This morning my day started with a very demanding customer saying that I was ignoring them and this is after I’d been responding to their whatsapp messages over the weekend and at night because I wanted to be helpful and make their booking. They were hounding me on whatsapp and were unfairly demanding/bordering on aggressive in their messaging. It came to the point where I diplomatically conveyed how their disappointment in my service to date, indicates that the experience itself will likely to disappointment them further. Their response was that they will go to social media to complain about my service. Thankfully, I deal with a client like this, probably once every 6 months which is great news.
There are three elements to this share which I unpack below.
Providing clients with access to Instant Messaging tools ~ I do SO much business on whatsapp with clients because this is where they want to communicate. I love whatsapp for business and it has definitely converted more sales in the same way as when I speak to clients over the phone where they build trust in hearing me speak about the experiences I sell. They also feel that it is more personal and faster than email and they are correct, however, one must have very firm boundaries when offering IM to clients otherwise you’ll wear yourself out. Oddly enough, I’ve tested that when I let my boundaries slide in terms of responding to messages during working hours, I more often than not attract the wrong type of client (very demanding clients, often with little money to spend are the highest maintenance to deal with).
The other part of this experience is in identifying at what point during business messaging/communication do you know when its time to politely turn the client away because if they are so prickly already, this is likely to continue and result in an online complaint which is more time wasted. Experience will indicate to you when to pull the plug and if you don’t have the experience then use your gut instinct which we all have. If the client is permanently wrestling with you from initial contact through each stage of the purchase journey, perhaps tap into that feeling of discomfort and politely divert them elsewhere before they make their purchase.
Keep a very close eye on your review tabs (Facebook especially) and respond to all reviews, even the negative ones. Never get into a slinging match with customers on social media. Remain factual at all times and convey your message fairly and without any emotion.
A mentor of mine once said to me that if you are not getting complaints, you are not selling enough. I believe this to be true.
I hope you find this customer support skill helpful as if worked on, you will save yourself so much time and mind-space.
