Just do not take communion with them to heart and do not give in to personal likes and dislikes. Your business is to successfully solve a professional issue, but not to the customer's liking. In the end, you can not like everyone.

But if you successfully help a difficult client, it will be repaid to you a hundredfold: sometimes the most loyal regular customers are formerly difficult customers, who were imbued with confidence in the seller, because he did not succumb to provocations and was able to help them.