Sundaymail Editor
Cresencia Marjorie Chiremba
“You’ll never see a happy ungrateful person” – Zig Ziglar
There are a lot of customers out there who do not know how to appreciate, praise and acknowledge the good being done by their service providers.
They say gratitude should not be an event, but rather it should be a culture ingrained in the hearts of every individual and customer-centric organisation. My worst feeling comes from doing things with all my heart for a person who is not grateful enough.
However, even in our daily lives these people also exist. They are naturally unappreciative no matter how much you try to do the best version of courtesy and niceness. These people will still find a “negative but” in any situation, and they do the same even when doing business.
They are too demanding, always wanting to jump the gun and have their way. Their actions are like that of a bad date, they do not want to have a relationship with the service provider, but expect the same service provider to prophetically know their needs and delight them.
Here are some ways to deal with ungrateful customers:
1. Time and effort cannot be easily replaced
Sometimes clients are ungrateful because they lack the knowledge of the processes and effort that you put in your work for them to enjoy the services you are offering. It is important for you to sit down with these customers from hell and go through your business processes step-by-step, so that they understand and appreciate the effort you put in for their satisfaction. One thing for sure is that time and effort are not easily replaced. It is like going to your traditional home and ask for the village grannies to make you the seven days traditional beer in two days. It is absolutely ridiculous! The correct recipe to produce that quality beer is seven days and anything less than those days will result in a less than quality drink, and nobody wants to take a reputational risk for their brand.
2. Have a Round-table
Ignorance may cause people to have big disagreements on very small matters. Organisations and customers must always give room for two-way communication. Instead of flipping and throwing tantrums, avail space to communicate each other’s needs. You do not need to talk down each other, but rather be transparent and clear about the schedule, milestones and the process that the service will take for it to be ready for the market. When everything is clearly laid out and expert knowledge shared, it is the beginning of trust building. Negotiations can be made in good faith without fearing to be blacklisted or bad-mouthed.
3. Good Quality and Convenience Cost
Everything that offers better quality than its competitor costs a dollar more. This is the reason why airplane tickets cost more than train fares. In some instances, customers may ask you to produce a product sooner than the usual time and this may mean putting in extra time to work. As a professional, that customer or client asking for more must be prepared to pay more for the extra service. For instance, if you take your car for a routine service and then you realise that the same garage that’s servicing your car are good spray painters and that you want them to touch up on your car. The extra service requested must be paid for.
Customers must understand that companies are in business to make money, and it is not being unreasonable when they ask for extra charge on extra work. Nonetheless, companies must make sure that they communicate with the client before they start to do the extra work, and that they will bill the client for it. If the client agrees then you can go ahead. But if they think the work is not worth the money then there is no need to put in the extra time and work to start with.
When information is in black and white, even the most ungrateful customer will soften up and appreciate what it is worth. Ambushing a customer with unexplained work and bills is what turns them into hell hath fury.
4. Clear any eventualities
Things do happen that may delay the provision of service or product. It may be a network problem, machine breakdown or even power outages. Most of these mishaps may be unavoidable, but smart organisations always make it a point that they outline these eventualities and offer a solution on what they will do in the event that their deliverables are affected. Not mentioning or forgetting to mention this to the customer will make the company liable in breaching certain aspects of the contract, as they would have failed to honour their promise as per the agreement. If delivering a service or product is subject to the availability of electricity then the customer must be told prior to starting the contract. Do not wait until the delivery date or time is upon you to tell the customer that there has been a problem and you are going to fix it or have failed to fix it.
Ungratefulness is caused by greed, selfishness and self-centeredness.
*Cresencia Marjorie Chiremba is a marketing enthusiast with a strong passion for customer service. For comments, suggestions and training, she can be reached on [email protected] or on 0712 979 461, 0719 978 335
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