Drawing The Line Between Doable And Outrageous Customer Requests
While it is essential to go above and beyond our call of duty to provide positive and exceptional Customer experience, it important to also note that some Customer requests are not just doable.
Some customer requests can be strange and downright puzzling, if you’re unsure of whether what the Customer is asking for is legal, in-line with the company’s policy or can be done with approval from the necessary units.
Here is a breakdown of what you should know:
What Can Some In Your Cadre Do Or Not Do
What is your job function? Is the Customer request tied to your job function? What right is your grade or level entitled to?
Who Can You Escalate To
Is your supervisor in a better position to assist? Will your supervisor be willing to assist?
Who Can Get Things Done
Would communicating directly to your supervisor’s boss be a better option?
Escalating And Following Up
Should I call, chat or send a mail? Which would be faster? Am I keeping the Customer informed on the status of escalated issue?
Saying No In A Professional Manner
“No” is a word that isn’t used often enough in our conversations with customers. Used appropriately, this word draws boundaries that otherwise might not be apparent to the Customer, and prevents scenarios of over promising and under delivering.
But before you say “NO” –
- Excuse yourself appropriately and consult with your Supervisor
- Be sure that what the Customer has requested for is absolutely not – achievable, legal or against company policies and most importantly
- Offer An Unconsidered/Alternative Option: Customers are often single-minded when it comes to telling you what they want. But when you understand the reason behind their demands you should be able to offer an alternative that works for us and still makes them happy. This must come as a follow-up for a “no” response.
- Maintain Your Professionalism: When working with a Customer who is being unreasonable, stay professional. Some customers think that the harder they push, the more they will squeeze out of us. While it can be frustrating to work with this type of Customers, you should never take things personally. Simply stand firm.
Always remember, patience and professionalism are the best tools to utilize when Customers overstep their boundaries
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Unfortunately, in my experience, I have found that there is a bigger problem than just trying to determine whether a request is doable or not. It might just depend upon the agent that you talk to . . . and this goes to the heart of some of the problems we have seen in our consulting practice.
Agent training can differ depending upon when the individual comes into the organization. Policies that were once in place have changed, and disseminating that information to the front-line staff is not always effective. Not only is training probably different, but prior to agents going to the floor, they sit with different mentors, learning side-by-side. The issue there is that those mentors are not monitored or evaluated, and each mentor, if not consistently trained on how to mentor, promotes his or her way of doing things. What do you end up with? Different agents do things very differently; communication from management to the front-line staff perpetuates the problems, because that communication is often not consistent or timely.
So, until some of these gaps are closed, determining whether a customer request can be doable or not really becomes a bigger problem than just the obvious.
I quite agree with you Diane. Information dissemination to the frontline is not quite effective, and mentors are usually not very suitably trained/cultured to groom new hires. But still these guides are the basic steps to take upon running into situations where there is confusion as to whether the customer request is doable or not.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts