Customers come in all shapes and sizes.  And some just like to complain.  Constantly.  And that is very frustrating, stressful, and frankly annoying.  One customer can disrupt your company's entire day by making an unrealistic demand, and your team can be sent into a tailspin trying to figure out how to satisfy this ridiculous request and to make this customer happy.  Or, how about the customer that calls and asks for a solution, but has no suggestions for how and what should be implemented?  All of these details are then left up to you and your team, which can lead to uncertainty and a bit of insecurity since all of you might think you understand what is best, but you have nothing to guide you on how close to the mark you will be.  None of these scenarios are fun, so for the betterment of our business and employees, we have to learn how to navigate through each type of customer relationship and the unique characteristics included with them.  That way, we can care for each customer in a better manner, which will improve their overall satisfaction and increase the morale of your team.

So how do we properly serve and manage our customers that might be a bit frustrating or difficult?  First we have to identify some of these typical customer types, and then we have to have a plan in place for our strategy for working with them.  Close your eyes for a moment, and think about some of your challenging customers and situations.  Make a list of the key characteristics or obstacles of working with each of these customers.  Now, use the below informative guide created by Ciplex to identify these key customer characteristics and - you ready for this? - to learn how to deal with them.  Thank you, Ciplex, for creating such a useful infographic for all of us!  (Click image for the full size version.)  And keep scrolling so that you can get a freebie from us that will also help you with these hard customers.

Continue your quest on how to best handle and assist challenging customers and download this training freebie that we created.  You can learn more about it by reading this article we did: Are you Cut Our To Deal With Difficult Customers? 5 Quotes That Help.