{"id":50928,"date":"2023-05-24T12:50:51","date_gmt":"2023-05-24T12:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hyken.com\/?p=50928"},"modified":"2023-08-21T15:27:38","modified_gmt":"2023-08-21T15:27:38","slug":"sometimes-customers-are-just-having-a-bad-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-service-strategies\/sometimes-customers-are-just-having-a-bad-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Sometimes Customers Are Just Having a Bad Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Angry<\/span>\r\n\r\nYou\u2019ve probably experienced this. No matter how hard you try to please some customers, they aren\u2019t happy. It\u2019s frustrating, but at the same time, it\u2019s reality.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nAnd speaking of reality, no matter how good you are at creating an amazing customer experience, the customer\u2019s perception counts. Their perception is their reality.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nI once went to an amazing restaurant \u2013 at least, I was told it was amazing. That evening, I had a bad cold. The people I was with raved about the food. However, I didn\u2019t have the same experience. It had nothing to do with the food. It had to do with how I was feeling.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nWhen customers aren\u2019t responding to the excellent service you\u2019re providing the way you want them to, you might refer to them as \u201cdifficult\u201d customers<\/a>. The question to ask is, \u201cWhat\u2019s making them difficult?\u201d Maybe they have a legitimate gripe. Maybe they have unreasonable expectations. Or maybe, as in my example of the restaurant, they aren\u2019t feeling well.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nI was reading a LinkedIn post from Valerie Choniuk, the national director of patient experience at Agilon Health, who described exactly what I\u2019m referring to. A hospital may be known for its compassionate treatment and commitment to taking care of its patients, but if patients are in great pain, they may not be able to \u201cenjoy\u201d the experience you provide. That patient may be the nicest person in the world, but because of the pain, may become a difficult customer. To Choniuk\u2019s point, \u201cPatients are not purposely GIVING us a hard time. They are HAVING a hard time.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n

You can’t make everyone happy.\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\r\nSure, some people are chronic curmudgeons. You may never be able to make them happy. Accept it. Other customers are very nice people just having a bad day. You must accept that, too. Continue to do your best, regardless. If you can turn the mood of a person having a bad day into something better, you can declare victory. But don\u2019t stress over it if you can\u2019t.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nNot every experience you create for your customers will be exceptional, no matter how hard you try. But the point is that you try. Nobody is perfect, and things can go wrong. That\u2019s okay. It\u2019s how you fix it that makes the difference. And then there are days when it seems things did go well, but you still can\u2019t make that customer happy, no matter how hard you try. It\u2019s like a professional sports team that played a great game but lost. It\u2019s going to happen. And, it\u2019s not your fault. If you can sleep at night knowing you did your best, you should sleep well.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nSo do your best, and remember, sometimes customers are just having a bad day!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n