Picture your most obnoxious relative. You know that individual, the one who always makes you cringe when they approach you at family gatherings. Every family has one: the loud-mouthed, opinionated, blow hard, who thinks ‘tact' is something that secures paper to the wall. How do you deal with that individual? How do you decide that enough is enough? How do you extricate yourself gracefully from the clutches of that idiot? Or do you quietly suffer as they consume your time on this earth?
Dealing with difficult people is a constant challenge. It's made more demanding because there are so many of them. It is particularly tough on business owners in people industries, you know, service enterprises, hospitality, restaurant, retail, among others. In every business there is a certain amount of contact with customers, who are generally ‘people', but in some cases they can be insufferable monsters. People can be customers or ‘tire-kickers'. Customers know they have a need and are looking for a solution.
Tire-kickers on the other hand just came in to get out of the rain. Under the subset of customers, you have your normals and your maniacs. Normals can be a joy to work with, but they can always be turned into maniacs by impatience and frustration when they don't get what they want. You always have a chance with normals, it's dealing with maniacs that is a challenge. I'm talking here about the lunatic fringe which we've all encountered at some time or another. How you deal with these types will set the course of the rest of your day, week or month. Let me give you a few tips:
The first thing you need to realize is not every person who enters your store or business is a customer. By my definition, a customer is someone who pays for the goods or services you are providing. If they are just looking, they are guests, but not yet customers. On the road to a successful sale, you need to evaluate what your guest needs and whether you can fill that need. At the same time you are assessing visual and verbal clues as to their ability to pay. You are in effect qualifying them. It follows that not every guest to your store is going to be a customer. You may be able to turn a guest into a customer by deftly evaluating their needs and demonstrating that your goods or services satisfy their needs and meet their budgetary constraints. When you accomplish this, you have a sale!
On the other hand, there are people who will show up at your door who will do nothing more than suck the life out of you. They have no intention of buying, or if they do they will not be satisfied unless you make absolutely no money on them. If they think for a moment that you've made a penny profit on them, they won't rest until they exact some form of payment from you, so that the sale costs you more than they paid! Rest assured, if you haven't met this person yet and you're in business, at some point you will. How this plays out is really dependent upon your attitude.
You start by evaluating people. Not every guest is going to be a customer. Some people may be turned into customers depending upon your approach. You welcome them in, you introduce yourself, you ask them politely what they are looking for, in essence you ask them what they need. During this verbal interchange, which is usually one-sided from your end, you evaluate your guest and their perceived need. Sometimes the solution they have in mind does not fit their need, and if you're good at what you do, you'll be able to help them. You help them first by helping them understand the benefits of your offering and how that solves their need. Let them mull it over a little, and once they get it, they can make an informed decision to buy from you, because you've won them over. They trust you.
Monsters on the other hand don't trust anyone. They don't trust themselves, so how can they trust you. They live to make other people's lives as miserable as their own. That is their mission in life. No matter what you do, no matter how nice you are, unless you pay them to take your goods or services, they will not be satisfied. So to defend yourself against these types, you need to recognize them early, and get rid of them gently, but quickly.
Think of it this way: the sooner you get rid of them, the sooner you can spend time on a real customer, a paying guest who will be happy and refer more paying guests. Sometimes we feel a moral obligation to look after monsters, but let me tell you, it's like picking at an open wound, nothing you do will help, get rid of them and concentrate on your real patrons.
It also depends on the value of the purchase. I've seen monsters stand in line at coffee shops and flip out because their coffee wasn't right! A cup of coffee is a quick, low value purchase. The easiest thing to do for the server is to replace the coffee and send the monster packing. The worst thing one can do is to try to argue with them, while dozens of customers are within earshot, and the coffee line is steadily growing. get rid of them, quick!
Replace their coffee, and if they're not happy, give them a free donut and they'll disappear, or refund their money and tell them to go next door. You always have that right, you can sell to whomever you want, you are not required by any law to have to sell to somebody. It's up to you to make that decision. It's generally not an issue, but when dealing with monsters, it is an issue, and it's up to you to make that decision quickly or it will cost you.
It depends on your attitude. If you expect that everyone who enters your shop is going to buy, then you will be held hostage by every miscreant who has the good fortune to stumble in. They will waste your time, they will use up your energy, they will not buy anything, but they will amuse themselves at your expense. You will feel guilty that you lost them as a customer and it will cost you your confidence and self-esteem. You can't allow yourself to be imprisoned by the notion that you are going to sell to everyone.
Customers are like trains, there's always another one coming down the track. You need to lose the fear that the person in front of you is the last potential customer that you are ever going to see. As soon as you realize that there is another customer out there and the only thing separating you from him is this monster in front of you, then you get rid of the monster and clear a path to your customer. Lose the fear that every customer may be your last. There are a zillion of them out there, they are generally nice people, if you satisfy their needs they will be back and they will refer more customers of like kind. Change your attitude, and you change your fortune!
Sid Karmazyn is a Chartered Accountant, author and speaker, who lives and works in York Region. Your comments are welcomed.
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