Difficult customers come in all shapes and sizes. Some are loud and aggressive; others bully service staff and some brandish firearms (not a joke).

A difficult customer, if mishandled, can cause extensive damage to a business by taking an active interest in damaging a business. These customers look for opportunities to destroy a hard-won reputation.

Before the Internet, disgruntled customers were satisfied telling eight to 10 people their horror story. With the Internet these customers can tell their story to thousands.

To prevent lost customers and increase profit, every business needs strategies to assist difficult customers.

Difficult customers are hard to miss; their behavior is unpleasant and is often loud, rude and aggressive. The reason customers are difficult is due to being blocked from conducting a satisfying transaction.

There are two categories of difficult customers: challenging and frustrated. Challenging customers experience an internal block while frustrated customers experience an external block.

The internal blocks experienced by challenging customers are very serious. These blocks may include serious mental illness, and drug or alcohol abuse. Challenging customers remain dissatisfied and continue to misbehave when offered reasonable solutions. The best strategy for handling a challenging customer is to create policies and deliver training to ensure your staff is consistently polite in the face of extreme behavior and does nothing to cause further aggravation.

Customer service representatives with the authority to solve problems will have fewer issues handling challenging customers than those hampered by restrictive policies. In addition, customer service representatives need clear guidelines to define when it is appropriate to call for assistance from management, security or police. Challenging customers can damage property and harm staff. The number of customers that fit this description is quite small for most businesses.

Frustrated customers are prevented from experiencing a satisfying transaction by a block from an external source. Frustrated customers often begin the interaction loud, rude and aggressive, but will respond to a reasonable solution. While they may not become friendly and happy, the behavior will change if the block is removed.

A common block for a frustrated customer is the customer service representative. Customer service representatives create blocks when they demonstrate no visible sign of life or interest in assisting the customer. Their work is characterized by feeble apologies and limited attempts to serve the customer.

When an employee’s attitude is the issue, there are many solutions available, from coaching at one end of the spectrum to termination at the other. A larger challenge occurs when employees are willing to provide service but company policies hinder their ability to find satisfying solutions for customers.

Another example of a block may be vocabulary. Many industries use insider language. Automotive repair, real estate, insurance, financial planning, and medical services are industries with their own terminologies.

Technology can also create blocks for customers. Comfort levels with technology and patience in following directions vary from person to person. Test your technology on the least-technically savvy of customers to make certain it is not creating blocks.

Each business will have unique customer blocks. To remove blocks for frustrated customers, start by asking employees:

• What are the most common questions asked by customers?

• What are the most frequent concerns or complaints expressed by customers?

• What customer interactions do you find frustrating?

Once these questions have been answered, a good follow-up is: What has changed?

Many issues can be solved by providing better information to customers or simplifying the purchase process. Test all process changes on small segments of your customers to verify that the adjustments are creating a smooth path to the sale.

Listening to and serving frustrated customers is an opportunity for a business to change and improve. Determining customer blocks and removing them is not only good for your customers, it is great for customer service representatives. Pleasant customers are easier to serve.

Contact Leslie Clark, president of Shift, through her website www.shiftcustomerservice.com or (520) 971-0456. Shift provides training and consulting services for businesses working to provide distinctive customer service by collecting information, developing processes and training people.