Good morning, everyone. My name is Barry Himmel, and I want to thank you for attending the webinar. I'm getting some feedback here on my headset, so let me work through that, and we'll get back here in a second. All right, Liz, can you let me know if you hear me? I turned off my speakers. Or send me a chat if you can hear me okay. No, Barry, you're good to go. All right, again, my name is Barry Hemel, and I want to thank you for participating in our webinar this morning, working with challenging customers or working with upset customers. I am part of Signature Worldwide, so for the next hour, we're going to be talking about this important topic. So what defines a challenging customer? And I guess before we jump into that, I'm not sure how familiar you are with Signature, but I'll give you a brief introduction to who we are and a little bit about myself. So I've been with Signature for 23 years, and we are focused on the customer experience. So some of you may be familiar with, we've done a lot of work in the equipment industry. We are out of beautiful Columbus, Ohio. And as I mentioned, we focus on the equipment industry and the rental industry. We're proud to have been affiliated with AED for many years. So as a matter of fact, we have a presentation at the summit coming up in Chicago in January. So that's always a fun time for us. And I was thrilled that AED had selected this as a topic for a webinar, because it always frustrates people. And whenever we do a lot of training, and that when we do the training, I always talk to our clients about what it is that's most important to you. So we talk about the training, we want to increase sales, we want to improve the customer experience. But this topic always comes up as an issue that frustrates employees. And we want to look at what a challenging customer is this morning, and what behaviors make that, and how do you respond to it. So there's a whole bunch of issues surrounding that. So again, this is me, and you can tell which one I am, I hope. I guess I have to update the picture, because it's, you can tell it's outdated. And again, we work with, like I said, a wide range of equipment clients, and we help focus on that customer experience. So why is the customer experience, why is working with upset customers such an important part of your job? So what I want to do, what I want to start out with, is kind of building some of this compelling data, which says learning how to do this is an important part of your job. And we're all thinking about customer's complaints. So there's some interesting statistics here, and let me, let me build them up here, whoops. So 96% do not complain to anyone who may be able to help them. So a lot of times, customers are just going to be quiet when they have a complaint. And one of the takeaways that I want you to have today, is when a customer complains, or a customer's upset, that's not necessarily a bad thing. If a customer is having a problem with my company, I want to hear about it. Because what we don't want to happen is that customer to stop doing business with us, start doing business with someone else, and then start talking about our company. So most customers will not complain. We've all been in situations where at a restaurant, the food's okay, the service is slow, and then the manager does his or her obligatory stop by the table, how's everything, and we say it's fine. Because we just don't want to have to deal with it. But in reality, you're not coming back, and you're going to tell people. So most people will not complain, and when they do complain, I want to hear about it so I can correct it. 90% with unresolved complaints will never return. 60% with resolved complaints will return. So that's further evidence that we want them to complain, and you need to make sure you understand and the people on your team understand that an upset customer isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's a chance to win that customer back. And 95% will return if they feel their complaints were quickly resolved to their satisfaction. And I know that's true in my personal life. If I'm able to address a situation and the person is able to take care of that situation professionally and promptly and apologize and all the types of skills that we're going to talk about in the next 45 minutes, then I actually have a more loyal customer. So it's all part of the job. And I'm going to mention this a couple of times, but again, we want customers to share their feedback. If they're not happy, we need to know about it. Service providers don't learn how to work well with difficult people, lose their hair, their eyeballs, and their customers. The nature of the job requires that you sometimes work with customers who drive you up a wall. So people come in all different shapes and sizes. And some are going to be the greatest people in the world, and some of them are just going to be challenging. And there's no control over that. When that phone rings or someone walks through the door, there is that fear of the unknown. And the reality is, and this is important, the reality is that most people are good. And almost all of your customers are easy to work with, but it's the ones who are challenging are the ones that you remember the most. And somehow you think that everybody is challenging, but in reality, it's a very, very small percentage of people who are not satisfied. 80% of all customers who leave for a competitor report being satisfied with the previous company's complaint handling policy. So another factor that we need to work into this equation is being satisfied today isn't good enough, especially in the equipment industry, where you have this customer intimacy, where customers know you and trust you and what you're selling and renting and supporting is critical to their livelihood. So they not only need to be satisfied, they need to be delighted. 