How Service Managers Should Handle Difficult Customers (Without Losing Control)
Chris Collins and guests share tactics for service teams facing angry customers: listen to learn rather than win, validate their feelings, let emotions cool before solving, and fix the system behind the mistake. They stress controlling your department's narrative and understanding that customers arrive already defensive.
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Welcome to the big show. Today we are going to talk about how do you handle difficult customers, like these two characters right here, Hoagie and Adam. The worst customers. Difficult customers. Just joking.
Who we.
Maybe.
Yeah.
Oh, that and much, much more. Coming up right now on Service Drive Revolution. I'm gonna need to get a private jet.
I think that's a good idea for a lot of reasons, but. What, what are yours?
My parents keep going to the hospital.
Oh, yes.
It's like now, it's like every week. And I'm in LA and they're in Washington and like, they're on their way to the hospital and like it would, you know, in the middle of the night. There's no way I can get there. Yeah, I don't know what to do. I gotta move him down here or something. It's crazy. It's happening more and more.
Yeah, yeah, it's. It's funny. My. My parents moved to Oklahoma with us from Kansas City a few years ago, and so they're. They're getting ready to move, or they did move again and kind of in between they're. They're staying with us for a little bit. And so I just moved them to this last weekend. And so the very first night there, they're like, well, one, they want the temperature to be just above the Sahara desert. Like, I don't know what all medications they're on, but like the room they're in, I go in there and there's just like space eaters, like, and it's a sauna in here. I'm like, oh, man. And. And my. My 17 year old got an electric guitar not too long ago and. And so she's practicing a lot.
The.
So I go into the sauna with them to check on them and see if they're kind of getting settled in, which is that room, which is their room. And they're like. So Avery got a guitar and you're.
Thinking, better than a violin.
Hey, you can't have it.
103 and quiet. You're gonn.
How could we get Avery to play drums? My mom deserves a medal for that, listening to me play drums.
Dude, mine too, for sure.
Just like hitting trash cans over and over.
Saxophone?
You played saxophone?
Yeah, saxophone squeaked in the beginning for sure, and then did fairly decent. Then the guitar thing. Yeah, and then she would actually allow us to play. Like the band practice was downstairs in the basement and it was loud and sometimes we did it till midnight, 1:00am and dude, man, I. I'm surprised because it was an unfinished Basement. She's like. She go like you were shaking the whole house. I'm like, well, we could have stopped. She goes, no, you could be doing other things right now. That's fine. I'm like, all right. Yeah. So tell Avery. Keep. Keep practicing.
Okay.
Keep practicing.
Yeah, my mom was the same. She. She let us have band practice at my house. And at the time, I didn't get it, but, you know, later she told me, like, well, I just knew where you were.
Yep. That's what it came down to. Yep.
Because nobody else would let us practice in the house.
I know one time we moved practice to our. To the garage, and we had people stopping and then calling the cops, so we had to go back underground, so.
Oh, yeah.
Probably weren't that good.
Yeah, the cop thing is funny, too. It's really funny. Yeah. I'm gonna need to figure something out. The problem is I can't get him to move down here because they're not in the part of Washington that's liberal, and they. They think Los Angeles is like, oh, going to have to dye their hair blue. They just can't even imagine.
Adam appreciates that. I. I going to dye your hair blue, Adam. Well, it's. You guys were. Guys were saying stuff earlier, but you do realize that I used to bleach my hair in the rock band that I was in. So I. I played around with that. But I grew up since then. Yeah.
No, but I just mean politically, they don't. They don't agree with Los Angeles.
Yeah, I could see that. That'd be good. Yeah.
I mean, I understand it too. Yeah.
I mean, I'm here. I mean, Illinois is.
Ends up, things are going so bad. The building's worth less than I paid for it. You can't just escape. Oh, you gotta ride it out.
Yeah.
It's like a ten year cycle.
Yeah.
Feels a lot longer. Feels a lot longer. Illinois is just getting worse, too.
Just more taxes come to Oklahoma. Dodge tornadoes.
Dodge tornadoes. I know we were talking about that earlier.
Yeah, I guess is okay.
Yeah. Basements.
No basements.
