Another Lesson on How to Handle Angry Customers

hi shep hyken here customer service and
experience expert and today i'm going to
talk about trusting your customers at a
recent conference i enjoyed an interview
with the business owner who shared some
of his customer service philosophies his
name is jake and he's a really smart guy
he taught several lessons that day but
the one that stood out was how he
handles angry customers specifically it
was a lesson he referred to as don't
smell the milk now early in jake's
career he worked at a grocery store his
manager taught him how to respond to a
disgruntled customer the example that he
used had to do with the customer who
wanted to return a spoiled carton of
milk if a customer claims to have a
carton of spoiled milk the natural
reaction would be for an employee to
open up the carton and take a whiff of
the milk as natural as that seems to be
even if you agree with the customer your
actions may send the message that you
don't trust your customer you had to
check to make sure the customer was
telling the truth instead jake's manager
suggested taking the milk from the
customer no questions asked and
exchanging it for another carton and if
you want to smell the milk well smell it
later now that made me think of an
experience i had at a restaurant i'd
been there many times before and i was
excited to order my favorite entree the
meal arrived and i took my first bite
the sauce
didn't taste right the manager happened
to stop by to see how we were enjoying
the meal and i mentioned that the sauce
had a funny taste to it and i promise
i'm not making this up he actually
dipped his finger into the sauce and put
it in his mouth to taste the sauce and
thought for a moment and then he said
there's nothing wrong with the sauce now
maybe there was anything wrong with the
sauce but to me there was regardless i'm
a regular customer who had finally made
one negative comment after many many
visits and this is how the manager
handled it and just like the spoiled
milk example the manager doubted my word
furthermore he chose to disagree with me
if you've been following my work you
know i believe the customer is not
always right but they are always the
customer and this guy was interested in
winning a debate about the sauce versus
taking care of me all he had to do was
say something like i'm sorry is there
something else i can get you instead i
was stuck with food that didn't taste
good and the sauce that oh well it now
tasted like the manager's dirty finger
okay so that's a slight exaggeration but
who wants to eat food after you witness
an employee sticking his or her finger
into the food so the lesson is clear
trust your customers don't say things or
take actions that question the integrity
of your customers if you want your
customers to trust you you must also
trust your customers well
thanks for joining us i hope you enjoyed
this short lesson this is shep hyken
reminding you to always be amazing