80% of the CEO survey believe that the company, so leadership thinks that they're doing a good job, and I hear this all the time. Leadership feels that their folks are doing the right thing, and they're often surprised when customers leave them because of a service issue. So is satisfying to customers enough, and you've all seen this data, a dissatisfied customer will tell 9 to 15 people about his or her bad experience. Approximately 13% of your dissatisfied customers will tell more than 20 people about their problem. And this is the same thing that we all have. Using a restaurant example, because we all go there, if you have a bad experience and someone says, how was your dinner last night, you're going to tell them about that. And you're going to be a little more emphatic when it's a bad experience. So there's this loyalty that you're going to build when you are delighted with your experience. Approximately 13% of your dissatisfied customers will tell more than 20 people about that situation. So satisfaction is not enough, and again, two points I want to bring out early on in our talk here is, one, almost all customers love you and your company because you're successful and you've been in business, and we tend to remember it. And two, when a customer complains, it's not necessarily a bad thing. What's bad is when you don't know how to respond to it. So here's some more data. If you like data, we've got plenty of it. For every complaint you hear, there are 26 additional customers with unresolved problems or complaints, and of these, six are serious and you'll never hear from 26 of them again. And they're the ones that can tell you how to make your business better. And I think that's another interesting topic. If you're really listening and if someone has a complaint, then you can learn from that and you can make your organization stronger. And somewhere along the line while you're servicing that customer that does have a complaint, you want to thank them for bringing that to your attention. They need to know that they're appreciated in every aspect of your interaction. So don't dismiss it. I mean, sure, there's going to be some situations where their request is unreasonable, but they're still the customer and it's still their request, and you need to take it serious and you need to factor it in and say, can I be a stronger organization as a result of this? Organizations that provide training for protective techniques. So I'm thrilled that you're taking time to be here this morning. And that shows that this is something that you can learn for. And leadership needs to have this discussion on what do you do when a customer says that. Because as I mentioned earlier, it always comes up when we talk to people about training. This is always one of the topics that they want to cover. And then when we do our training classes, and we do hundreds of training classes for equipment dealers, this topic always comes up in the training. And we're glad it does, because it's on their mind, and we want to talk through different techniques like we are going to do this morning on how do you effectively work with customers that are upset. You've also had situations, and this piece of data tells you that as well, happy customers that have complaints. We've covered well. We'll tell four to six people about their positive experience. So you've been in business for a long time. Equipment dealers have a great history. They have a strong community presence. And it's a small universe that you work in. So they're going to tell customers, they're going to tell each other, they're going to talk when they're satisfied and when they're not satisfied. I really like this slide, because it talks about the importance of loyalty and how expensive it is to track a new customer as opposed to retaining a customer. So you've worked so hard to build your business and get that customer. And it's so unfortunate if they leave because of a customer complaint, or sometimes you don't even know why they left, because they had a service issue, the rental was late, the parts didn't show up on time, the piece of equipment isn't working to their satisfaction. There's lots of different reasons, and you need to find out those reasons, you need to address the situation, and you need to work hard to build that loyalty. We're still very much in the people business. So these aren't automatic transactions, it still requires interaction, which is what keeps me in business and what keeps you in business, because we need to make sure every one of those interactions goes well. So it's much more expensive, as you know, to attract a new customer, and you have to work a lot harder to get one, than it does to retain one. And that's why it's very important that you give your customers the attention that they need. So what are some common situations that might cause a customer to be dissatisfied or unhappy? And I like this question, and we don't have to answer it, but think about this, how often do you really encounter a challenging customer? If you want to type something in the chat box, that'd be great. If you're encountering a challenging customer hourly, then you've got some serious issues, or even daily. But like I said, you're in a people business, and things sometimes aren't going to go right. So it could be every week or every month. And I like to think of it sometimes as, when you go home and someone says, how was your day? You're going to immediately think of the people that, of the customers that maybe were a little more