Fortunately, it’s a rare event for us around ye olde tax shoppe that we have to deal with a client who is going ballistic.
But because we are a people business, we’re certainly not immune!
So we’ve had to learn about how to best handle matters when a client is becoming (for some reason or another) very upset. Again, this is rare — but in some cases, the client displaces their anger towards the IRS and puts it into their interactions with us. (“No, Mr. Jones, we actually aren’t the ones who are wanting to audit your business! That’s the nice people at the Department of Treasury.”)
However, what we’ve discovered is that when we handle it rightly, we can leave upset clients even happier with us than even some of our most “reliable” and happy clients.
Here’s what we do — it usually even works on the “bad apples”.
(And, I should hasten to say that “Mr. Jones” isn’t real — just a name picked at random! 🙂 )
Stephen Venuti’s 4 Tips to Really HEAR Your Upset Clients
“He that can have patience can have what he will.” – Benjamin Franklin
Sometimes there are just some bad apples in the lot.
And they’re occasionally fairly vocal, right?
Well, you can make some major mistakes with it, if you aren’t trained in handling complaints — because no matter how well you do what you do, you will get complaints.
Here are my suggestions for training your staff to take care of upset clients…
It can be summarized by the “HEAR” acronym…
1) Hear the customer and don’t interrupt.
You don’t interrupt for two reasons:
A. It’s rude to interrupt
B. 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 and go off script.
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.
2) Mirror back (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.”
3) Ask: “What can I do to make this right?”
It doesn’t get much easier than that. Often, you won’t even have to ask the question because it’s pretty obvious what needs to be done. What’s most important in this step is that the attitude is right — empathy is everything!
4) Resolve – Unless the request is absolutely ridiculous, DO IT!
What’s so great about this approach (and this has been studied, proven and established with myriad scholarly studies): Often you leave the customer even HAPPIER with you than before the problem occurred!
Yes, that’s actually a likely scenario, because they will appreciate how you bent over backwards to make them happy again.
So, get ahead of the bad apples and turn them into good ones!
Feel very free to share this article with a Newtown Square, PA business associate or client you know who could benefit from our assistance — or simply send them our way? While these particular articles usually relate to business strategy, as you know, we specialize in tax preparation and planning for Newtown Square, PA families and business owners. And we always make room for referrals from trusted sources like you.
Warmly (and until next week),
Stephen Venuti
610-353-0686
Stephen J. Venuti, CPA, MST, LLC
