Customer Attitudes That Push Our Buttons
© Holly Stiel
One thing is certain: these attitudes are not going to go away. They are human nature and are here to stay. What you can change is how you choose to respond. As service providers, your power and your success lies in how you choose to respond to these attitudes. This is where the true challenge of service really lies. It’s easy to be nice to people you enjoy. It is much more challenging, interesting, and rewarding to give quality service experiences to that small percentage of customers that push your buttons and may cause you to respond in a less than stellar way.
The first thing to recognize is that all customers, especially the six previously described, wear a sign on them that says ME! Mary Kay Ash of Mary Kay Cosmetics says all customers wear a sign that says "make me feel important." No matter what their personality or their attitude is, all human beings are wired the same way. We all want to be Remembered, Respected, Acknowledged, and Heard. One reason so many people holler at service providers is that they feel they haven’t been heard. Service providers need to stop and notice the true agenda being put forward, and focus on the customer’s human need to be Respected, Acknowledged, Remembered, and Heard.
To choose to do this requires that in each situation you ask yourself, “What does this customer really need and how can I provide it?” What is the human need that can be addressed as opposed to just going through the motions and providing the business need? I have a method for achieving this. I call it putting on the turtle hat of service. A turtle might not be what many people think of when contemplating customer service, but the turtle is a wonderful reminder that service is a verb and requires:
- - That we stick our necks out.
- - That we learn to have a hard shell, and not take everything so personally.
- - That we have to slow down and not react as quickly to the negative emotional triggers and traps.
To choose a more positive and service-oriented response, we must understand the elements involved in choice. All of this can happen in 10 seconds.
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