challenging, or even some colleagues that were challenging. When in reality, like I said earlier, that the overwhelming number of people are just great to work with, and an overwhelming number of transactions are routine and done with perfect execution. There's the one or two that you tend to remember, and that's what you have to fight against. So everyone has a bad day, keep that in mind please. You as employees have a bad day, your customers have a bad day. We're all under pressure, and the pressure seems to be increasing. So sometimes customers will take that out on you, sometimes maybe they're just grumpy by nature, but if you remember the purpose of the transaction, and your job is to service them, then I'm sure it will go great. So this happens to be my, I think, one of my favorite slides in here, so we'll spend some time. And now, hopefully I've spent the last 17 minutes convincing you that two major points. When a customer is upset, that's not necessarily a bad thing, I want to hear about it. It's a lot better than not hearing about it and having them go somewhere else. And two, that the number of people in reality who are upset, hopefully, is low, very low, those are the ones that we tend to remember. All right, so take a stance, work together. So when the customer sees you as, so these are different skills related to how I can possibly handle this. When the customer sees you as being on the same side, the customer is less likely to be aggressive or obnoxious, and tends to be more cooperative. So from the start, was everything okay with the rental, is there anything else I can help you with? When the customer is upset, I've been waiting two hours for the rental to show up, you told me that part would be here yesterday, and I still don't have it, I can't use the piece of equipment without the part, the service guy's late, whatever that situation is, we're going to talk about this as we move through, but in my world, the first thing I would do is apologize and emphasize. They need to understand and not be defensive, they need to understand that you're working together, and that the situation isn't acceptable to you, and you're going to do everything you can to correct it. So which brings us to the middle column there, what you want to do is send a message that you're working with the customer and not working against the customer. So we don't want to hit where it's impossible, that never happens. A request might be unreasonable, but like I said earlier, it's their request, and they're the customer, they're paying the bills, and they feel it's reasonable, and you need to address the situation. Dealing with difficult or challenging customers involves using a number of techniques, many of which are easy to use, and that's what we're going to talk about. So the key here is working together, and not to be defensive, and we have this little mnemonic that we like to use when we're talking about it. So the next thing I want you to think about is the word lead. At the end of the interaction, you want everyone to be satisfied, you want it to be good for your company, you want it to be good for you, and of course, you want it to be good for the customer. So you need to be able to do several skills in order to make that happen, and the first skill, and we'll go over that in greater detail, is to listen, emphasize, analyze the problem, and determine a resolution. So we want you to lead the conversation, and these are the four skills that we are going to spend our remaining time thinking about and discussing. So let's talk about listening, and there's different types of listening, and in reality, today, in general, we're not great listeners, and there's a couple of reasons for this. One is we all think we're great multitaskers, and we're forced to multitask, so you've got your cell phone near you, you, as a matter of fact, there's a good chance that, you know, if you're on this webinar, you're half listening to it, and half doing something else. Maybe you're answering an email, you're checking your phone, whatever that might be. So it's hard, really, to give someone your focus if you're doing something else, and what I'd love for you to do in all situations is when that customer calls, when that customer sends you an email, I guess it doesn't have to be limited to a customer, it's, you know, with your colleagues, you want to give them undivided attention. So we want to be active listeners, and that is the best technique. So we'll talk about the value of letting them vent, but what I want you to, my hope for you is that when you're interacting with a customer, especially if they're upset, you're not making assumptions, you're not saying, I've heard this before, and you know what to do, because sometimes they'll surprise you, and it'll be something different. So you want to be engaged in the conversation, and to be engaged in the conversation means removing the distractions and listening to them. So there's different, let me go back here, I want to talk about three modes of listening, and I like this question, what's the point of asking a question if you're not going to listen to the answer? So tell me what happened, and then, you know, you're kind of assuming that, so you need to give them your full attention. One type of listening is combative or competitive, and that's, hopefully no one will ever do it, it's more on the extreme side, but that's where you're promoting your own point of view, or you're listening for faults or weak points, you're waiting for them to maybe say something that's inaccurate, and you can come back and counter their argument. So if you want a productive discussion, you're going to have to be open, and you're going to have to listen