If you provide any services, you face with various complaints from customers on a daily basis. Regardless of the field of your activity, those complaints might be exceptionally bizarre. It’s either you work in a hotel, and a guest laments over the sound of the sea or a guest in a restaurant complaints about the sauce being too thick and hot which makes him/her slurp all the time.
How to learn to recognize such people and how to behave with them? Here are our 10 types of customers and 10 approaches to them accordingly.
Type 1: The Brawler
This is one of the most challenging types. These customers are most likely looking for an occasion to argue and yell rather than for buying any product or service. The brawler will always find something to nitpick, no matter how flawless you are. The most unpleasant thing is that the negativity, especially the emotional one, can put the company in a bad light. Most importantly, is such a case don’t try to explain yourself because you won’t prove anything anyway. Conversely, simply agree with the mischievous customer. Try to satisfy the requirements or prove the impossibility of doing it by providing arguments.
Type 2: The Conservative
Generally, it’s a middle-aged person missing the old days. It’s hard for a Conservative to understand the advantages of your new offer as he/she is already used to the old. Such people always have a feeling that the older terms were more profitable, and the previous models were more reliable. First of all, you better have nerves of steel as it is hard to change these people’s mind. You need to show them what’s left from the older versions, explain the reasons for and benefits of the modifications and changes. Or you can suggest to at least try the new conditions without giving up the old ones.
Type 3: The Fearful One
Such insecure customers constantly doubt something and oftentimes don’t even know what they really want. The main thing is being confident and calm when dealing with this type. In order not to spend loads of time on such customers, try to induce them to a specific option straight away. And don’t forget to provide supporting arguments to your ideas and choices.
Type 4: The Smarty Pants
This type is convinced that he/she knows everything about you and your business and therefore is sceptical and arrogant in a conversation. It is practically impossible to surprise or persuade such people as they already know everything. For starters, hear such person out fully and then tell him something he doesn’t know yet about the product. Pay attention to his remarks, try to stick to the case, and make a good point.
Type 5: The Freeloader
This is a type of customers who express their passion for bonuses. At first, they seek out the best deals and then try to find options where they can lower the price even more, for instance, with promo codes or special offers. An experienced Freeloader tries to find fault with anything after the purchase. There’s a reason for that, though. By doing so, the Freeloader can get material compensation in the form of a refund, the “We are sorry” gift from the company etc. In such cases, you need to rely on the company’s privacy policy and strictly follow the instructions. Be considerate and polite. Especially in situations when the client gets mad because of realizing that you won’t compromise. Don’t run errands and don’t rush to immediately fulfill the requirements that sometimes are on the verge of madness.
Type 6: The Quiet One
This type is somehow similar to the Fearful one, but with some differences and nuances. Whereas the Fearful type doesn’t even know what he/she really wants, the Quiet One does indeed know, it’s just that he/she won’t tell. You literally need to extract information from such people. These customers may seem completely satisfied and loyal, and then you suddenly find out that they abandon your product/service in favor of a competitor’s. Why so? Because it turns out you were not good enough for them, but they didn’t consider it necessary to tell you about it. They simply found another company. In this case, don’t lose touch under any circumstances. Try to regularly initiate the communication, explain your working principle, and remind of the company’s reliability.
Type 7: The Chatterbox
Such customers are a real nightmare of all call center assistants and customer service representatives since instead of actually helping someone, you are wasting your time. You find out about all their interests, hobbies, and needs, which is absolutely of no use. If you hurt a Chatterbox’s feelings, he/she will tell how bad you are in many words. Follow the business tone of communication with them. Do not allow the conversation with the customer to fall into the “personal” category (even though this is exactly what they want). In the end, tactfully finish the conversation.
Type 8: The Lazybones
Oddly enough, those customers who are always in a hurry also fall into this category. They are not interested in either the product, the brand or the benefit. The only thing they are looking for is the service and deal speed and convenience. If a competing company allows one-click buying and yours doesn’t, consider the Lazybones audience lost. If you ask a user to necessarily register or follow some other additional steps, you can exclude this type from a loyal customers list and expect extreme dissatisfaction in their feedback. Or maybe there will be no feedback at all as writing a review requires time and energy that Lazybones have a shortage of. To begin with, learn about your target audience and think about whether changing to please this type of customers is worth it. Also, try to establish personal communication with the Lazybones. If there’s more speed with other companies, but there’s more pleasure with you, Lazybones might give it some further thought.
Type 9: The Prejudiced one
The user can turn into a Prejudice one after a previous unsuccessful interaction with the company. It is easy to assume that such customers don’t often return to the company, but there are certain situations when choosing another company is not possible. That is why the Prejudiced ones get back being strongly convinced that nothing changes and next time everything will be even worse. All we can do is figuring out the source of the prejudice and if the situation makes it possible, taking care of the previously negative experience.
Type 10: The Scaremonger
Anxiety is their middle name. If there’s something they cannot control, that’s a reason for panic. Such customers are used to working according to their own scenario. If your company doesn’t have such an option, they can get offended and switch to the competitors. In such case, you need to respond directly and patiently to every question. Only this way, you can build trust – by offering guarantees that can satisfy the Scaremongers.
To conclude, crazy and toxic customers can be found in any business. Unfortunately, guarding against them is impossible. However, clearly defining their type and finding an approach to them are the things that you can really do.
