Unhappy customers are trouble for any company. It only takes one of them to spoil the entire mood and momentum for everyone. What is worst, is having one that spread negative information and present negative images to prospective customers of the company. They have reasons to be unhappy. Some don’t feel well that day. Some may have unrealistic expectations while others are just bad character.

The customers may not be always right but even so, we should keep our cool and appease them in every way. Remember they are our profit $$$! They are our future businesses too! Thus we want them to be happy again! We need to take control of customer complaints and turn them to our advantage. Here we present steps to resolve their complaints which have proven over the years to work well. Do not allow time to lapse and make things worse by avoiding the. Be fast and responsive to their unhappiness is the key success in resolving their complaints!

1. Listen with your heart – Pay attention to your customer. Do not attempt to interrupt them. Let the finish what they want to say. They feel there is a need for their story to be said out and want it been heard!

2. Thank Them — Thank the customer for bring up the problem to your attention (even though deep in your heart you really not want to hear about it). If you don’t feel this way, make yourself feel that you are aware of a new problem

3. Apologize – Sincerely apologize to the customer for the situation that they are feeling. This will cool them down for a moment. Do not justify your cause or the company stand. This is not the time for reasons or justification. An apology is all that is ever needed here.

4. Seek the Best Solution – Find the best solution. Ask them first what they would like as a solution. You be surprised that they do not really want the solution you have in mind.

5. Reach Agreement - Reach an agreement of the solution proposed to resolve the problem. This includes the time to get the resolution completed.

6. Take Quick Action – After all the talk, it is time to act. Act with a sense of urgency. Customers will feel pacified when you are reacting immediately to their needs.

7. Follow-up – After the resolution is being acted on. The problem should be resolved. Do a final closure to their complaint. Follow-up with the customer to ensure that they are fully satisfied. Ask them if there is anything that they need to be addressed if they are not fully satisfied. Be patience and you will reap the reward of a satisfied customer that will come back to you for business in the longer run.

Problems happen every now and then. It is how we admit it honestly and handle them suitably which counts. Customers will remember you for resolving their complaints and will give you another chance to delight them with the correct solution. However, a cautious note, do not drag any resolution. Be swift and accurate as possible in resolving the problems. A prolonged resolution will only worsen the customer expectation of you.

1. If you do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got! – Yes, this is true.  You will always get whatever you will when you do the same thing over and over again.  If you want something bigger and better or being more successful, you need to break out from your usual cycle!
2. Everyone has his or hers own unique map of the world – To change it, you need to first understand it – This is taken from NLP.  Each of us has our way of thinking and life experience.  To influence someone, we need to know their mental model.  We need to know why certain things are important to them and through that we can address them accordingly when we want to influence them.
3. You already have most of the resources you need to influence people – You are all of the resources.  You need not read all the books on influence and negotiation to get you influential.  What you need to do is practice and practice.  Practice makes perfect.  Sharpening your influencing skill in every session.  You can shape the way you perceive things.  It all starts from you!
4. If someone else can do something, you can learn from the person’s success – You just need to model their skills – Do not reinvent the wheel.  People are success because they have a model that is effective and working already!  Learn from them.  Emulate the best practices from them that work well for you.
5. The meaning of your communication is the response you get – There are no failures, only outcomes – Yes there are no failures, only outcomes.  Whatever response you give, whatever decision you make will only generate outcome.  Therefore, it’s wise to always think of what you desire to achieve and work towards that, instead of blaming on yourself or anybody for being the point of failure.

This is taken from the book, The Influential Fundraisers authored by Bernard Ross and Clare Segal.  This book has content targeted to fundraisers as the title describes.  However, the applicability of the techniques can be used on all aspects of influence and negotiation.  That is even to influence your colleagues and boss to a decision or influence a customer’s sales decision.  Be sure of what your colleagues are basing on in deciding and you will definitely be able to influence them more easily.

1. Too little – Whatever you are proposing is too little or insignificant.  It doesn’t capture your boss’s attention.  Try providing more information or letting him see the overall benefits.
2. Too much – Whatever you are proposing is too much.  That is demanding of what can be delivered.  He cannot handle the benefits (or work) that will be coming in.  Refine your benefits (and impact) to get him agreeable to your proposals.
3. Not now – It is not the right time to do whatever you are proposing.  It could be resource constraint, or organisation maturity or market maturity.   The idea may not be effective at the current moment therefore, try approaching him again next time
4. Not in this way – You are proposing something that is not in line with what he has in mind.  He may like your idea, but it is not what and how he wants to execute it.
5. Not for this – Your boss is not keen of what you are proposing. He is just not interested. Better luck and try next time. 
6. Not you – Your boss doesn’t like you.  Simple as that and won’t take in any of your proposals.  How to circumvent this?  Get someone he likes to propose the idea!
7. Not me – Your boss is thinking, why he should be doing it.  It is not his job scope and it will be better off to approach someone else who have the capability to do it.
8. Not unless – Your boss is keen with the idea however, he needs some topping up to whatever you are proposing.  Find out more with him on what needs to be included!
9. Go away – Yes, just go away.  Your boss is not in a good mood or emotional state and it’s not the best time to discuss about anything.  Hold your proposals and wait for another day!

