So Your Customer is an Asshole.

We have all been there. We have had that one customer who is impossible to please. Nothing you do is good enough. This is the customer you think about for hours after the two of you hang up the phone and talk about months after the incident.

Let me start by staying that the majority of people are good and reasonable when they understand the full story. However there are people who just seem to enjoy being difficult. They are willing to force the issue because they know they will get thier way more often than not.

Now most companies tell their employees to simply deal with it. The Mantra is “the customer is always right”. However you have to draw a line. Not because other people will abuse it, but because any abuse will not hurt the customers, it will hurt your employees and their enthusiasm.

The biggest cost that many small businesses face that is not talked about enough is employee turnover. When an employee leaves, it often costs 6-24 months of pay in order to replace that position. These costs come from manager time, lack of management productivity, training, HR costs, job postings, time spent on interviews, and tech costs. The numbers go higher the more specialized the particular employee is.

So by having a “The customer is always right” philosophy, you can be making pennies and losing dollars. Having a high level employee dissatisfaction.

So how should you deal with asshole customers? My suggestion is that you simply don’t as much as possible.

If you are not in a position to fire the customer yourself, make sure you develop a strategy to handle them with your team. See if you can have other people deal with them on occasion. Make sure you also let the customer know when they are being disrespectful. If they persist in insulting you, let your managers know. Record the conversation whenever possible.

Sadly, if this customer continues to be irrational and you managers refuse to do anything about it, you may want to start looking for another job. Not having support from your management team is probably one more thing on a long list of things that are going wrong at your current company. If they care more about a problem character than they care about you, it may be time to move on.