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Challenging Customers - Love Them or Leave Them?
Author: Sandy Reed  | Posted: 01-03-2008 | Comments: 0 | Views: 9 | Rating: (50)  (?) 
 My husband and I have been blessed with many wonderful customers over our 25+ years owning and operating a residential construction business. In fact, I could count on one hand the challenging ones.
One customer in particular caused me many sleepless nights and more than a little stress for a few weeks. The relationship started out on a positive note, but quickly turned south when it became clear that their expectations and ours could never meet at a place of compromise.
If you own a small business, you will likely run across some customers who try your patience and may even cause emotional turmoil and undue stress. Here are 7 tips, from a Soulpreneur's perspective, to help when you encounter disgruntled customers.
1. Keep Your Cool. When you're upset, don't make rash decisions. Remove yourself from the situation, if possible, so you can look at it with fresh eyes. Time and distance can give you time to think about the interaction from all points of view.
2. Everyone is unique and different. Understand and accept that personalities will clash from time-to-time, and it's a normal part of doing business. If you understand it's normal, you can learn techniques to help you handle them without getting excessively defensive and taking it personally. Customer conflicts happen to the best of us.
3. Customers are human too. You don't know what's going on in their lives. Maybe their dog just got run over, or they just got fired. With intuitive listening you can hear what they may not be saying. Observe their tone of voice, body language, and the key words they use to get clues about what may be going on in their life. Try putting yourself in their shoes for a while. Empathy can go a long way towards resolving the issue at hand.
4. What are you learning that you can use in the future? We learn with every customer interaction, good or bad, what we can do differently in the future. In every experience are the seeds for a new way of looking at life - and the potential for doing it better in the future. This becomes clearer once you're past the emotional aspect of the interaction. Again, time and distance will give you a new perspective on the situation.
5. Where are you placing your trust? Are you stuck on looking at the challenging customers you've had in the past, or are you able to trust in the basic goodness of most people and focus on the ones you want now? If you keep your mind on the type of customers you want, you're placing your trust in the ability of the Universe to deliver them to you.
6. Visualize and affirm what you want. Your thoughts send magnetic signals that bring back to you what you think about, in the same way tuning into a radio station picks up that station's frequency in the ethers. Make sure you're tuning your thoughts into the frequency of the specific type of customers you want - customer's that are prosperous and easy to serve. I have a 3x5 index card on my refrigerator that says, "Wonderful, prosperous customers call us daily wanting our quality construction services."
7. Trust in yourself. You can't always trust in other people, but you can always trust in your inner guidance. If you're meeting with a prospective customer and get that feeling of dread in the pit your stomach, it may be a warning that it would be better to refer the person to someone who is better suited to their personality. Always listen to your feelings.
Turning challenging customers into great, easy to-do-business-with customers is not usually an easy task. Sometimes it's better, as we found out, to let them go as quickly as possible, learn from the experience, and focus on bringing the customers you really want to your business. Then you can focus on meeting, or exceeding, their expectations and getting those valuable referrals.
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Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/challenging-customers-love-them-or-leave-them-346888.html
About the Author:Would you like to learn more about how building a soul-based business can create a thriving business that feeds your spirit and bank account? Visit my website at http://www.soulpreneursuccessstrategies.com to check out my free "Creating Money" ebook, free articles, and Soulpreneur Coaching Services.
Sandy Reed, the Soulpreneur's Coach, is a business coach, writer, ex-corporate manager, and co-owns her own successful home-based business.
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Cheeting services
By: Jennifer | 01-07-2008
My best friend is wanting to know if their is a service, where she can pay for her husband to be set up.
I've been going out with my girlfriend for about ...
By: hopeful | 01-07-2008
I've been going out with my girlfriend for about 10 months, just yesterday I got back from celebrating her college graduation party. We are really close and we both say we love each other, I am even planning on going to grad school in the same state she plans on going to work. We are engaged to marry in a year. However at the party I had brought her digital camera, she forgot it, and I was showing her mom some pictures we had taken of the party, when suddenly I come across a few pictures that show her with another man, and he is kissing her on the cheek. This didn't bother me until I looked at the time and dates of the pictures. They were taken when we had been going out for about 5 months, and they were all after 8p.m. I forgot where I was at the time. I don't know if she cheated on me but I know that on the same day she was upset at me, and had taken a picture of us around 3p.m. and was still wearing the same clothing as when the pictures taken later at 8p... I'm afraid to ask about it because it might be nothing. However I don't want to not ask and let it bug me. Should I ask her about it or not? p.s. she is having a very hard time finding a job right now and almost had a mental breakdown, I'm afraid to push her off the edge. I'm still in pursuing my education...so when should I ask her about the pictures?
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me and my boyfriend love each other so much and nothing in the world can change it...but we are 15 and he had a 1 night stand by accident with 1 of his ex's and now he has a kid i love him so much but i dont know if i can accept that he has a kid that he loves just as much as me. can someone please tell me what i should do and how i should feel about this; i've aready told him about all this and he understands how i feel but i still don't know what to do what should i do to finally accept this?
I know this girl who is amazing... absolutely ...
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I know this girl who is amazing... absolutely amazing. Shes everything I have ever wanted in anybody. At first when I got to know her we both really liked each other, she wasnt too physically attracted to me because im skinny, but that didnt seem to bother her too much. After talking with her for hours she would say things like "youre the perfect man" or "marry me" (kind of as a joke but whatever..) and then I saw her the other day and we gave each other this amazing long-lasting hug... after that I talked to her again and everything was going great until all of a sudden, she seemed sad and uninterested... i didnt know what was going on and stupidly i took some advice from my friends to just ask her out on a date as fast and as soon as possible... i told them it was a bad idea but they convinced me through confusion, so I did but she said that she just wasnt ready for a serious relationship and that theres is "this guy" that she kinda likes? Please understand that this girl is PERFECT to me, not in the way one would assume in fact shes so different from other girls which is probably why i am so alike to her. Im at a point where I think that if I let this go and forget about her I will regret it forever! I definitely need some help.
Relationship Help please
By: Jay | 28-06-2008
Ok me and girlfriend of One and a half years just broke up 3 weeks ago and i cant stop thinking about her.We never really fought( little 5 minute arguments here and there) WE had what i thought was a perfect relationship.Shes 20 and im 24 she said she needed space and time to herself and hang out with her friends more.I never tried to hold her back from anything. she still tells me she loves me but cant be in a relationship right now. All i wanna do is be with her but i know she might need this right now and i dont want to screw up the chance of us getting back together one day. How should i go about this? Should i leave her alone and not talk to her for awhile? please help
Help me
By: Faisal | 28-06-2008
salam i m faisal 4rm saudia and belong from pakistan i want to credet card gold .my pay in saudia 68600rupees pakistani.so pleaseguaide me whats u required paper so i send u byfax or e.mail bcoze i take intrest ur banking .my nomber .00966501834620.khawaja faisal azazfrom jazan proffession IT.3 YEAR OLD I LIVE IN SAUDIA .please replyme by must .my e-mail,faisalazaz987@yahoo.com thanks alote and i proude ur banking .god help us
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