Problem Customers

It can happen on occasion when a customer is not happy with their repair, what they bought or with what they sold us, that they are upset when they come back into the store. If they are upset about something that we did incorrectly, then the basic golden rule is “fix the problem and get them out of here as quickly as possible.”

If they don’t want us to fix it or can’t be fixed, get approval from Management to give them a discount or refund or whatever needs to be done to get them out of here. Do not offer to clean their other jewelry, do other repairs for free, make exceptions, give special discounts, etc. We have seen that offering these kinds of appeasements can lead to even more problems. If, as a favor, we take their jewelry to clean and it takes too long or a diamond comes out of their ring, then the customer’s upset grows exponentially and becomes impossible to handle.

HANDLING PROBLEM CUSTOMERS

A problem customer could be described as someone who is unhappy for an UNREASONABLE reason. Or who is consistently unhappy with our servcies and demands special favors, discounts, or even free products or services. Most of them have had problems before, which can be found in the notes in their files.

The key thing that makes them a problem is that they are unreasonable, don’t follow logic, and won’t graciously accept our efforts to correct the problem.

Read the notes on problem customers. Sometimes you will see a pattern where every repair or purchase seems to be a problem. They are often rude, and demand a discount. We may not want to continue doing business with these types of customers. Alert the Repair Manager or the COO if you see a customer with a pattern like this so they can determine what to do.

The main thing is to handle the immediate problem, if it is our fault, and then get them out. Sometimes we may even need to ban a true problem customer. However, this could result in negative reviews, so we don’t want to “ban” as a first action.

Solve the immediate problem and gently get them out of the store.

True problem customers need to be handled with care and you should seek the help of your manager and the COO. The COO (Maggie) has a lot of experience dealing with these types.

We don’t need or want the business of a true problem customer.

HANDLING NON-PROBLEM CUSTOMERS

Sometimes things go wrong with a sale, repair, or buy with a regular customer, either from a mistake on our part, or some kind of miscommunication, and of course, we should handle it. But this type of customer is reasonable. They are also the type that will return and refer friends if we handle a problem properly.

We should handle them with as much care as possible and with these people we can offer favors, a discount, or whatever. Obviously we would fix the problem, make them happy, and we don’t need to rush them out or ban them.

The difference is that true problem customers are not rational or reasonable, and always have a problem no matter what we try to do. OK customers are rational and reasonable, and accept our efforts to make things right. There is a difference and a distinction.