to it, and not listen for that one flaw in their argument, where maybe you can prove them wrong. You said the rental would be there at 9 o'clock, well it's 10 o'clock, it isn't, and in reality you told them it's 10 o'clock, and you're desperately looking for the email to prove it. You told them the part would be there yesterday, and, you know, you left them a message to that effect, that it wasn't going to be there, well, whatever, you can let them know that, but you want to do it in a positive and productive way, you don't want to look at it as a way to build them down, because at the end of the day you want to retain this customer, and you want them to say great things about you, and being combative isn't going to accomplish that. Attentive, but passive. So now we're sort of adapting some better skills here, and you want them to be genuinely interested, you want to listen for them, you want to be engaged, but you don't want to be overbearing, you don't want to be talking over the customer. So it all comes down to listening. Most importantly you want to be actively engaged in the conversation, so you're generally interested, you're listening to their words, you're listening for their message, you're asking follow-up questions. So this is the slide I want you to be focused on. And there's certain listening techniques, if a customer, whether it's a complaint or not, just listening in general, periodically you maybe want to chime in, or at least acknowledge, okay, I'm hearing what you're saying, I'm understanding it, okay, that makes sense. Ask a follow-up question, verify it through feedback, so what I'm hearing you're saying is this, this, this, this, this, you were expecting it at nine, it didn't come to ten, you know, here's what we're going to do about it, type of thing. You also want to let the customer vent, so please don't try to talk over them or argue, don't interrupt them, it's very frustrating. You know, make sure they know that, okay, you know, please let me know what happens. You know, thank you for calling ABC Equipment, this is Jim, how can I help you? Yes, I was expecting a part today and it hasn't shown up and we desperately need it, so if that was my situation, I would say, I'm really sorry to see that, can you tell me a little bit more about the situation? So let them vent, we're going to fix this, so tell me a little bit more about the situation. And because they're dialing your number and they're already rehearsing in their mind what they're going to tell you, and if you don't let them do that, then they're going to get frustrated. So everyone's already heard that, I need to get it off my chest, well this is getting it off their chest. Let the customer have their say, even if you know what they're going to say, and even if it might be incorrect, you know, you have documentation that said the part wasn't going to be there until tomorrow, let them have their say, and as part of the resolution, you can point out the fact that you sent them a document that said it wasn't going to be there until tomorrow, and you would do that professionally, but let them vent. So, so far we have, be a great listener, let them vent, take the opportunity for that venting to help build rapport. You need to take control of the situation by asking good questions, alright, the best way to get a person to stop talking is to simply say nothing at all, but you still want to make sure that they know that you're engaged. When they do pause, that's a good time for you to jump in and start taking control of the situation. Please try to avoid any interruption. This is me being silent, the value of silence, letting you read this. Another good technique in working with challenging or upset customers is to use this we technique. It shouldn't be, so there's a couple things here, so it shouldn't be an us and them. You want to be, the customer, the client needs to understand that you're on the same page, and you are focused on a solution just like them, so this is what we are going to do, and they want to understand that. The other thing that's very important when you're trying to resolve a situation is you don't play the blame game, and you might think it will help them, but in the long run it just hurts the organization. Well, that's accounting, accounting always is slow. We have a new person in the service department, they're just not stepping up, you talk to Jim, Jim's new. It doesn't make your organization look good, it doesn't make you look good, it doesn't make the customer feel any better, it might get you past the situation, but at the end it really just kind of brings everyone down. So forget about the blame game, use the we technique. And I gave you some examples, here's what we're going to do to help you fix the situation. What I suggest that we do is this. There's also some things to avoid, and some of the customers have said, you've done a good job listening, you've assessed the situation, you want to make sure that you try to avoid, and some of these are terribly obvious and some of these aren't as much, but when I put this together and I looked at this list and did some research, starting at the bottom, if someone tells me to calm down, all that does is escalate it. So I'm trying to get my job done, I'm trying to resolve it, and being reprimanded by someone that I need a service from is just going to cause me to tell everyone in the world about this situation. And the world, as you know, has gotten a lot smaller with internet and Twitter and all sorts of different ways. So I'm sorry you feel that way, that can be a little condescending. I would prefer, I'm sorry this happened, I feel bad that this happened. Try to avoid hiding behind a policy. You