TOW#530 — Dissatisfied people
No matter how much you try to satisfy your clients and the people around you, there’ll always be someone who’s dissatisfied.
Their dissatisfaction can be either justified or not (in your view), but either way they’re dissatisfied. The first thing you need to do is to carefully ask yourself whether their dissatisfaction is important to you or not. If it is not important to you, then carry on as you were, but if it is and you want them to be satisfied, then:
- React immediately — the longer you leave the dissatisfaction, the greater it will grow. When dissatisfied people don’t get real answers, they just get more dissatisfied. Therefore, call or go see that person immediately to try to understand what is causing the dissatisfaction, and try to change it.
- Active listening — once you’ve decided that you care about the opinion of the disgruntled client and you’re determined to see/talk to them, then make sure you do it properly, not just pro forma. Listen, analyse and respond (accept that you were wrong or convince them that they are wrong, but don’t offend). Most people want to be heard and to feel understood, even if you don’t agree with them.
- Overcoming the ‘problem’ — proactively overcoming the problem is crucial to bringing back trust or satisfaction, instead of simply thinking about solving the problem. Proactively overcoming the problem requires your maximum involvement in order to solve the situation, but also, of course, the involvement of the dissatisfied individual. Involvement can be through:
o Dialogue with the dissatisfied person for a faster and better solution to the problem
o Their honest involvement in solving the problem.
- Misunderstandings — find the misunderstanding within the communication, don’t assume. When you find it, you’ll see that the problem will be resolved quickly, i.e. there was no misunderstanding but instead the communication was not good.
- Staying calm — don’t overreact or get angry. There’s a solution for everything, and this particular problem is no exception. The most important thing is to remain calm, to see what really happened and to act on it in order to resolve/overcome it.
However, it must be said that sometimes, no matter what you do, people just seem to want to be annoyed and dissatisfied. Nevertheless, in most cases, if you call and explain your side, and also hear them out, you should be able to sort out the situation. At the end of the day, it just depends on what you want!
Wishing you success with the changes to come,
@kalinbabusku
Member of the Team
MACEDONIA-EXPORT Consulting
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