Dealing with Upset Customers
Take Care of Clients With L.E.A.R.

I once interviewed a person for a sales position here at American Retail supply, my business that supplies retailers everything they need to run their retail stores.  She had worked for a well known national retail chain.  I asked her tell me how she was trained to take care of upset clients.  She replied that she had no training on how to take care of upset clients, but she did know the 9 step selling process, and she knew how to ask at least 3 times if the client wanted to open a charge account.

Now, I highly encourage training with a process like this 9 step process and creating more loyal clients with charge accounts. But this poor young lady had been hung out to dry when it came to taking care of upset clients and that leads to an even more upset client.

Here’s how we training people at TMS to take care of upset clients. It’s the L.E.A.R. System.

Listen and don’t interrupt.  When people are upset they practice what they are going to say.  And they practice it from the beginning.  If you interrupt, they are going to start all over again.  So... don’t interrupt. Obviously, if the client is getting loud and unruly you may need to quietly interrupt.  But, in almost all cases, DON’T INTERRUPT!

Empathize with something like, “I can understand why you’re upset.  I would be upset too.” or, “I’m really sorry that happened to you.”

Ask.  “What can I do to make you happy?”  It doesn’t get much easier than that.  Often, you won’t actually ask “What can I do to make you happy?” It is often obvious what needs to be done.  What is important is to make the client happy!

Resolve - Unless the client’s request is absolutely ridiculous DO IT!

But what if the client asks for something ridiculous?  What if what the client wants is totally out of line? The clerk should then be trained to refer the situation to a manager with something like, “Let me see if I can do that.  I’ll be right back.”  And then find an empowered manager to take care of the customer.  For more on what to do with rediculous customers requests see this article.