Q- Dear Ammar, One of my employees had an encounter with one of our tough customers. They had a disagreement over how to proceed on a project in progress for the client.  The client started shouting at my employee and my employee got angry and left abruptly.

The customer called me. He was angry with the way my employee stormed out of the meeting before the end of the discussion.  He demanded an apology. Otherwise, he said he would cancel the project. 

When I talked to my employee, he admitted leaving abruptly, but he said it was only because the client was shouting and giving him such a hard time that he lost his temper.

It is true that the client is tough and has a record of causing problems with previous employees assigned to his project, but I still want to do what is right and professional.  This client stalls on work and changes his mind a lot.  He is definitely not one of my best and I am not worried about losing him. 

Should I force the team member to apologise to the customer, or should I decline the customer’s request, even if he cancels the project? Do I need to take any action against the employee?  Should I try to send someone else to the client, knowing that he may try  the same thing in the future?

Regards,

AL

A- Dear AL, There are two parts to this issue.  The first is the client and the second is the employee.  While both clashed in a conflict, each has to be handled as a separate issue. 

It seems you have a difficult client to deal with.  Since the client has had such tantrums before, you need to think about whether you want this person as a client anymore.  Is it worth the trouble, the time and  the effort?  Sometimes people worry about losing clients, even troublesome ones, but in some cases losing a troublesome client may be the best thing for both  the client and the supplier. It may not necessarily be bad for business.  There are some clients who do not like to play fairly, and some others who are not willing to deal respectfully with everyone else. 

In your case, you need to sit down and think about your  client, in specific. What does he bring to your business and how much is he costing you?  Remember to take into account opportunities lost because of working with this client versus having the time to find or work with another client. Then, you can make a decision.

If you decide you need to keep this client, then you should at least prevent this incident from happening again with other employees. I know he/she has given you an ultimatum of your employee apologizing before he/she stays as a business.  However, this is something he has said while being angry and I do not think you have to force your employee to apologize, especially if the client was disrespectful. As a smoothing technique, you may have to extend the apology yourself just to get over the ego issue of the client. Leaving tactics aside, your strategy should be to sit down with the client and describe your problem; it is hard to keep him as a client due to his temper. You should set some rules on how he/she needs to deal with you in the future, as a company and as individuals.  If he is interested, he will go for that.  If not, then at least you did your best.

If you decide you do not want to keep the client, then I suggest you break the relationship with the least damage possible and without burning any bridges.  Do not make it personal. Instead be objective and tell him that you have made a decision to discontinue the work relationship.  Do not get into details or things that may turn the discussion  into an ugly one in any way.  You should remain objective, cordial, focused and clear.

As far as dealing with the employee’s behaviour, you must remember an important rule, which is that employees should try to develop a thick skin and not take anything the client says or do personally, albeit of course personal insults and disrespectful behaviour or statements.  Anything else does not warrant a stand-off with a client.

If the client screams at an employee out of anger, then the employee should pull out of the conversation until the customer cools down.  However, this should not be done abruptly by storming out of a meeting.  An employee can be cordial, even if the client is not. He can respectfully excuse himself out of the meeting.  It is not a good idea to argue with the client, especially if either one of you is emotional. Fighting back or arguing is counterproductive. 

Team members need training on how to handle customers including tough ones.  They also need training on how to deal with situations like the one your employee faced. 

One way to do that is to set some ground rules internally on how to deal with these situations and how to work with customers.  You can discuss such situations with employees and have an open dialogue on situations they might face while working with customers.  Without education and awareness, employees might get confused when under pressure from client and might not know how to behave.

Good luck,

Ammar W.

Wednesday, February 28, 2007