As we've discussed in earlier articles, you should not consider angry customers to be the bane of your company's business. They are, in fact, oftentimes the catalyst or stepping stone to helping you improve your business to the next level of quality. Therefore, it behooves you as a businessperson or a service agent, to brace yourself, suck it up, and listen to (and actually hear) what your angry customer has to say.

When an angry customer contacts you or your business, there are four elements that absolutely need to be addressed, with care and urgency.

1. The Issue at hand - what brought on this anger in the first place?
2. The Anger itself - how to handle the interpersonal aspect of dealing with an angry person?
3. The Resolution - how will you rectify this situation to the customer's satisfaction?
4. Going Forward - what changes/safeguards will you put in place to ensure this problem does not again anger this, or another, customer?

Behind every marketing brochure, email campaign, webinar, and sales call is the unsexy side of sales and marketing. Homework. Remember that? Going to school all day and then bringing home more books to do even more work before you went back to school the next day? Many of us graduated with a major sense of relief that we'd never have to do that again! Unfortunately, for those of us who market and sell for a living, homework is a fact of life.

As you read this, look around you. What do you see? Tables, chairs, a glass, a television set, a pizza, the shoes on your feet, your cell phone service. Every one of those things required someone marketing and selling them to someone else. Up close and personal - every one of the manufacturers and distributors of these products and services had to figure out how to market and sell to YOU. All of those things are in your home because you needed and/or wanted them. To get them to you, each of these sellers had to figure you out. They had to do the homework involved in identifying you as a good target for their products. How do you think? Why do you need these products or services? How do you prefer to buy them? When do you typically buy them? What information do you need to have to make a decision? What price do you want to pay? How informed are you about your alternative options? Very little of this information can be figured out on the fly. It requires gathering and analyzing a lot of information. The biggest challenge is to boil it down into a message that will resonate with your prospect.

You can always show your customers more love. You know that the success of your business depends on the happiness of your customers. But sometimes, you get so involved with the day-to-day aspects of running your business that you might forget to show your customers the love. But don't worry; we can help. Knowledgence Associates now offers the following Customer Service programs:

• Service Strategy Planning

We help companies increase revenue by building customer loyalty. We work with senior management to assess your current customer service practices and personnel, and help you create enhanced customer-focused goals, policies, procedures and organizational structure as part of your business strategy.

• Service Skills and Management Training

We provide useful and applicable knowledge, tools, and tactics for front-line personnel and service team supervisors / managers, to improve and enhance their delivery of effective service in a consistent manner.

• Implementation

We help integrate new customer service processes, procedures, and measurements into existing workflow, within service departments as well as the rest of your organization. Improvements to Customer Service are only as effective as the organization that stands behind them. Marketing, Sales and Operations all need to be on the same page as your Service team.

AMA Omaha University
American Marketing Association
May 23, 2005
Omaha, Nebraska

Power Open - Consultative Selling
May 24-25, 2005
Boston, MA

Business Marketing Association
Boston, MA
June 16, 2005

Keystone Associates
Burlington, MA,
June, 2005

NEHRA, 2005 HR Invention Convention
Providence, RI
November 2-4 2005