See, now where am I supposed to put my guitars?
Avery's room.
Not if it's 103.
The two girl dads, which by default are swifties.
Oh, I don't know why you keep saying that. Well, I'll. Maybe. Maybe at some point you'll come around.
At the boot camp the other day, one of the guys was saying that he watched that because of the show. This. The Taylor Swift documentary.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
It's good.
Yeah.
He was like, yeah. He goes, I didn't expect it to be that good, but it was good.
Yeah, I, I will agree with that.
Oh, you watched it too, right?
Yeah, yeah, I watched three out of the six episodes.
Yeah, but didn't you mess it up at first? You were watching the concert.
Yes.
And you were like, what are they talking about?
I was so upset. But see, like, the problem with that is I was watching it for like at least the first 10 minutes. So I should have figured that out in the first 10 minutes that I was not watching the right segment.
Oh, you're, I guarantee anybody if you watch it for two minutes and you're not hooked.
Yeah, cool.
It's all cool. Sorry I wasted your time because it gets you right away. Like she, it's that good. Roger was like, I don't have Disney plus.
I like how we try to strategize for at least 10 minutes how he could try to watch it through Disney plus and try to tell him like.
Hey man, there's probably a free 30 day trial. You know, something.
Yeah, yeah, you can, you can get it. It's out there.
He could have just said he wasn't interested. He didn't have to lead us on like that.
It is, it is great though. Like, it really is. Especially if like, like me going into it was because you had already talked about the leadership aspects of it and if you're going into it through that lens.
Yeah. It's way easier to accept and you're just. Yeah. Oh, you're just blown away by her.
By her ability to orate. I mean, in I am Leader, in the leadership book that I wrote, I talk a lot about, you know, to be a good leader you gotta, you gotta be able to orate and give a speech and, and create a narrative and all that. She just like, she believes in what she's doing. Anything.
Yeah.
And she is doing it. Like there's just no compromise. There's no compromise on anything.
Yeah.
She's not unsure about anything.
Yeah.
I think what I, what I thoroughly enjoyed on it was from the leadership aspect, ensuring that she connects with her employees or, you know, the artists. And then she also wants to have an intention. Ability to connect with her audience, with all of the other swifties. So clients, whatever, translate in any business is that ultimate connection with any customer, whether they're happy or frustrated. Really, quite frankly, I thought that was actually pretty, pretty interesting how she cultivates that environment. So that was. Yeah. I hate to admit it, but there's.
There'S a part in there too where she gives everybody a check for a million bucks, and it's like, what is it, like a crew of 179 or. Yeah, it's like a little under 200. She. So it's almost $200 million. She gives everybody on the crew, so the dancers, the truck drivers, everybody working on the tour, a check for a million dollars. And if you just think about her priorities for a second, right, is her priority isn't to make the most amount of money. Her priority is to put on a show that is special and different, and she's willing to share the money with the people that are helping her do that. She wants to reward them for the sacrifices toward the mission.
Yeah, right.
And it's. I mean, there's that Seattle Seahawks saying that is a mission over bs, right? Mob. And she's the epitome of that. Everything is about the mission. Everything is about making that thing the best that it can be. And when people come into her concert, it's an escape from reality. She. She wants to have people leave there feeling more of a community and. And better than when she got him. And, I mean, it's. It's akin to, you know, a Pentecostal revival, like, is something very special. But those things don't happen by accident. It's really hard to do that. And most people wouldn't understand this, but it's harder to do it with that many people in a big stadium because you're so far away from everybody. It's not like, you know, if we had somebody in here in the library, do a little acoustic show. You can talk to everybody. You can make eye contact. You can shake everybody's hand coming in, right? Like, say, for example, we go and speak to a 20 group meeting. Like, you can go meet everybody and listen to them and talk. No, when you got 70,000 or 100,000 people in a stadium, they're sp. Like, everybody's. You know, and still to be able to create this environment and this feeling where they feel special and they feel included is. It's a feat that. Not. I don't think too many people could pull off. And then, you know, I just. I just think about, well, we struggle with, like, having a shift meeting or getting our advisors to do this or that or, you know, it's a great example. Like, it doesn't. I mean, I. I'm. I could name one Taylor Swift song, and I think, is there a song called 1979? I know that's an album. Maybe not. I don't think so. I don't even Think I can name a Taylor Swift song?
