MBA1455 Q&A Wednesday: How do I deal with a customer that threatens me?

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Hey oh. Welcome to the $100 MBA show. The place to be to build a business you want every day with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the Hundred Dollar mba, a complete business training and community online and today's episode is a Q and a Wednesday episode. On our Q and a Wednesday episodes, I answer a question from one of you, one of our listeners. If you have a question you want to ask, just email me over at Omar MBA Net. Today's question is from Pablo and Pablo asks how do I deal with a customer that threatens me? I have a customer that's looking to get a refund on one of my products, but they're well past the refund date so I refused the customer the refund. According to our policy. This customer in return threatened to badmouth me and my company on social media as well as writing a less than flattering blog post on their website. I don't want the bad publicity. Even though the customer is totally in the wrong. I feel that I don't want the bad publicity, but at the same time I don't want to back down from the policies that we've set. What should I do? Firstly, Pablo, I want to say that this is actually a more than common issue with business owners than you may think. This happens to all of us. It's happened to me so many times where a customer will want something out of you, even if that thing they want is out of their rights. They'll threaten you. They'll do anything to get what they want. A lot of people treat the Internet like it's not real life. And they say and do things without really thinking about the consequences, whether the consequences will affect you or them. Defaming and slandering is actually illegal. You can't just do that. You can't just say what you want. But at the same time, like you mentioned, you have a business, you have a reputation. You don't want to deal with these headaches. What do you do? Do you bend the rules and give the refund and back down? Or do you not back down on bullies and say, hey, this is our policy and that's what it is, and deal with whatever comes your way afterwards. That's what we get into in today's Q and A Wednesday. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. So in today's Q and A Wednesday, Pablo asks, how does he deal with a customer that's threatening him? They're asking for a refund even though they're past the refund policy date. Pablo refused to refund and therefore the customer replied with a threatening message saying, hey, I'm going to blast you on Twitter. I'm going to write a scathing blog post about you if you don't give me this refund. I want to first say that in this scenario, I've seen businesses go both ways. I've seen very successful businesses that stick to their guns. They don't bend the rules. And when somebody blasts them on social media or on their blog or whatever, their community of people are so strong that they defend them on social media. So, like, your other customers would go ahead and defend you and reply to that social media comment and say, you're in the wrong, that's totally not true, all that kind of stuff. But I've also seen companies say, you know what, it's just not worth it. Give them the refund and just never see this person again and not worry about the backlash and the posts that they would post on social or otherwise. And I know you don't want to hear this, but there is no right or wrong answer. There's just the way you want to deal with it in your own business. On one hand, a lot of people feel like, hey, I have a policy for a reason to follow it, and I have to have policies because I can't do all the refunds forever. I'm going to have a team or I have a team, and I need to make sure that they follow the policy, and there are no exceptions. That's why we have a policy there. And the policy is there to be fair, to give them time to get a refund. And if they don't take up that offer or the time expires, that's on them. The other thing that people in this camp say is I can give them the refund, and nothing's going to stop them from still badmouthing me. Like, I can give them the money and they can still badmouth me. So I'm going to walk you through the two different approaches that I would recommend. Number one, if you want to stick to your guns and you don't want to give the refund, that's fine, and that's your prerogative, and that's a choice that's valid. You did everything right by the customer. You're within your rights, you're within your policies, but you're dealing with human beings here, and you want to make sure as best as you can that you don't let that customer leave you feeling disgruntled or upset. So even if you don't give the refund, so you say, hey, listen, we have a policy. We can't break the policy. I cannot give you the refund. But what else can I do for you to help you, to satisfy you, to make you a happy customer? What else can I do? Try to find out why they want a refund. Do they need help implementing? Do they need help installing the app or whatever it is? Maybe give them a way or a tool or a call or some sort of resource. Help them implement what they bought. Hey, you got this thing now let's make the most of it. Try to help them out. And in this way, you leave the customer feeling, hey, okay, maybe I didn't get the refund, but at least they cared enough to try to help me out in some other way way, they gave me something, and it's better than nothing. For example, if I was at a restaurant and I ordered a plate of eggs, for example, and the eggs were overcooked, I told the, you know, the waitress or the waiter, hey, my eggs are overcooked. Not so happy about it. What can you do for me? They may not refund my money or give me the eggs for free, but they'll Replace it. They'll get me some new eggs, basically doubling their costs. And that will make me happy. I would be happier if they didn't burn my eggs or if I had a free meal, but at least I got some decent eggs. Now, I may or may not return to that restaurant, but at least I will not feel like they're trying to scam me or I didn't get anything out of them. So at least there's some sort of, like, parting gift. Now what if you decide to give the refund and you really feel like it's not worth the mess and the chance of them badmouthing you on the Internet? Well, you've already said you have a policy, and you've already said that you're not getting the refund. So now you're gonna backtrack and it's gonna look a little strange or a little bit weak, right? But you've decided you want to give the refund and you don't want to deal with this issue anymore. My advice is to pass the conversation on to somebody else. Even if you're the founder, even if you're the founder of the company and you're the person who makes the ultimate decision, you can say, hey, I'm going to pass this on to our customer service manager. I've empowered her to make these types of decisions, or I empowered him to make these types of decisions. I'm going to let them do that. And then between you and the manager, you could say, hey, give this person a refund. This is what I recommend to avoid these issues if that's what you decide. So in this case, the customer sees that there's fresh eyes on the situation, and this person makes a different decision, gives them their money. It has a different tone to it. It has a different feeling to it. Number one, I recommend a two step process when it comes to this. So you know the person hands off. And now the first step is you state what you're going to do. You say, hey, Customer X, even though we have a policy in place to protect you and allow you to have a refund during these number of and you exceeded those number of days you went over that policy. What I'm going to do for you is I'm going to give you a 50% refund or 100% refund or whatever you're doing as an exception, would that make you happy? Would that make you feel satisfied? I want to make sure that our relationship ends on a good note. You want to hear back from the customer. You want to get confirmation like, hey, yes, this is what I'm looking for. Yes, that's good enough. Yes, that would be great. Because you need affirmation from them that hey, I'm happy now, no ill will, nothing bad's gonna happen, it's over. Like a contract. You're saying, hey, will this satisfy your needs? This is gonna make you happy. Yes, it will. Boom. And then your next reply is, hey, I just processed the refund. This is when it's gonna show up on your card. Three to five days, whatever it is. That two step process kind of sets you up in a way that protects you a little bit. You know, an email, a back and forth conversation on email is a document and if anything did happen and you did have to get any lawyers involved, you have a written agreement that this person was content with that deal and that you're going to give them money or refund or whatever you're going to give them in exchange for them going away happy and not wanting any issues. It's a written contract and it's a deal that hey, I'm going to give you a refund or partial refund in exchange. You go away not creating any issues. This will be the end of the situation, a resolution, so to speak. It's your business and you get to choose whether you want to do option A or option B. My job is to help you, walk you through how to do A or B, whatever you choose, and how you can get the most out of that situation, how you can make sure in both cases a customer walks away happy.