have policies in place, I get it, but sometimes that policy doesn't make sense for the situation and it's not always a one-size-fits-all. And even if it is a policy, you want to make sure there's some good rationalization behind that. I'm trying to think of a situation the other day that happened to me personally where someone said, you know, that's just the way we do it or that's our policy, and it just didn't make any sense. A customer doesn't want to hear you say, that's not my job, it might not be your job, but there's so many other different and better ways for you to say that. So instead of, not my job, I understand what you're saying and I appreciate it, I'm sorry that the situation happened, I'm going to have you talk to Bill, Bill works directly in that department, and I'm going to explain the situation to Bill and I know he'll be able to help you a lot quicker than I would. So that's much more professional and graceful than, that's not my job. As I already said, as I said before, you're just putting fuel on the fire. I assume, I guess, the problem with that is customer doesn't want someone who's assuming or guessing, customer wants to speak to someone with confidence and that can help them. They don't want to know what they should have done, the situation is there. What they want to know is how this is going to be resolved, and then we talked about calm down. So there's a whole bunch of other verbal triggers. You want to think before you talk, especially if the customer's upset, and there's lots of things that you can do to that. So the negative filter, again, you need to be positive. Take a moment, think about some of the names or words that you use. So you want to make sure that you remain positive. Don't take it personal, and these situations don't happen often. So if you can be higher than the situation, don't take it personal, as I mentioned. Remain positive, focus on helping the customer, and if the customer knows that you're on their side and this is not a defensive situation, then it's going to be a much more productive and quicker discussion. So there's, what this slide is talking about, there's this psychological situation that if you're thinking to yourself, well, the person that's explaining the problem, this is going to be ugly, then that's probably how it's going to come out. My preference would be, all right, how can we help this person? And then that would be a more productive situation. And that's what we're talking about here. So get away from the negative, focused on the service or the positive. What does this customer need and how can I provide it? I don't need words or phrases or tones or body language that says I don't care or whatever. Your word choice and your tone is everything here. So you can't be unengaged, and they can pick up on it, so they'll know if you're being treated with indifference and that will just kill the situation. They'll ask to talk to a supervisor before you even know what happened. So we talked about listening. We talked a lot about listening. We talked about trying to avoid multitasking and focusing on what the customer is saying and not making assumptions and using the we technique, avoiding the blame game. The next one would be to empathize. So what is empathy? So we're going to talk about those skills, and empathy really is putting yourself in the customer's situation and making sure that you appreciate the situation that they've been placed in. And again, it's their point of view. You might think that it's the most minor thing in the world. You could have a customer that was expecting the part at 9, and it's 9.05, and they're already on the phone, and you're thinking, cut me a break. But it's their perspective, and you need to be able to deal with this, and I can understand why you're expecting it at 9, you've got people there at 9, and we need to fix this situation. So often with empathy, and here's some statements that we can look at. I can understand how the circumstances will make you feel upset or inconvenienced. So you want to be able to use these statements to put themselves in that situation. I can understand how upset you might feel right now, how challenged you might feel right now, so once they recognize that you are being empathetic, and here's the real key to an empathy statement, is one, using the right words, and two, is delivering it. We've all been, it drives me crazy when someone does this and it just comes across as rote, robotic. So you need to, I don't want you weeping, but this will be delivered much more successfully if you say it and you mean it, and you should mean it, because they were counting on you to do the job, you're not taking it personally, and for some reason, as an organization, we fell short. You might not have caused the situation, but to them, you're the company. So I can understand how upset you might feel right now. It certainly sounds as if the situation has inconvenienced you. I would feel the same way if I was in your situation. Let's see what we can do to correct this. I know how upset you must be feeling right now. You know what? If that happened to me, I would be mad as well. I know you have people there who are waiting to get the job started, and then work with them to focus on the resolution. So if we had a process here, I want to listen to them, I want to let them vent, and then I want to be able to immediately be empathetic and apologetic, so that we can address the situation. They need an understanding that they're talking to someone that cares. All right, so look at these, and again, we don't have to answer these, but I think it should be the best example of an empathy statement, and hopefully it's obvious to you. A, okay, I'm