Dealing with bad customers who think they are in the right

[Carson]

Have you ever had a customer who would make trouble all the time? And whenever you would tell this customer to behave or leave, they continue to act up or throw a fit? I used to work at Subway and I hated it. Had many unruly customers come in and make a fuss about something. If it wasn't the good, then it was the atmosphere, the wait time, the drinks, etc. 

How do you put on a happy face when dealing with any bad customers? 

[Scarlett]

I have when I was younger. I had a woman yelling at me over the price of an item in a store. I had no control over it. I had to wait almost 10 minutes for the manager so I had her yelling at me while trying to ring other people out. It took all I had in me not to tell the woman to f off! That was one of the OG karens, I swear. I still remember her name too. It was Barb Sanders. She must have said it to the manager 10 times like it was a threat. 

[Stacey]

Anyone who has worked in retail knows what this feels like. I have experienced it at two different jobs. It is horrible to deal with. I always try to be a kind, calm, centered person but some people don't appreciate or even acknowledge that. 

[Emma]

Anytime I hear of these stories, I think about Karens. We have had them for so long and didn't even realize it. I have had interactions myself but I don't remember all the details. I try not to leave space in my brain or memories for these kinds of people. They are not worth it. 

[James]

I work retail to this day and some people are just this way. 

My method I use and what I try to teach our team members is to remember it's not personal. No one is angry at you directly you are just the person there to listen to someone. 

So once they understand its not personal it tends to impact them a bit differently. From there we just keep trying to diffuse a situation. "Yes I have listened to your concerns and this is what policy allows me to do." type things. 

Always smile and always act cheerful and kind (typically frustrates people that want to be miserable even more). Work within the policies that are laid out. 

We do our best to make every customer happy but sometimes it is not possible to do. We as a business need to make money too and sometimes its not worth keeping someone as a customer and just not appeasing them to have them move on to another business. 

Customers think they are always right but they forget a business can choose their actions too. If someone is going to be more of a pain then they are worth just stop doing business with them. I understand not everyone will have that luxury but sometimes it is the last resort if a customer is going to end up costing the business money over the long term. 

[Justin89]

58 minutes ago, James said:

I work retail to this day and some people are just this way. 

My method I use and what I try to teach our team members is to remember it's not personal. No one is angry at you directly you are just the person there to listen to someone. 

So once they understand its not personal it tends to impact them a bit differently. From there we just keep trying to diffuse a situation. "Yes I have listened to your concerns and this is what policy allows me to do." type things. 

Always smile and always act cheerful and kind (typically frustrates people that want to be miserable even more). Work within the policies that are laid out. 

We do our best to make every customer happy but sometimes it is not possible to do. We as a business need to make money too and sometimes its not worth keeping someone as a customer and just not appeasing them to have them move on to another business. 

Customers think they are always right but they forget a business can choose their actions too. If someone is going to be more of a pain then they are worth just stop doing business with them. I understand not everyone will have that luxury but sometimes it is the last resort if a customer is going to end up costing the business money over the long term. 

That's a good way to put it. Customers can be unruly and awful to people, but they are there to throw a fit about the company and not the workers. I know when I worked for a call center, that we were told not to worry if customers yelled at you, and that we shouldn't take it personal, as they are just mad at the company. Once you realize that, it's a lot easier to talk to unruly customers. At least it was for me. 

[Stacey]

That is a fair thing to acknowledge. A lot of people take it personally but really, it is usually down to the person being angry with the store or they are just having a bad day in general. I find that as I have gotten older, I can deal with people easier because I can take notice to this.