Dealing With Toxic Customers

Workplace Leadership

Long ago someone invented a silly slogan called – The Customer is Always Right. And idealistic management gurus have been using this ridiculous slogan to teach employees to tolerate all types of cranky behavior from customers. However, it’s time to call a spade a spade. There is no such thing as the customer is always right. In fact, most customers don’t really have the knowledge to know what is right or possible for a particular product or service. Secondly, whatever they demand will rarely be affordable by them. As Steve Jobs once said,

“Some people say - Give the customers what they want - But that's not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they are going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, If I had asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me - A faster horse! People don't know what they want until you show it to them. That's why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.” Now let us look at customers from an objective angle and not get carried away by slogans. The first thing every product or service provider needs to learn is to recognize their toxic customers and how to deal with them.

Toxic clients are real and an unfortunate reality in every business. Some customers are so rude and toxic that you may feel they need a tight slap but that is not possible today. You must maintain your professionalism regardless of the customer’s behavior. Here are some ways to deal with toxic customers.