Yeah.
But yeah, I can't.
I respect her as a business person and a leader.
Yeah.
And I always had this, I always had this opinion of her that she had an external locus of control because all of her songs were about, it was the guy's fault. It was the guy's fault. And I felt like she was teaching all of these girls to be victims in a way. And she was like, but that's, that's her marketing. She understands her audience and she understands how to get to them. But when you watch her behind the scenes, it is exactly the opposite of that. She is very much accountable. She has really high self esteem and boundaries and doesn't accept.
Very disciplined.
Yeah, very disciplined. And works like, is always working. I wouldn't enjoy a life like that where everywhere I went, people knew who I was. I never had any privacy. Like, you always, like, my, my best friend has bodyguards. Like when you have bodyguards, you never have any privacy. People are always around you. Right. Like, I wouldn't enjoy that. I don't like that. Like I, I don't want to be famous for that reason. Like, I don't want to be recognized everywhere I go. I don't want people to think I'm different than them because that's always awkward for me because I'm not, I'm not any, I'm the clown like everybody else. But she's, she's carrying that like she, she navigates all that with, with a lot of class and poise and she's concerned about her fans and giving back and the value that she provides.
Yeah.
And the fact that she gave those million dollar checks just shows you how committed she is to the outcome. It isn't about just how much money can she make.
Yeah, yeah.
I, I, one thing that stuck out is I remember that kind of some articles when she handed out those shock, those checks to the truck drivers, I thought that was like, even to go to that extent, not the immediate, but the extent of hauling everything of the equipment. I thought that was really cool. You know, coming from the truck side of the things, I thought I was like, wow, that's really cool. Not a lot of people on that kind of platform. Like how many other big stage, you know, tours of bands and groups and maybe they do, it doesn't hit the wire or whatever, but I thought that was pretty cool. And yeah, I mean again, like you said, like everything intentional in that whole connection, it's.
She wrote them all handwritten cards, like sealed them personally taking that time. Yeah.
It's so cool.
Well, the, the thing I thought about with the, the million dollar checks was, and it going out to everybody. What that told me is if she wrote all of them a million dollar check, she expected a lot from all of them. So you talk about intentionality, like all the way down to the person unloading the truck, to driving the truck, to the. How they were putting it together, how they were taking it apart, how everything matters. Yeah. Ev, you know, all of it was curated. And then Chris brought this up the other day and I hadn't, hadn't thought about it. But like her, her having her shift meetings where she brought the dancers and everything together before the show. Like that's a training video for a shift meeting. Yeah, like she's telling us a story. We're, you know, called to a higher purpose to go do what we're going to do and, and you know, bringing these people together, letting them escape real life for three hours and like, I mean, just on and on and on and on and then the different people had to participate in that and, and then tell their story. And like it is, you know, it's not an accident.
Yeah, it's not an accident that it's the biggest grossing tour and it's rare that you get to see something that, that is that groundbreaking, that breaks that many records that you can see what happens in, in the back rooms.
Yeah.
Like that you have access to, to really understand. Like even to the point where they talk about how they'd worked on it for two years before they even announced it. Like you just, you know, I think a lot of a fan, you experience something, but you have no idea what it. The work that goes into something like that, you know. And so to be able to understand that is inspiring for us and what we do. Because, you know, customers come in, they come in the drive and they, they're nervous or whatever it is. But we have the ability to make them feel comfortable. We have the ability to build trust. We, we have the ability to make it an experience that, you know, when they need some sort of maintenance or repair, they instantly think of us. Like to the point of. When I was an advisor, one of the things that I, that I was always really proud of is my customers would ask me before they bought their next vehicle what to get. Like, I was the point person because I had that trust. They were key throwers. Right. Like, it was like whatever it needs, Chris. But, but that didn't happen by accident also all of the times it's easy when you're Writing up a customer that has a new car. It's easy not to go over the inspection sheet, but for me, I wanted to go over the inspection sheets when they didn't need anything, because then when they did, it wasn't like this is the first time they're hearing about something. They've had three or four when they didn't need anything. Right?