Again, this is taken from the book, The Influential Fundraisers authored by Bernard Ross and Clare Segal.  This book has content targeted to fundraisers as the title describes.  However, the applicability of the techniques can be used on all aspects of influence and negotiation.  That is even to influence your boss to a decision or influence a customer’s sales decision.  Be sure to know why your boss rejects you.  Address his concern and we’re sure you will get your proposal received by him!

Every one of us is different by DNA design.  So are our thoughts.  Our decision making process are different from one another based on our individual life experiences.  Although different, we can be generally categorized into the following decision models.

1. Automatic – Your colleague is fine with what your proposal.  They don’t see any implication of what you’re proposing.  You’ve addressed directly what they are concerned with and they say “yes” immediately.  However, not every one can make a decision on the spot and you won’t be able to address all their concerns at the first session.
2. Number of times – Your colleagues will agree to help you once you’ve reached the number of times you proposed the idea to them.  Not because they need to reach the number of times (maybe), but maybe the case that they did not understand in the first few rounds of proposals.  Therefore, you may come out with different versions of your proposals that reach the same objective to aid their understanding of the proposals.
3. Period of times – This time, it is not the number of times but how long that you approach your colleague.  The duration is the key deciding factor to your colleague.  They may not be ready for this proposal as they are tied up with something, or they don’t see the need (and benefit) of accepting your ideas yet.  As such, you might want to check back on their comfort level periodically.
4. Consistent over time – The last decision mechanism that your colleague relies on is the consistency over time of your proposal.  They may be looking at your integrity and consistency of what you are proposing.  This is further reinforced by the way you’ve promised and delivered results over time to your colleague where trust is in place.  Therefore, if you are handling a colleague with this mechanism, its best to stick with your principles and not make changes over time.  It may be very detrimental when they realized that you always change your principles in order to achieve your objectives.

This is taken from the book, The Influential Fundraisers authored by Bernard Ross and Clare Segal.  This book has content targeted to fundraisers as the title describes.  However, the applicability of the techniques can be used on all aspects of influence and negotiation.  That is even to influence your colleagues and boss to a decision or influence a customer’s sales decision.  Be sure of what your colleagues are basing on in deciding and you will definitely be able to influence them more easily.

Trust is fundamental in communication. When trust level is high you get things done faster and easily. Your superior trusts you. He trusts your ability to deliver and assign you work. He chooses you to complete the task. He does not monitor your every activity as he is assured of what you can delivered. Your co-workers trust you. They feel more assured working with you as a team. They know that you are a team member and can complete the portion of your work and deliver on time. All of them trust you that you will deliver results as what they wanted on time and target. They know that you can uphold the commitment to them.

Trust promotes personal productivity. Trust is a catalyst in influence at work. It is the mechansim behind influence. When someone trusts you, he gets influenced more easily with what you are proposing. They trust your ideas and believed what you are proposing to them is beneficial to them. They believed in you. Through these trusts, you are able to deliver information and delegate work faster and easier than usual. You need not convince them over and over again to gain back the trust. When trusts between you and your co-worker is taken to another level, you synergized with them. You find more solutions than anyone of you alone can do it. You deliver even more quality output than you can imagine with just yourself.

Now, without trust, we become more unproductive. We create more work for ourselves. We monitor our staff on their every move and progress. We put in place check points and milestones for them to stay on course. We make guesses of our superiors and co-workers. Even at times, you didn’t trust your co-workers in completing a certain task. In the end, you take over his work and complete on your own. Imagine all these amount of time and energy you’ve spent just because of the lack of trust! You could have been more productive if you were able to trust them!

Unfortunately, trust is not easy to build yet easy to break. A long-lasting trusting relationship can help you get things done easily. But when we break it, it will take two times as hard to win back the trust. Our advice, when we made a promise at work and life, honor it, live up to the promise. Be consistent with whatever you say. All these, earns a little trust every day. It adds a positive value to your trust account. When we do not follow such simple rules of being consistency and upholding our promises, we will one day loose their trusts in us.