Tough Customers Don't let "service with a smile" leave your employees with frowns.

Robert Girau had had about enough. A corporate manager forAtlanta-based fast-food chain Wing Zone, he'd just spent 30minutes on the phone with an irate customer who hadn't receivedher order. "She said I was a liar," Girau says. She alsothreatened him. But as an employee, Girau knew he had to keep hiscool and try to solve the problem. "It was frustrating,"he says. "No matter what the customer is saying, you [have to]try not to take it personally."

A lot of employees find themselves in Girau's shoes. Afterall, every company has customers who can be overly demanding,angry, even abusive. But, as the business mantra goes, the customeris always right. For employees on the receiving end of a customerinteraction gone wrong, there's incredible pressure to simplygrin and bear it. Service with a smile is always good business.

Or is it? Alicia Grandey, an assistant professor of industrialand organizational psychology at Penn State University inUniversity Park, studies the effects of "emotionallabor," what employees face when they must manage theiremotions on the job. She says employers need to be aware of howstressful customer interactions are affecting the morale and healthof their employees.

Putting On The Mask

There are days when being on the front lines of a business canbe draining. Ask employees in industries from food service tocustomer call centers, and they'll be able to recall their mostdifficult customers in vivid detail. Girau has days in which hereceives five or six complaints. "By then, I know it's abad day," he says.

"Employees are expected to take whatever the customer dolesout," says Christine Pearson, research professor of businessmanagement at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill'sKenan-Flagler Business School and an expert on civility in theworkplace. Service workers, Pearson adds, tend to be seen as an"impermeable buffer" between owners and customers off thepressure that flows from above while smiling away the incivilitycoming from the customer.

But "smiling away the incivility" might have illeffects, literally. In late 1998, Grandey surveyed 168administrative assistants to learn how they controlled theiremotions. She found that employees who faked a good mood were morelikely to suffer from emotional exhaustion and burnout. Theseworkers also received significantly lower marks on their customerservice abilities from co-workers. "Employees who constantlymust ignore their true feelings may become estranged oralienated," Grandey says.

Laboratory research has also found physical effects from thisbottling-up of emotions: overworked cardiovascular and nervoussystems and weakened immune systems. In other words, stress, whichcosts U.S. businesses millions every year in absenteeism, turnover,replacement costs and health insurance.

Structured Solution

Matt Friedman, 29, CEO and co-founder of Wing Zone, haswitnessed the stress that angry customers can cause in hisemployees, who take the majority of the company's food ordersover the phone. Friedman says his entry-level employees, who aremostly college students, just don't have the experience neededto handle these customers. Therefore, they've been trained tohand off overly demanding customers to the nearest manager rightaway. Wing Zone's managers then put the complaints back on thecustomers, asking them how they'd like the company to handlethe problem. When both parties can't find some middle ground,managers refer the customer to the corporate office's toll-freenumber and Web site to file a formal complaint.

After 30 fruitless minutes on the phone with the angry customerwho threatened him, Girau referred her to the corporate office."I know that I will eventually deal with this customeragain," he says. How does he get through these difficultsituations? By staying calm in his responses. "I say what Ican do, but sometimes no answer will satisfy a customer,"Girau says. "[Customer complaints] are just part of thejob."

Mark Csordos, 30, founder and president of Arden, NorthCarolina-based Customer Service Training Essentials Inc., says thatdealing with demanding customers gets even tougher when leaders tryto treat all customer complaints equally. "Some complaints arejustified, and some are not," Csordos says. "If employeesget reprimanded for an unjustified complaint by an unreasonablecustomer, they start to resent it because they did nothingwrong.

Friedman knows it can be hard for managers to deal with thefrustration, especially when they know they're right. There aretimes when he has to explain why making the customer happy is thebest thing to do. "Managers take it personally," he says.His advice? Make the customer happy, but also let the employeesknow that you support them.

Girau, who's the point man at corporate headquarters forcomplaints that escalate, thinks the company's strategy worksbecause entry-level employees know how to handle angry customers,managers understand what they can offer and have the flexibility toproblem-solve, and complaints with no easy solution can be routedup the food chain. Having procedures to follow at the store level,Girau says, has made life easier for everyone-including owners,whose input he now needs only in the most extreme cases.

Empowering Employees

How do you keep your employees from shouldering all the burdenthat comes with a difficult customer?

Service employees need to be empowered to make confidentdecisions on the spot, says William Ward, Warehime professor ofbusiness administration at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove,Pennsylvania. "Employees need to be trained inproblem-solving," Ward says. "This is where training andprocedures pay off for businesses."

But employers can send mixed signals when they set time limitson helping customers or mandate a long list of daily priority tasksother than taking care of customers. These mixed signals increasethe chances that a problem won't be resolved, making it naturalfor upset customers to unload on the closest target: the employee,who is torn between serving the customer and finishing his or herdaily to-do list.

Another basic mistake is defining service with vague phraseslike "service is our mission" instead of creatingstructures that guide employees through difficult customer servicesituations. "You see a lot of service employees with that lookof 'Please don't ask me a question because I don't knowhow to answer it,' " Csordos says. "If you'reunsure about what you're allowed to do for a customer, you feelsilly."

Patrick Marchese is co-founder and president of Santa Ana,California-based Markzware, a 25-employee software developmentcompany. He believes in giving the nine customer servicerepresentatives in his company an arsenal for dealing withdifficult customers who call the company's toll-freenumber.

Markzware's service employees know exactly how to routedifficult callers up the company chain. "We get someone elsein on the call right away," says Marchese. Employees also havea lot of leeway to throw in freebies like T-shirts and software. Alittle empowerment and teamwork can go a long way. "Thecustomer service rep doesn't feel isolated in handling aproblem," says Marchese, 41. "It's a big scorepersonally for employees to successfully handle a difficultcustomer. When they get a thank-you at the end, they're onCloud 9."

Rate Yourself

How can you support your customer service employees so theydon't feel beleaguered by customer demands? If you answer no toany of the following questions, it may be time to reassess yourcustomer service program and how it affects your employees'morale:

1. Are employees empoweredto solve problems? Give your entry-level employees theability to offer concrete solutions. Telling them exactly what todo boosts their confidence and morale.

2. Do you let serviceemployees vent their frustrations? Grandey says you needto show employees you understand the challenges of working with thepublic. There are a few ways to do this. One is by holding a weeklymeeting where service employees can talk openly about their mostdifficult customer interaction that week. Along the way, not onlywill you show support for their tough jobs on the front lines ofthe company, but employees will also learn from each other how todeal with customer problems that would otherwise leave themflustered. Another strategy: Give a short break to the employeewho's just handled a particularly tough customer. He or she mayneed it to regroup.

3. Are you on the frontlines? Employees will take notice when there's alack of involvement from company leaders in dealing with customercomplaints. Communicate and be involved. "Leaders wantcustomer service complaints to disappear," Csordos says."But don't leave employees holding the bag." Thatmeans spending time on the floor or on the phones to get a feel fortheir jobs. They'll appreciate it and feel more connected tothe company. You'll also get a better feel for yourcustomers.

"Take care of your employees," Ward says. "Ifthey're happy, they'll take care of yourcustomers."

		www.customerservicetraining.com:This site offers tutorials, articles and other information to helpyou train employees in customer service. www.consultant-center.com:This site includes articles on customer service topics. www.eps-i.com:This is the homepage of consultant firm Employee PerformanceStrategies Inc. in Chantilly, Virginia. It offers contactinformation for consultants on various workplace issues, includingcustomer service strategies.