Yeah.
And so, you know, the. You. You control customers perception. And that documentary is a really good insight into how magic is created and the work that goes into it, you know, to create a perception, an outcome.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You talk about controlling the narrative. Like it. It's something that, you know, from the outside looking in. One, One unique thing we get to do over and over and over again. You talk about, like, being able to kind of peek behind the curtain when you're watching that documentary. One of the. The things with our job is kind of a unique perspective is before we ever go to the store, we're looking at just data. We don't. We don't get to see the store, we don't get to see what it looks like, but we see financials, we see the numbers, like, things like that. And then you go to the store and you've seen the outcomes first. You haven't. You haven't seen the thing. Right. And it's, It's. It's always kind of fascinating to me when you, when you do it in that order and then you get to go to the store and, and. And see it, you. You kind of piece some things together that otherwise you might not see. Like, over the years, I've heard you use the saying, you can't read the label of the pickle jar you're in. Right?
Well, I don't say pickle, but.
Yeah.
Oh, somebody added that part.
Is that an Oklahoma.
Yeah, it's an Oklahoma thing for sure.
I mean, I like pickles, but.
Yeah. Well, what about peaches? I don't know. I know we don't taste brake fluid, so. But what I was saying was there's no.
There's. What sucks about this is there's prob. Legal ramifications. Is somebody listening? This will go take breakfast now.
But we are not advised.
For the record, there's nothing that's better at closing a brake fluid exchange.
If you, if you say so.
This tastes like. This tastes like rotten eggs.
But like, the, the narrative thing's important because from the outside looking in, it's amazing how many managers are more of a manager than a leader in that way, because it's not even on their radar to control the narrative of their department so much to an extent that they will. How many managers, when I'm in store, how often I have to talk about this blows me away. But they'll be that negative water cooler talk where people are talking and your advisors, if there's no customers on the drive, the top thing I hear advisors talk about are customers.
Sorry.
It's okay. And they, and it's, you know, and obviously they're talking about neg, you know, talking about negative customers or they're talking about the latest thing the, the manufacturer did or corporate did or whatever. But like water cooler talk is typically negative and, and I'll watch managers jump right in the middle of that and participate in it. And then an advisor's going to leave that conversation and go out and greet a customer and a tech that walked up to check on a ticket is going to leave that conversation and go back and diagnose a really difficult problem like controlling the narrative. There's so many little things, but every strayed conversation should come back to positivity and performance.
Yep.
Like, and, and just putting that little tool in your toolbox as a leader, it's a, it's amazing. There's a lot of things with leadership and culture and things that it's. It's a journey, not a destination. Like you're having to constantly work on it and some of those things like.
Take time and it's hard.
But if you, if you're more intentional about your narrative, it's amazing. The results you can, you can see with that just in a short amount of time. Like a lot of times we're, we're breeding that type of chaos in our, in our teams and in our department, so we don't even realize it. Yeah.
Did you guys see the. Johnny Knoxville got picked up by a bunch of press.
No.
Vanity Fair. Like a bunch yesterday.
Really?
Oh, wow.
So, you know, if you don't have subscribe to the Syndicate X library channel and a little series on there we do called Books that Change My Life. The Johnny Knoxville one.
Yeah.
Pretty good.
It was great. It was great. Did you watch it? I didn't know it got picked up. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It was in my. It was in my feed. My news feed, when I lay in bed and read the news.
Awesome. Awesome.
Kind of funny.
Yeah.
He had a lot of concussions.
Yeah, man.
All I can think about is some little tricks that they used to play and previously growing up and remember that hundred dollar bill on our walk over here that I thought I was real and I grabbed. It was fake, so probably some blooper out there.
Well, that's hilarious. He was super excited. I was. I told him I didn't know. You didn't tell me it was fake.
Well, I didn't have a chance. Yeah. I was like, man, hoagie, I'm going to buy lunch today. Well, I.
You go and spend it. And they were like, no, I didn't get that far.
But I took it out and I went to actually, like, look at it, and very faintly it just says copy. Yes. And it's like a prop. Yeah. Should have known. Yeah.