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To wrap up today's Q and A Wednesday, it's never a good feeling when a customer threatens you badmouths, you, gives you that nasty message or email, especially when you didn't do anything wrong, when you did right by the customer. But it's your job to handle the situation with grace, with professionalism, because this is what your brand is. This is what you're going to be known for, how you deal with these tough situations. And if you're handling the situation yourself, then you're an example for everybody else in the company, whether they are in the company now or in the future. You're setting the tone of how we handle these types of situations. Thank you so much for listening. I hope this helps. If you have a question you want to ask, just like Pablo today, just email me over@omar00mba.net and I'll make sure I answer your question right here on Q and A Wednesday. Also, don't forget to hit subscribe right now. By hitting subscribe, you get access to over 1400 business lessons in our archives. It's absolutely free to subscribe. Just hit that subscribe button on whatever app you use to listen to podcasts. Whether it's Apple Podcast or Spotify or Stitcher Radio or Overcast. We're on them all. Hit that subscribe button right right now. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. Most of your customers are going to be great, and they're going to be nice and professional and friendly. But a handful will not be. They're going to be nasty, they're going to be rude. They're going to be downright mean. I've seen a lot of them in my days. You can't take it personal, and you have to show your best self in these situations. This is when you rise to the occasion and win them over with kindness and politeness. And guess what? You may not win them over, but you still got to do it. Because hey, that's what your company's all about. Thank you so much for listening and I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. I'll see you then. Take care.

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