Yaneek Page | What to do when you hate your customers

QUESTION: What do you do when you love your business but hate your customers? I would never speak it publicly, but I can admit that I hate, mi mean hate fi deal wid, some of my customers. It’s to the point where nuff days I don’t feel to open my shop, but I show up and do it because bills have to pay and food affi eat. Sad but facts!

– A reader

BUSINESSWISE: As hard as this was for you to admit, it’s a step in the right direction that you recognise how significant this problem is and that you need external help to find possible solutions.

Entrepreneurship can be a very stressful and lonely road, and the pressures can exacerbate customer challenges, making them appear worse than they really are. This is not meant to invalidate your experiences because customers can be a handful. The good news is that you can fix this and get back on track.

Ultimately, you have a choice to embark on a new career or entrepreneurial venture or equip yourself with new-found knowledge, skills, attitudes, and tools to change your approach to, and affinity for, handling customer interactions. Before you decide, you will need to answer this: What is the source of the problem and what are the triggers? Is it the customers you attract or how you treat your customers? Is it the nature of your business that brings out the worst in some people? Is it your business processes or systems? Or is it a lack of capacity to effectively manage?

One of the easiest ways to answer these questions and create the appropriate treatments in the circumstances is to enhance your ability to deliver exceptional customer service and build solid customer relationships. I am inclined to believe that you have not received effective training and coaching in these areas because of the details shared.

The most exciting thing to look forward to is that customer-relationship management will be a game changer in your personal and professional life. An important distinction is that customer service is different from customer excellence and customer-relationship management.

Customer service is reactive. It is about the assistance and support provided to customers before, during, and after a purchase or interaction. The primary focus of customer service is addressing customer inquiries, resolving issues, and ensuring that the customer is satisfied.

Customer excellence and customer-relationship management are proactive. They go beyond basic service to deliver exceptional value and experiences that differentiate you from your competitors and exceed customer expectations.

Customer-relationship management is about executing the strategies that have been developed to create and deepen customer intimacy and engagement to build loyalty, extend lifetime value, and drive positive word of mouth.

This incredible body of knowledge should equip you with enhanced emotional intelligence, empathy, effective conflict resolution skills, problem-solving abilities, and invaluable relationship-building skills. You may find that many things about your enterprise will change, including, potentially, the layout of your business, your opening hours, the ambience, products, and services, business steps and processes, business communications, and channels that you make available to customers, just to name a few.

A customer-centric business lends itself to positive customer interactions. Let me reiterate this: a customer-centric business lends itself to positive customer interactions. In other words, customers show up with a more positive attitude and leave happier when you make them the centre of the business and treat them better.

The business culture will also change. As a leader you will show up differently, communicate more effectively, learn to not take things personally, influence the energy in your space, and set a positive tone for every interaction. Your verbiage, tone, body language, and facial expressions will all change. You’ll show others more grace and become softer in your approach.

This was my experience, and my only regret was not learning sooner.

You will also recognise that a customer who complains can be a gift, and when disgruntled customers are restored, they usually become the most loyal. You will be surprised at the data and evidence that support this. You’ll also discover how listening to customers, without judgement, and with empathy and kindness can often bring the most soothing calm in hostile customer situations.

In my experience as a business trainer, and coach, I have found that many entrepreneurs are frustrated in their customer interactions, especially when dealing with angry customers because they have never developed their capacity with formal and continuous training and education in customer focused disciplines.

Being coached by an expert is important. It provides additional, needed, support to apply what you have learned in training because webinars are very different from real life, and experience and practice are key.

Now, if after this you still hate your customers, it may be time to consider other options, such as taking a non-customer facing role in your business or starting a new venture altogether. Remember, you deserve to become the happiest version of yourself and to exude that energy wherever you lead and serve.

One love!

Yaneek Page is the programme lead for Market Entry USA, and a certified trainer in entrepreneurship.yaneek.page@gmail.com