It is considered a normal practice when 20% of your customers take 80% of your attention and efforts, similar to a Pareto principle. But nowadays, customer support goes far beyond simple answers to clients’ questions. At the same time, modern customers are more demanding than ever before. And sometimes the customers become extremely unreasonable in their requests. Therefore, every business has to say “no” to some of their clients. But it is important to realize that refusing to your customer professionally and politely is also a part of your service.
I am lucky to have 20+ years of experience in customer care. I worked for a commercial bank, logistics company, online store, web development agency, and finally in my own businesses. And I will be happy to share some working strategies on Yusipen.co.
Why are customers being unreasonable?
It is important to emphasize that if the customer asks for something that was guaranteed by law, your terms and conditions, promised by your salesman, or your advertising, it is a normal customer. And you must treat this customer accordingly. But we will talk about those that demand more than they should.
First, let’s try to understand why they are being unreasonable.
1. High Expectations. Unfortunately, the customers no longer compare you to your competitors. They may have an extraordinary experience in a hotel, on a plane, or in a spa salon. And since then, they will want the same level of services, even when they buy a $5 product or service.
2. More Power. Currently, customers have plenty of different tools to achieve their consumption goals. Today, within 5-10 mins they can leave negative reviews everywhere on the Internet: on your site, on Google, in Social Media, forums, specialized groups, etc. This tool became so powerful, that sometimes business owners simply agree on customers’ terms, even if they are extremely unreasonable. And, unfortunately, this encourages customers to demand even more next time.
3. More Protection. And last but not least, nowadays, customers are more protected than ever.
First of all, consumers are secured by the law. And it is good. Though, sometimes this is to the detriment of the business.
And second of all, most payment gateways are on the client’s side. The customer can always dispute the payment. Well, in most cases they have a point, but sometimes it makes no sense.
How to reject politely
So, how to properly handle an unreasonable customer and reject politely? I will offer you several working strategies and examples of phrases that successful entrepreneurs came up with.
The best defense is a good offense
Before making the customer angry or demanding make sure you are 100% clear about your terms and conditions. It should be understandable where your service starts and where it finishes.
But keep in mind that the terms and conditions page on your website or paragraph in your agreement is not enough. It will not stop an unreasonable customer. Moreover, nobody reads that. Most likely, you don’t read it yourself when you buy something online, right? So, make sure to articulate that to your customer. This way you will strike first.
Take the customer’s side
This is one of the most effective techniques nowadays. If the customer is unreasonable there is no way you can fix the problem using arguments and logic. Moreover, it may irritate the client even more. You are here not to win the discussion, but to handle the situation.
Here is how it works on a psychological level.
- The customer demands something unreasonable.
- You reject it right away, referring to the terms and conditions of your company.
- The customer will immediately associate you with the company you work for (which is true) and will not trust you.
- You will lose control over the situation and the client will end up being unhappy.
So, take the customer’s side. Become his partner in the situation. And then find the solution together as allies.
So, here are the recommended steps.
1. Convince the client that you are here to help, not to fight.
2. Listen to customers’ complaints and demands. Don’t interrupt and use the active listening technique.
3. Show the customer that you understand what’s going on.
4. Take the customer’s side unconditionally. Moreover, you can even “fight” shoulder to shoulder against this so-called “injustice”.
5. Now only when you are allied with this unreasonable customer you can provide your arguments and thoughts about the occurred situation.
6. Finally, when you see that the customer calmed down and listens to you, you can reject politely. Obviously, you cannot say “no” directly. But now you can at least explain why the customer does not get what he/she wants.
Accept the complaint as a feature request
As was mentioned before, you cannot say “no” directly to your customer. Therefore, you can tell the customer that what he is asking is not a part of your product or service, but it’s a wonderful idea for future updates. It works perfectly for digital products and services, but it can be also used for a physical business.
Here is an example of a phrase you may use.
“Though it is not a part of the current service package it sounds like a great feature for our future updates/upgrades”.
Speak to a manager
“May I speak to your manager?” Probably every customer care specialist hears this from time to time. It does not matter whether you are good or bad. It just happens because you say something that the unreasonable customer does not want to hear.
But never consider this as a problem or issue. Vice versa, think of it as a solution. Moreover, if you face any unreasonable demands from the customer you can proactively offer to speak to a manager. Here is why it’s an effective technique.
Quite often customers simply don’t trust you. They may suspect that it’s just you don’t want to help. And in this case, the client wants to check it with someone else from your company.
The other reason is that the demanding customer wants to feel important. If so, just give him/her this opportunity.
But most frequently the unreasonable customer will want to talk to a manager to check the option to get more than what was paid for.
Though, as was mentioned before, if you are at a dead-end in your negotiations, offer to check with the manager yourself. This way the client will hear “no” from another person and more likely understand that the demand is unreasonable.
Service as a competitive advantage
We all know such popular competitive advantages as price, quality, time, technology, etc. But nowadays, the most important and powerful one is customer service. Not only do customers buy products and services. They also buy stories.
But what makes a good story? Yes, unexpected plot twists! So, if you want your customers to tell their friends and relatives good stories about your company with a happy end, you need to provide good things that they may not even expect.
Even the smallest thing will work. Candy for a kid in a restaurant, gift card in the delivery box, fruit basket in a hotel, birthday postcard, etc will do the job.
And the more nice things you figure out for your customers, the more stories they will have. Moreover, some of the customers will come to you in order to check what else you prepared. And lastly, it’s a fair competition that will make your competitors do their additional unwanted investments to stay in the business. Which is good for you?
Ways to prevent unreasonable demands
The best way to decline politely is to prevent these unreasonable demands. There are some working ways to do that.
1. As it was mentioned previously you need to clearly tell the customer where your service starts and where it ends. This way you will not need to think about how to refuse politely.
2. It is highly recommended to have a presale team that works with customers before purchase. It makes sense even if you have an eCommerce project.
3. When the customer purchases your products or services make sure to explain what exactly the customer paid for and what he/she must expect. Do it before actually providing your goods. This will allow you to decline unreasonable additional demands politely referring to these terms.4. It is important to realize that there are always some customers that will still want to receive support on their terms. And it does not really matter what you do. You should simply accept that and figure out what to do when the customer demands more. Possibly you may want to add these losses to your pricing policy. Alternatively, you may decide to refuse to provide products and services to unreasonable customers. Unfortunately, the second option may cause lots of negative reviews and bad stories about your company.