How do I deal with troublesome customers?
Sometimes you come across people who you do not see eye to eye with. But relax, there is hope. Behaviour expert Carl Fredrik Bennet explains below how to improve your communication skills. This can result in you getting to know your surroundings better and even having more fun at work.
“We have all been faced with troublesome customers where it feels like there has been a breakdown in communications. The best thing you can do is to turn a troublesome customer into a satisfied one by learning the different behavioural patterns,” says Carl Fredrik Bennet.
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Carl Fredrik Bennet has extensive experience in the travel industry which includes working with the sales departments at Vingresor and Ark Travel. He works as a consultant at the personnel development company Dax Personalutveckling. His duties include helping employees at different companies to develop their social abilities. His method is based on getting to know yourself and your surroundings better.
A method that Carl Fredrik Bennet uses for improvement is to study the surroundings and assign people into four categories. This is done based on a theory taken from William Moulton Marston’s book Emotions of Normal People where the categories are given a colour coding.
Learning the behaviour patterns of these four categories allows us to communicate better with our colleagues and customers. A red person is characterised by determination, a green person by talkativeness, a blue by being reserved and a yellow as someone who is always looking for fun.
“In order to learn about categorising people, you have to base this on yourself. I usually categorise to ensure that the personnel get to take care of the customers that have the same colour category as they do. This provides effective results as people who are similar communicate in the same way,” says Carl Fredrik Bennet.
The basic idea of applying Carl Fredrik Bennet’s method is to improve the atmosphere in the office and identify customer needs from the start. “I am pleased to say that the results become evident fairly quickly. To achieve this, you need to start by identifying your own colour and expanding your own self awareness.”
Colour ABC
“The red person is dominant, fearless and very results oriented. When a red customer visited us at Vingresor, for example, it was clear that someone in a managerial capacity should deal with the customer straight away. This proved to save a lot of time and complications for the travel clerks,” says Carl Fredrik Bennet.
“Green people like to talk a lot and have difficulty making up their minds. People who have trouble making decisions need someone from our staff to take the time to listen and help them make this decision.”
“We noticed that blue people come in early in the morning and ask for specific brochures and at least three quotes. Then they visit a couple of other competitors, and after a few days they come back having decided what they want. All the personnel needed to do was to listen and make notes about what the customer asked for as blue people do not like repeating their questions,” claims Carl Fredrik Bennet.
“Yellow people like to have fun and often do not know where they want to go. If the personnel at a tour operator could guarantee that the trip was going to be a fun experience, the yellow customer would buy the package without any fuss.”
To learn more about people and their colours, visit: www.daxpersonal.se