sorry it happened, yep, I agree, I understand how upset you must feel right now, and obviously it's D. So there's a difference between B and D. D is empathetic, D is apologetic, and they're both important, but in terms of empathy, D is the right answer. All right, so we talked about listening, we talked about empathy. Now let's analyze the problem. So with a challenging customer, it's important to analyze the problem, and we're going to talk about a couple of skills to do that, and I'm not going to spend a ton of time on this, because you're all professionals, and you know how to analyze the problem, but you want to make sure that you've given it the proper amount of thought, and there's some things that we talk about in this section that I believe will help you there. So one of the things that you might want to do is make sure you understand when you're analyzing the problem is the difference between a closed-ended and an open-ended question. So tell me when this happened would be a closed-ended question, open-ended question, what led up to the situation, and then you want the customer to be able to elaborate on that. So understanding questioning techniques as you analyze the situation is very important, and procedurally you want to start out with these open-ended questions, and as you understand the situation more, then you can focus on closed-end. And maybe the ending closed-end question would be, all right, so if we got the piece of equipment to you by 2 o'clock tomorrow, would that work? And if it's a closed-end question, yes or no? And you should already know the answer to that question because you've had a discussion with them ahead of time. Use the mirror technique, so you want to be able to reiterate the situation to them to make sure that you understand it. It would be unfortunate if you're solving a problem that really doesn't exist or wasn't what the customer thought it was. So I appreciate you sharing that information with me, Madam Customer. Let me make sure I understand it. You're saying this, this, this, and this, and this happened. I guess I shouldn't say you're saying. So summarize this is what happened, and hopefully if for some reason you misunderstood, then they'll correct it, but they will appreciate the fact that you took the time to listen, you took the time to write down notes, and you were able to read it back to them because what they don't want is you to solve a problem that wasn't there or wasn't really what they called about. So the mirror technique is really a good technique to show that you were listening and you understood the situation, and they're in agreement with what the situation is, so the customer has a chance to verify or correct it when you repeat it back to them. Hopefully you won't have to do this, but I kept this slide in here in terms of disengagement, you know, where people need to take a time out, and let me reiterate, and this happens very, very rarely. If someone is abusive or is using language that you don't feel is appropriate, you don't have to take that, at least in my opinion, and I understand that you're upset, but there's no value in talking to me that way, and if you're going to continue to talk to me that way, then I'm going to have to have you talk to someone else in my organization or we're going to need to disconnect. So you work too hard, you care too much for someone to be abusive, and at no point in this discussion of working with an upset customer would I agree that if someone is not being professional or being abusive, would you have to take that, and you could say, you know, let me think about this, and if we can talk maybe in an hour, I think that would be best for everyone kind of thing, because probably at the end, the customer will realize that what they said was inappropriate, and especially if they know that you're trying to work with them, and if you're using that we technique that we talked about. And here, offer a reason for the disengagement and offer a time span and stick to it. So I'll be back in 10 minutes, can I call you back in 10 minutes, let me do some checking. Again, you can, and disengagement could happen for some very productive reasons that, you know, I need to check on this and get back to you, but if someone is, if there's some belligerence, you might need to disengage. All right, and then determine the resolution. So we listen, empathize, analyze the problem, and determine the resolution. So let's talk about what that resolution looks like. And so again, when you offer the resolution, you want to make sure you restate it, so you're fixing the situation that the customer talked about. Again, I really want to apologize that this happened, and let's spend a moment talking about the difference between apology and empathy. When you apologize, it's, and some clients that we talk to have trouble apologizing for something they didn't cause. Sometimes all the customer wants to hear is that you're sorry, and again, we need to understand that you're representing your company, and even though you didn't cause the situation, it's appropriate for you to apologize. And the apology costs nothing. And do it with some, again, no weeping, but do it with sincerity. And then you want to empathize. I'm really sorry the situation happened. I understand how you would feel, you know, I understand how the inconvenience has caused you. So restate it, show empathy, and then offer the resolution. And this is important on the bottom there. Do not offer a resolution that you can't provide. And there's often this discussion here about what is an appropriate resolution, and it's all situational. But often the customer just wants the problem fixed. You don't have to come after them with