a particular type of person or thing, especially one that is difficult to deal with: David can be a very tough customer when he perceives others as obstacles to achieving his goals. The Sars virus is turning out to be a tricky customer. The team desperately need a win, and that will make them very difficult customers.
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English awkward/tricky/tough etc customersomeone who is difficult to deal with because they behave in a deliberately unhelpful way → cool customer1(3) → customerExamples from the Corpusawkward/tricky/tough etc customer• He looks a tough customer to deal with.
Difficult clients are part of doing business. Often they're difficult because they're unhappy with part of the service, product or customer experience. Sometimes, they could simply have a personality clash with a member of your team or their behavior doesn't align with your company values – or your team's culture.
: someone who remains calm and is not easily upset.
Loyal customers are the best kind of customers to have for your business. Repeat customers types keep coming back to you for different products and services and they seem to be impressed with your brand.
This type of difficult customer is quick to anger, overly aggressive, highly critical, rude, arrogant and often verbally abusive. They think their needs and demands are superior to everybody else's. They scream, complain, abuse and may often get physical to get what they want.
The demanding customer
Some customers are justified in their anger, while others aren't. The demanding or aggressive customer is the type that's easily-angered, rude, arrogant, and often highly-critical. The reason is: They believe that you're there to serve them and that their needs are above everyone else.
Get straight to the point.
Make conversation if the customer seems open to it but, in your attempt to win back an unhappy customer, don't go overboard and try to become their best friend. Don't take too long to get to your research and your solutions – that's what will ultimately make them happy.
Instead of “No, we don't have that,” try phrases like, “I can see how that would be useful, but I'm afraid we don't have plans to add that functionality,” or “While there's currently no way to do that, we appreciate you taking the time to let us know what you're looking for—most of the improvements we make come from ...
A customer unwilling to listen to what you have to say is a difficult customer. The unwillingness to listen could be due to anger, frustration, impatience, indecisiveness or talkativeness.
Examples of situational questions include: Tell me how you would respond if an angry customer walked into the store asking for a refund, but they didn't have a receipt for her purchase. If a customer demanded to speak to the manager, but you knew the manager was unavailable, what would you do?
Aggressive customers tend to be unreasonable and/or unpredictable. They may make impossible demands, refuse to acknowledge timeframes or accept your process. They may be argumentative, use personal insults or inappropriate comments to get their point across or shout or make threatening gestures.
They are disorganised. Often difficult customers will be late for meetings, appear to be missing vital information and will continuously drain your resources. Unless they can dramatically change their behaviour, this may be a sign of things to come and may cost you hours, if not days of lost profits in the future.
Additionally, customers want quick service and good after-sales service, which often leads them to being loyal customers. They also want products with useful and valuable features. In order to be able solve a problem or make a task easier, customers also want products that are tailored to their unique needs.
What's the difference between high-end and low-end customers? High-end customers are drawn to the quality of products rather than the price. They're willing to spend more money on a designer brand or specific aesthetic that they're drawn to.
- Our next customer type is very common, the Chatty customer. This customer wants to talk, gossip, inform, ask, and provide lots of information and data. Much of the information provided may have nothing to do with the issue at hand. The goal is to handle the Chatty customer with professionalism and not get distracted.