How to handle high demand customers

If you work with customers in any aspect of your business you have probably run across at least one or two customers who are high demand customers or basically customers that are difficult. With these people it seems that nothing you can do or say is going to make them happy and all they want to do is scream and yell. And as a business manager or even a business owner you need to know how to handle these types of customers, basically you are going to need to know how to deal with these customers so that you don't burn yourself out or so you don't get in trouble for not doing your job.

Difficulty rating: Moderate to difficult

Step one:
The first thing that you need to do when dealing with a high demand customer is to get in the right mind frame. Basically what you need to do in this case is to make sure that you tell yourself that nothing this person can do is going to neither upset you nor can anything they do ruin your day.

Step two:
The next thing that you need to do is to make sure that you are not the one being difficult. This is especially true if it seems that most of your customers are being difficult or are being demanding. Sometimes we are just not in the mood and tend to take it out on the customers and it comes through as us being difficult so the customers in turn are being difficult back. If this is the case you need to remind yourself that it is not the customers' fault that you are having a bad day.

Step three:
The next thing that you can do to handle high demand customers is to let them vent. Allow the customers to say exactly what is on their mind and to blow off a little steam. Basically all you need to do is to listen to what they have to say so you can understand why they are mad or upset and then see if they can offer you some suggestions about what might make them happy.

Step four:
Rather than lecture or yell at the customer about how it is actually their fault that the product broke because they weren't using it right or something similar offer to help them. But when asking to help them make sure you have done it after they have finished venting and don't be condescending to them.

Step five:
The next thing that you are going to need to do is to get to the root of the problem. And the only way that you are going to be able to get to the root of the problem is through active listening, meaning you actually need to pay attention to what the customers are saying and what is going on. But you are also going to need to ask open ended questions to make sure that you are getting to the root of the problem.

Step six:
The next thing that you need to do is to offer the customer a solution based on what the problem is. But in order to offer them a solution you are going to need to tell the customer what their problem is and how it happened based on what you understand. You need to do this and make sure that you understand what is going on before you move on.

Step seven:
Now that you actually understand the problem you need to give the customer the solution that will fix their problem and make both of you happy. But keep in mind it might take a few solutions to solve the entire problem, you might only be able to solve a small portion of the problem, but it is still a step in the right direction.

Step eight:
Make sure that the customer is in agreement with the solution, meaning make sure that you get the customer to verbally agree that the solution is going to work or is at least worth a try.