a significant discount or free this or free that. Sometimes it's just an apology. And, you know, an offer to correct the situation. If you want to offer a discount, if you want to offer a hat or a trinket or something, and if you think that's appropriate, then great. But let's go on the assumption that unless the customer tells you, I want a discount, that, you know, that isn't necessarily what you have to do. And most important, what we're saying here is don't offer them a solution that you can't exceed. So don't tell them, well, you'll have that part there in 10 minutes, and it's not going to be there in 10 minutes. I might be exaggerating there, but, you know, if the reality is the part is back ordered and it's not going to be there for a month, that's the reality. And they'll appreciate the honesty. You know, I just understand. We didn't realize that the part was back ordered. I really apologize for that. I understand you're waiting for it. I just checked with them, and they said, unfortunately, it's three weeks. When we get done with the phone here, I'm going to call them up and see if there's anything we can do to shorten it. But right now it's three weeks, and I will call you back and let you know. So you want them to understand that you're working on their side. But don't over-promise here and under-deliver. You want to under-promise and over-deliver. So here's a fun little quiz here. Listen. Yep. Empathize. Yep. Advance the sale and determine a resolution. So obviously, C is that situation. And the other part of determining a resolution, it's important that everyone understands what the situation is and what you're going to do to resolve it. And you want the customer to buy into that resolution. And OK, so if we're able to do this and that, will that work for you? Yes. And they'll thank you. You'll thank them. They'll tell you how much they appreciate your hard work. And you'll say, it's my pleasure. And you'll make sure that they know that they can call any time they have a problem. So you want to leave it on a good, positive last impression. There's more work involved than working with challenging or upset customers. There's no doubt about that. And that's why it always comes up as a concern of our clients that they want to have the tools. And the other thing to be considered here is that every situation is different. And that's the other part of the challenge is there's no one size. There's no one answer. So you have to look at it individually. And because of the lack of routineness associated with it, that causes a little more angst among people that may be uncomfortable with that situation. It throws you off guard. So if you're able to follow this lead process where you're listening and empathizing and addressing the situation and delivering a resolution, then it's going to be a more successful process. But again, there's no script associated with this. But there is a process. So what do we do from here? Well, this is the situation. So there's a couple of things that I would do. Working in an equipment company, and this was an issue, there's several things that I would do. I would review this lead technique. This webinar is being recorded, so you can listen to it as many times as you like. I know listening to me more than once will be a challenge, but you're welcome to do that. And I would practice as an organization. You want to do everything you can to minimize the frustrations within your organization. These are going to happen. They need to understand they're going to happen. They need to understand that they need to convert this person from someone who's upset to someone who's incredibly loyal. And that's going to take some time, and that's going to take some practice. There's no one-size-fits-all here. So almost always in our training and in our skills is we recommend this practice. And when you as an organization meet, this should be part of your topic. You know, tell me about a time when someone was upset and what you did to correct the situation. Or let's look at the top five reasons people call and they're upset. And what can we do to correct the situation? And you can role-play it, making sure they understand the key elements of apologizing and empathizing and letting them vent and listening and what listening means and go through some of those activities to make sure that this isn't treated as just another routine call and the end goal is to create a loyal customer. So my next steps for you would be a couple things. One is I have my contact information. I'm Barry. There's also my colleague is on the phone as well, and he works with a lot of our equipment clients, Mark Aldinger. And so either Mark or I would be happy to help you. Those are emails. I'll leave it up here for a while. So if you have questions, you can submit them now. You can call or email us. We are going to be at the summit in January in beautiful Chicago. So if there's any particular situations that you feel that we can help with, this is what we live for. This is what we do. And we would love to talk with you about that. So if you have any questions, you're welcome to enter them in the chat box. You're welcome to give you a Mark or I a call, and we'd be happy to talk to you about those as well. And other than that, we appreciate your participation and taking the time to listen to this and listening to this and giving it the attention that it needs. So if there aren't any questions, we will just conclude. And I thank you so much for your participation. Hope you have a wonderful day.

challenging customers

active listening

empathizing

problem analysis

customer complaints

customer loyalty

we technique

defensive behavior

organizational improvement