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Something Worth SharingDifficult Customers Are Good For Business I think it’s fair to say that we’ve all experienced “the difficult customer” - or person - in our working or general life. I certainly have several that come straight to mind, where nothing I did was right for them, despite my best intentions. These customers can obviously cause a high level of anxiety and stress while trying to manage them, not to mention the upset that can be caused. But, I’ve been reminded this week that these customers will often provide more value in the long run than a great customer that we’re comfortable with. Difficult customers are actually good for business. They push us to places that we may not want (or be ready) to go to, but often have to. They force us to look at our people, products, services or systems and often lead us to up our game as a consequence. Difficult customers force us to look at things from another person's perspective, and even if they are rude, unreasonable or simply wrong, we still have to take the time to deal with it. They can encourage us to get creative - to resolve situations with a degree of imagination and negotiation. Other benefits of challenging customers include: showing us where any weaknesses are leading us to greater appreciate the ‘nice customers’ forcing us to slow down and be innovative meaning we have to review our strategy, adapt and stay agile
The other thing that these customers can do for us is highlight what we are and are not willing to endure! The more experience, clarity and confidence we have, the more straightforward it is to manage and deal with them - and learn!
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