Customer Service Expert Shaun BeldingHow do you face down a fire-breathing dragon, a.k.a. the "customer from hell"? Shaun Belding tells you how to bravely handle irate and unreasonable customers

Your customer's face is completely covered with redblotches. Steam rises from his scalp; smoke pours out of his ears.His tone is measured, barely escaping pursed lips and grittedteeth, as he tells you exactly where he'd like to stick yourproduct. This guy is about to blow, and every person in your storeand the surrounding three counties is going to hear how you screwedup. At this point, it's not so much what you did or didn'tdo to turn Mr. Joe Nice Guy into the customer from hell: It'show you calm him down, turn unreasonable to satisfied, and save therelationship.

This is where ShaunBelding and LESTER come in. A veteran retail performanceconsultant, Belding has created a system to help you deal withthose customers from hell. We've asked Belding, who's alsothe author of Dealing with theCustomer from Hell: a Survival Guideandfounder of Kanata, Ontario-based Belding Skills Development Corp.(http://www.beldingskills.com),to share his peacekeeping tactics with us.

Entrepreneur.com:What isyour definition of a "customer from hell"?

Shaun Belding:It'sanybody who's behaving unreasonably. That would be the reallysimple answer. The point I make [in the book] is that it's notnecessarily an unreasonable person, but it's somebody who'sbehaving badly or unreasonably.

Entrepreneur.com:Why isunderstanding unreasonable customers important to the overallwell-being of both you and your employees?

		"Mostunpleasant customers are not unreasonable people. They areunsatisfied people who are behaving unreasonably."

Belding:We're taught,as businesspeople, how to interact positively. We're taught howto smile and sell and how to be nice. And then all of a sudden,we're faced with a very negative situation. It's verytraumatic, and the experience sticks with people a long, long time.And in many cases, the experience actually has an effect on the waypeople conduct their business in the future. It's really quiteamazing how much of an impact this can have on people.

Entrepreneur.com:You sayyou can't win with a customer from hell, but of course, youdon't want to lose either. What can you hope to accomplish?

Belding:What you hope toaccomplish is to have everybody walk away from the situationfeeling satisfied and that the right thing happened. [It's the]classic win-win situation. And really, in everything but the rarestof cases, it's possible to achieve that.

Entrepreneur.com:You have achapter in your book called "Preventative Medicine." Whatare a few tips from that chapter-things you can do to preventconflict before it happens?

Belding:Philosophically asa business-in any business-you should have the customer make therules; you shouldn't make the rules. As long as you have rulesthat you're going to force your customer to abideby-"That's the way we do things and if you don't do itthat way, then we're not going to do business withyou"-then you're going to have problems. Examples would bea store that has no return policy or a service repair company [thatwon't] say when they're going to arrive, forcing [acustomer] to sit home all day long. If you want to avoidchallenges, the best preventative maintenance is to find out whatyour customers want and deliver it exactly and precisely. Don'tmake the customers follow your rules; you follow their rules.

Entrepreneur.com:What isLESTER? How can this help you diffuse a bad situation?

Belding:LESTER is a processrevolving around two principles. The first is that most unpleasantcustomers are not unreasonable people. They are unsatisfied peoplewho are behaving unreasonably. The second is that in most cases,once we take the time to fully understand why this person isagitated and behaving the way they are, then the problem becomesmuch easier to solve and far less traumatic. I ask people inseminars, "After a customer walked away, have you ever said,'What's that guy's problem?'" And everybodylaughs and says yes, but the thing is, you should ask that questionwhile the person is there.

In LESTER, the "L" stands for listening, which isperhaps self-evident but there's an awful lot of ways to do itwrong. The "E" stands for echoing, which is reflectivelistening where you reflect back to the customer the issue as thecustomer perceives it. [That way you can] make sure you understandthe issue, and it lets the customer know you heard it. The customerwon't feel the need then to repeat himself or herself over andover again and stay agitated. The "S" stands forsympathizing, which is really validating the customer'semotional state. It's simply saying, "From what you'vetold me, I can understand why you're frustrated." Peoplelike to hear that. When somebody says, "Wow, I hear whereyou're coming from. I understand that," it takes a lot ofthe confrontational aspect out of the conflict.

“T”代表感谢客户。当mostpeople are dissatisfied, they don't tell you about it; theytell everyone else in the world. So these nasty customers, asunpleasant as what they say or do may be, are giving you somepretty valuable information. And it's genuine to be able to say"Thanks for telling me about this. Thank you for giving me achance to fix it." The "E" stands for evaluate.Theoretically, if you've gone through the first four steps,you've been able to bring the customer's emotional statedown to where it's not a fight anymore; it's a discussion.The evaluation stage is where you can work with the customer tocome up with a solution instead of butting heads. And then the"R" simply stands for responding. Once you come to adecision, do it. Don't just say, "OK, that'sgreat," and stick it on a shelf.

Entrepreneur.com:Whatadvice would you offer a business owner who wants to train his orher staff to handle these situations?

Belding:The best advice Ican give an entrepreneur who has employees is not to underestimatethe impact that negative customers or experiences have onperformance. If your employees are complaining about a customerfrom hell, help them deal with it because that's going to limittheir performance if they're not able to deal with it.