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It’s the call that makes you cringe. If you see
the name on caller ID, you want to chuck the phone across the room. If you
hear the voice on the answering machine, you feel your skin begin to crawl,
and it is all you can do to force yourself to return the call. You’ve got a
problem; it’s the dreaded toxic customer.
Toxic customers come in a variety of guises.
There is Appointment Breaking Annie, the one who consistently begs to get in
on a busy day, then no-shows, leaving you with a hole in your schedule and
your bank account. Then there is Late Larry, the guy who either shows up an
hour late to drop his dog off, or worse, an hour late to pick up, leaving
you standing tapping you toe when you could have been home with your
family. Let’s not forget Check Bouncing Charlie, the nice enough guy who is
sloppy with bookkeeping and makes you pay! Oh, and then there is
Ultra Needy Nancy, the one who calls 3 or 4 times for long chats before she
ever books Poopsie’s appointment, then interrupts your day repeatedly while
Poopsie is with you, “just checking in.” Next, she shows up early, making
sure Poopsie hears her voice and does the happy dance all over your table as
you are trying to finish her up. Bitey’s Mom is on the list, too… the
very nice lady who owns the very nasty dog. My personal
“favorite” is Last Time Lucy. With this customer the conversation always
starts with, “Last time you cut Boo Boo too short.” Or, “Last time you left
Boo Boo too long.” Or, “Last time Boo Boo shook his head 3 times after he
got home and one eyelash was 1/16th of an inch longer than
another!” There is always some flaw with “last time,” no matter what you
do. You know the types, I am sure you have met these and more, people who
stand out in the crowd of really nice customers. These are the
customers that take the joy out of our jobs.
For most of us, grooming does bring us joy. There
is the wonderful contact we have all day with well-loved companion animals.
There is the almost instant gratification we get when we are able to turn a
grungy looking critter into a clean and lovely one in a fairly short period
of time, and there is the delightful affirmation we receive from the
customers who truly appreciate our work. It would all be good, except for
those few toxic folks who cause us stress and make us not want to go to work
on a day we know we’ll have to deal with them. So why do we deal with
them? Sometimes it is because they are not quite annoying enough for
us to tell off. Sometimes it is because they really are annoying,
but we like their dog enough to put up with them, and sometimes it’s because
we just don’t know how to tell them to take a hike. We don’t want them to
go away mad, we just want them to go away!
Some of these folks could be retrained. Good
customer service skills can turn many difficult clients into excellent ones,
but sadly some folks will remain a constant problem, and those must go! So,
how do we send them packing? Somehow we must tell them they are fired!
Confrontation is not comfortable for most people,
and firing a customer is definitely confrontation. Not only that, but when
we do ask them to go elsewhere, we realize that our decision is going to hit
us where it counts, in the pocketbook. We also fear that these folks will
speak ill of us to friends and family, and cost us business. What we need
to keep in mind is that there are plenty of pleasant customers out there who
will fill the void left by the difficult ones, and friends and family of the
difficult types assuredly know the sort of people they are dealing with and
will most likely take any criticism of you with a grain of salt.
So, how do we send the toxic customer packing?
Creative groomers find a variety of ways to get the job done:
- Don’t raise the roof, raise the rates! – If
you raise the rate you charge, some annoying people will leave of their
own accord. Then again, some will stay, but will suddenly seem much more
pleasant to deal with when they pay us more. Consider this a “difficult
client” surcharge. If Larry makes you wait, bill him for your time, too!
If making our bank account richer still won’t make this client worth the
trouble you can try….
- The Letter- A polite letter mailed to the
home of the customer can inform them that you will no longer be able to
offer them service. You can choose your wording at a time when you are
calm and unruffled, and totally avoid any face-to-face unpleasantness.
This is a little cowardly, but sometimes it’s the way to go.
- You call them- All the joy of telling them to
go away, none of the face-to-face awkwardness. Many groomers find that
preplanning and preparing a speech is helpful. They even write it down
and keep it at hand before they make the call. Its ok to be vague, “I am
so sorry, but I am cutting down on the hours I work and I can’t groom
Fluffy any more. I can recommend you call…” (Fill in the blank with
another local groomer.) If they argue, just repeat yourself, calmly. Don’t
argue back. Eventually they’ll get tired of hearing you say the same thing
over and over and hang up.
- They call you- One nice way of sending a
client away is to not have any appointments available when they call to
schedule. If you tell the unwanted customer that you have no appointments
available until 2009, they will be forced to go elsewhere.
- Up Close and Personal- Sometimes there is no
way to avoid the dreaded one on one confrontation. One effective line is,
“We have decided that you and your dog will be happier someplace else. I
can recommend ____ grooming. Their number is _____.” One groomer I know
sweetly tells complaining customers, “We only want happy customers
here.” She repeats this phrase until the customer realizes they are being
dismissed.
A problem is the difference between what you you’ve got and what you
want. If you have got customers who give you heartburn and you want
to be heartburn free, cut them loose. Life is too short to spend it
dreading dealing with the sort of people who suck all the light out of your
life. Keep the joy in your work, lose the toxic customers!
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