You're on video somewhere, for sure.
Oh, for sure.
He's going to show up on a tik tok. Difficult customers. We were asked to talk about how to handle difficult customers. I mean, whenever I. I hear that, the first thing I think is most customers aren't difficult. It's probably us.
Yeah.
It's not the customer, first of all.
Right.
That's a. What did we do to the customer to make them feel that. That way? But like anything, I think the. The difficult customer thing is the symptoms and the cause is us in the way. In the way we approach it. And so, you know, the thing that I've found and there's on our. On Demand, we have a video about put them on ice and how to kind of handle difficult customers in. In that way. But I think the. The first thing that. That I do if I'm in that situation is I come to the party with an intention of learning and fixing things, not an intention of being right. And most of the time when somebody's saying, like, how do I handle difficult customers? The reason why the customer is perceived as difficult is because the intention on our end was to be right or to correct the customer or to fight the customer or to stand up for something that doesn't matter or whatever it is. But the. The key to not being in that situation most of the time is having an approach of learning and understanding versus being right.
Yeah.
And I mean, it's. It's okay to lose. In the path to making friends, it's very rare that you can win. Like, if you have to win, that means that somebody lost. And most of the time, anybody who loses doesn't want to be in that situation again. And they don't. They don't want to lose. People don't want to lose. And so if it's an end somewhere we have to be right, then that means they have to be wrong. And people don't like to be Wrong. And so the magic trick in that is to make the customer right even if they are wrong. Yeah, I mean that's the magic trick is to, is to change your approach and the, the intended outcome and just letting you know, just listening and understanding and trying to help them through it in the most humble, empathetic way that you can. And then learning from it and then, then doing something that, you know, most people don't do is trace the mistake back to birth. Like, where did this, where did this go? Side. Where did we lose control? Where did we lose perception? And then try to figure out how to fix that going forward. But not being right with the customer, I mean, I, I can't think and I'm, you know, I don't know. I can't think of a time where I was called up to help with a difficult customer situation and I didn't fix it. And the way that I fixed it was by listening and not arguing. That's it. Let them call me names like I don't care, like it doesn't matter. They're upset. And you know, when people get to that point, the only way that you're going to eliminate the tension is to absorb it. You got to absorb it. You got to take the abuse, you, you have to take the pain away. And if, you know, people are having a bad day or, you know, some people are just a little crazy, maybe they didn't have the best childhood. I don't know. You just run into all kinds.
Could be a number of reasons.
Most of the time the people who are the most aggressive and most angry are the ones that need a hug the most. It's just how it is. That's human nature. They're acting out and they feel, you know, not even consciously, just unconsciously, they feel like they're not understood, they're not accepted for some reason. And so you gotta make them feel accepted. You gotta make em feel validated, make them feel understood. That eliminates it 100% of the time. Yeah, I mean, I can't think of a, of a time where I got involved in it. I mean, it happened to me a lot because I was good at it. They would give, you know, I would get the, the problem customers where I didn't. And they always end up being your best customers too.
Yeah, yeah. You always end up flipping them or people that are taking your, your approach to it. Like there's a lot of, you know, it's, it's getting more and more rare to come across that. But they're, they're out there, people that understand that concept you're talking about, they're not afraid to take that. They're willing. They're almost excited for, for that challenge. And they know that if you feel flip that type of customer, sometimes they're the most loyal customers. But yeah, when, when we were, when we were doing truck. Whenever we do those classes, we started off and, and we start some of those classes off with, you know, figuring out what are their biggest pressure points and pain points and pain points. And we kind of make a list. And upset customers always, always came up and, and it's, it's kind of interesting. Like it is hard when you're dealing with customers all the time, like to, to kind of buy into the fear of all customers are crazy and like, and things like that, you know.
Yeah.
And, and one of the questions I'd ask them is like, there's that old saying, you know, the customer's always right. And, and when you're in that setting and you ask them if the customer's always right, they know it's a trick question. I'm like, do you guys, you know, do you guys believe that? And they'll kind of like, look around the room, you know, and, and some of them will be like, you know, no way. And some will be like, well, you.
