Dealing with the Customer from Hell

Citation

Dietz, J. (2006), "Dealing with the Customer from Hell", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 23 No. 2, pp. 113-113. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363760610655041

This is my tenth book review for this journal but it is the first time that a book has prompted me to add it to the requirements for my upcoming personal selling course. Shawn Belding's personal style and examples are just the thing for anyone who deals with customers (as almost everyone does at some time in their lives) and for those who need a constant reminder that customers are the reason we are all employed.

At the end of the book, Belding sums up the important points with this quote:

The wonderful thing about customer contact occupations is that they give us an opportunity to hone our communication skills every day (p. 151).

The entire book leads up to the end, giving tips on listening to customers, responding to customers, promoting win‐win, and responding in the best way to the customer's needs.

LESTER is the main event in the book. LESTER means:

• •

  Listening to your customer.

• •

  Echoing the issue.

• •

  Sympathizing with your customer's emotional state.

• •

  Thanking your customer for his or her input.

• •

  Evaluating your options.

• •

  Responding with a win‐win solution.

If you master LESTER, it will benefit every interaction you have with people in the future. Belding gives enough examples of customer service people who forget some of the steps of LESTER (such as responding) that the reader will (or should) commit to not make the same mistakes. Although LESTER is an acronym, Belding introduces him as the “customer from hell” that you draw in picture form and hang in your office or place of work to remind you that there are effective ways to deal with difficult customers.

Belding does not introduce LESTER until the fifth chapter, after he has gone through “Customers and their expectations”, “A little introspection: preventive medicine”, “A salesperson's mission” and “Controlling your emotions.” Leading up to LESTER, Belding reminds the reader that:

1. 1.

   “Most often what you, as the service provider, experience is an unsatisfied customer behaving in an inappropriate manner” (p. 3) (in other words, a decent human being who for some reason does not behave as they normally would).

2. 2.

   “Customer are far more interested in how they are treated than in how quickly they are processed” (p. 21).

3. 3.

   “The essence of resolving conflict is first to separate the expectations that lead to the conflict from the behavior that fuels it and then to work to understand those expectations” (p. 25).

4. 4.

   “Customer comfort means speaking more slowly on the telephone. It means staying past closing time … ” (p. 51).

5. 5.

   “Often, the way customers perceive you has far less to do with what you say than the way you say it” (p. 53).

6. 6.

   “Emotional state must be addressed before the confrontation can be prevented or resolved” (p.62).

LESTER will remind us to:

1. 1.

   First, listen (there is a big difference between listening and hearing).

2. 2.

   Echo the issue (make sure you understand exactly what the issue is).

3. 3.

   Sympathize with your customer: “It is critical that your customer stop perceiving you as an opponent and start perceiving you as an ally” (p. 102).

4. 4.

   Thank your customer for his or her input, because “what is inside a complaint is information about your business and about how customers perceive you that 98 other people (as in 98%) didn't bother telling you” (p. 110).

5. 5.

   Evaluate your options. Go for win‐win options, not options where you as the vendor win and the customer loses, even if the customer is in the wrong. With this outcome, in the long run, the “winner” does not win at all because the customer does not come back and neither do his/her friends.

6. 6.

   Respond to the customer. Here is where many in the sales field have problems, because they “react” to the emotional hot buttons that customers push. Belding reminds us “90% will remain customers if you solve the problem instantly” (p. 127).

Customers are not inherently bad people. Both customers and salespeople have bad days once in awhile. But customer service people are reminded that techniques for dealing with customers at their worst are really just common sense and set good salespeople apart from “order takers”.

This book is excellent for any sales team, anywhere. As I have said, I will use it in an undergraduate sales class, so I can see it used in sales classes taught at the college level. As a former salesman who spent 25 years reading books like this, I can say it is excellent for beginning and experienced practitioners alike. Belding adds some information about the sales process itself that an experienced salesperson would not expect in a book like this, but it is not boring and does not detract from the value of the book.

Belding ends with a discussion of truly unreasonable customers, not the ones whose pets have just died or who failed to understand what they were buying. These include “time vampires”, the “permissive parent”, and “Hell's accountant”. The solutions to these true customers from hell are helpful, especially to relatively inexperienced customer service personnel.

Dealing with the Customer from Hell, at 152 pages, is not a long book and fits nicely into training materials of all kinds. It is humorous, full of real‐life examples, and reminds the reader that customers are owed, above all, respect and attention. I highly recommend it.