All businesses deal with difficult customers from time to time, and sometimes the customer is justified in their frustrated response. But it’s also true that from time to time, companies have to mediate conflict and even discipline their customers appropriately, up to the point of refusing service entirely.
This isn’t even that uncommon. Right now, for example, somewhere in the world, there are likely hotel, restaurant or event staff having to calm down and warn their patrons to behave more appropriately before being asked to leave. A hotel room might have noise complaints lodged against it, or perhaps a bar attendee has become a little too tipsy for their own good.
To encourage appropriate conduct in your customer base, it’s important to be clear, attentive, and consistent. You cannot be seen to play favorites, and standards must be an essential part of how you justify your approach.
With that in mind, please consider the following advice:
Make Your Policy Clear
Good policies shouldn’t need a legal professional to understand them or give unruly customers any possible grounding to suggest the rules weren’t clear. This also goes for more specific conduct, for instance putting up simple signs like “No shoes, no shirt, no service,” which work because everyone gets what they mean right away. Your rules should be just as clear. Write them in plain language and put them where people can see them, such as on your website, at your entrance, or on booking forms.
You might even add a touch of humor to keep things friendly while getting the point across, as long as it’s written well and clearly and doesn’t denigrate the message. But whatever approach you take, spell out what happens if someone breaks the rules and what may happen, so you always have substance to point to.
Implement Appropriate Safeguarding Measures
It’s important to put safeguarding measures in place. In a store, that might mean good lighting and cameras, especially in parking lots or quieter areas of your business. Some places use simple wristbands to track drink orders at events for instance, and some companies keep a list of previous troublemakers and put bans in place. Hotels often require a credit card not just for room service use or damages, not because they expect problems, but because it makes people think twice about treating the room badly. But it’s not all physical. Here’s how to start an online alcohol business for example, and alongside that making sure you implement responsible drink caveats and possible order limits can showcase your intention to care for your users and prevent abuse of your products.
Train Staff & Security
It’s easy to feel worried about imposing on someone’s rights, so your team needs to know exactly what to do when someone acts up. If a business has that one excellent staff member who knows how to calm down an angry customer without making things worse, that’s great, but you shouldn’t rely on them alone. If trained, most staff can usually manage by staying calm, listening first, and being firm but polite.
That’s the kind of skill every team member should learn. Security staff need special training too even if they’ve had to go through it to gain their license, as the best ones prevent problems before they start, just by being visible and professional. In some cases preventing access and calling law enforcement is important, for example, you may or may not be able to detain shoplifters depending on the law of your nation, and being mindful of that is essential.
With this advice, we hope you can better encourage appropriate conduct in your customer base going forward.
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