Know, the things that I think, I think no way. Yeah, but it doesn't matter.
Nope, that's it. So I, I was, I always say, like, I think the saying should be the customers is always right because that's what you're left to deal with. Yeah, it doesn't matter. It doesn't. It doesn't matter. And so like, once you under, you know, once you arrive at that point, then, then what do we, you know, then what do we do? And, and, and so I think if you, if you can start from that place and then if you're dealing with an upset customer, just remember kind of where you're at. If someone is in a, in a place at the moment where they're super irrational or they're super emotional, you can't have a rational conversation with an irrational person. It's not going to work out. You're not going to have a super unemotional conversation with a really emotional person. And so if you understand that thing too, I think a lot of mistake advisors make, and it comes from that place of wanting to be right or wanting to show the customer that they're wrong or whatever. A lot of times an advisor has a perfectly good solution to an upset customer's problem, but Instead of when they're pissed, instead of taking a step back for a second and just listening and let them vent a little bit like you were saying, they start immediately trying to give them the solution and tell them, you know, about it or whatever. And even though a lot of times with an upset customer, if you're offering them the solution in the heat of that moment, while they're still really emotional and really irrational, you may be offering a perfectly acceptable resolution, but they're not having it right now. Like, if you got one that, that we let get to this point, however we let that happen, it's too late. You just gotta. Yeah, now you. Now you're where you're at and it doesn't matter if they're right or wrong. You just gotta listen and, and kind of, you know, let it cool off a little bit. Right?
Yeah. Oh, go ahead.
I was going to say, I got written down here like, life is not fair. Yeah, right. So it's like, it's. But I also think of it, it's on both sides, whether I'm the one that's getting yelled at by an upset customer and I'm wanting to be right. Like if I've always been an impatient person my entire life and trying to work on that.
Right.
But once when an upset customer, and I've done well for the most part in my life with, in customer service, where I'd empathize and try to educate, but in my younger days, it was always trying to prove the point. And I've witnessed so many people trying to prove the point, and it's like, well, no, but you don't understand. You just don't understand. It's like, well, okay, life's not fair. It's not fair for them in whatever case of what their issue is or concern is. And it's not fair in my side either to try to be like it is what it is. But it's also like you're put in a position or you've accepted the role of taking some of the blunt of that and just understanding in a way. Like you're trying to understand making an attempt, whatever's going on in their world, you're trying to absorb that and then just let it roll off.
Right.
And then that's where it's like, okay, life's not fair. Life's not fair. Because a lot of people take that and say, well, they want to throw it back at the customer. Right. Well, life's not fair. This is the way we do it. You're going to wait, are you going to do this or whatever it is. But it's also accepting that life's not fair. You're going to absorb it and. And kind of get to that. Because I think. Not to preach, but in today's society, it's like everybody gets a quick dopamine hit.
Ok, tell us why blue hair is wrong, too. I want to.
Yeah, right.
Like, he knows how. He practices patience. He goes to Portillo's and gets that beef dip, and then it just sits there and he doesn't eat it.
Oh, it's. There's one time that they dipped it too much. There is a thing for that.
Yeah, that's.
Oh, see, like, you had it started with the. The sandwich earlier.
Too much?
No, no. Yeah. A light dip.
Nobody needs their sandwich.
See, the best thing is when you get the combo for Portillo's. And as the Italian beef, like, it.
Doesn'T even have to sit too long for it to be bad. It's already.
Bread is so hard. That's the. That's what they're doing. Bread's like four days old.
Is it?
Guys? How dare you? We are getting Portillo's now. Only thing I like.
Only thing I like at Portillo's is the garbage salad.
Yep. It's pretty good.
You sound like the wife. Yep. That's all she gets. And my mom. Garbage salad. There you go.
Thank you, ladies.
Yeah.
Got a track.
Life's not fair. It's a good. It's a good enough, you know, way to put it. It's not. And we don't need to win. No. When we win, that means somebody lost. And if the customer loses, we lose in the end. Yeah. There's no reason to be. Right. We gotta absorb it and have better systems. By the time it gets to that point, it's too late. Yeah, you gotta. You gotta avoid that point.
Yeah. I think it's about them. It's not about us.
And the bar is so low now with customer service. It's so low. Like, I go into places all the time. There's nobody even to help you anymore.
Yeah.
Like, you're on hold forever. It's. It's just nuts.
Yeah.
Well, I like the example. You were using one of the boot camps that we had this week. Right. You were talking about how we went to a barbecue restaurant. You're not worried about, are they going to order or charge you for two baked potatoes or whatever. I think that's a really good analogy. And, like, we go into these, not only is the bar low and for service, but we go to these places. And in our industry, we walk in the door, we drop off our vehicles or whatever it is, we're always like, oh, what's, what's the bill going to be like today? And no one lets you know. And it's at the end of like, hey, everything's fixed but sign on the dotted line or whatever it is. Or we just bill you, send you an invoice. But it's like we don't, you know, it, the intentionality up front and knowing like, hey, I'm not going to have that. It doesn't happen. But I mean, yeah, again, also just.
Hello.
Yeah, you know, thank you for being here.
Yeah, yeah. There is a thing with the psychology of the customer, right? Where you got to understand it. Just talk about it not being fair in our industry. Like, it's, it's that part of it's not fair. Like, there's a little voice inside the customer's head when they go to a car dealership, when they go to the automotive shop that like, you know, they're afraid they're gonna sell me something I don't need or like, whatever. The thing is, at a minimum, it's like a industry wide standard joke that it's like going to the dentist. So if that, that's like the thing. Yeah, we, we, we know what it's like. We know where their, their mind must be. And so, yeah, if you're, if you're thinking about those things, like, we're gonna have to do a better job if we know that's the thing. It's not fair. We're gonna have to do a better job. Because, like, to, to your point, I do, I use that example a lot where I got to approach customer service in the car business with more intentionality because of that psychology. Because in the rest of the retail world, like a restaurant, they don't necessarily have to deal with that psychology. Like, I didn't.
Nobody goes into an Italian restaurant.
Like, they're going to charge me.
I'm like, oh, this is like going to the dentist. You're hungry and you're excited.
Yeah, yeah, no, that is, that's a great point. Like, if you're understanding that, then, you know, you're gonna have to, you know, you're gonna have to do more. Right. Like, I was talking to one advisor, explaining that to him, and we had been talking about football, and he's like, oh, so when I get the ball, it's, it's first and 25. I never get first and 10. I'm like, that's exactly right. Like, it's, it's, it's not fair.
When I get the ball, it's second and one. That's so negative.
I don't know it was his take on it, but I think it drives home the point either way you look at it, that it's, it's not fair, but like it's hard if you embrace it. It's, There's a version of this that's really fun where when you solve a person's problem, I mean, business is about an exchange of value and there's a lot of value for the person that can solve people's problems. And then all of a sudden, you know, this thing doesn't become so stressful the more often you understand these concepts and you can flip these customers like you just, you go into the day with more composure, more confidence. And just so happens when you understand how to easily flip an upset customer, you, you don't have as many of.
Them anymore and you make more friends.
But it starts with your intention.
Yeah.
Are your intention. Can't to, to be, to be right or.
Yeah.
And you probably are better off not thinking. Even if the customer is going crazy to think, oh, this customer is crazy.
Yeah.
Just absorb it. Think like how. Okay, how can I diffuse this and just, you know, an apology and listening are the, the easiest ways. Works like. Yeah. Sometimes you sit there for 20 minutes and they don't stop and they're spitting and like.
Oh, yeah.
It is what it is.
Like.
You know, it's what, it's, it's why we're here. It's what we do. It's a temporary, it's temporary pain. It's like going to the gym.
Yeah.
Temporary pain for a long term relationship is what it is. It's good. Thanks, everybody. We'll see you next time on Service Drive Revolution. Thanks so much for watching this episode of Service Job Revolution. We're uploading new stuff every day, so make sure you subscribe and click the bell icon so you don't miss out. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, call 8333-ASK SDR and we'll answer your question on the show. That's 8333 Ask SDR for special deals on our books and training Head. Head over to offers.chriscollinsinc.com now that's offers.chriscollinsInc.com I'm Chris Collins and I'll see you in the next video.
