How To Deal With Tricky Situations

Things don’t always go to plan and sometimes we may find ourselves in tricky situations when it comes to running our businesses.

We all strive for perfection and believe what we offer is the best thing ever – but we all have to admit it – we are human at the end of the day and sometimes there are such things as human errors ;)

 

Here’s our top tips on how to deal with tricky situations:

 

Remain Professional At All Times

This makes a massive, massive difference. Remaining professional and calm enables you to address the situation and look at how best to deal with it. Shouting, losing your cool, or getting into an argument with someone does nobody any favours whatsoever!

 

 

Look at the situation from both parties point of view

In the heat of the moment it’s easy just to see one side, but have you looked at both sides and put yourself in their position?

 

 

Diffuse the situation

Often tricky situations come out of misunderstandings. It’s best to diffuse the situation and give people time to calm down before steaming into being defensive.  We can upset people without realising we’ve done it, so a quick “sorry, I wasn’t aware of that” can often diffuse a situation quite quickly and give you time to find out what the problem is.

 

 

Talk and communicate with people

It’s far better to have a chat on the phone, or face to face, than it is to “chat” via email.  Things can often be misread or misinterpreted on email, whereas when speaking to someone you hear the tone of their voice and you can often sort things out much quicker rather than playing “email tennis” and getting misunderstood ;)

 

Respond to situations quickly

Don’t let things esculate. Nip them in the bud, and always get back to people quickly. People want things sorted out as soon as possible, the longer you leave a situation, the harder it becomes.  That’s not to say that sometimes you need to give people time to calm down, but never ignore a tricky situation – as uncomfortable as it may be, you must address them :)

 

 

Listen

Listen to what’s being said to you. Show that you are listening.  Take in what’s being said, digest it and calmly respond in a positive way. You cannot please everyone all of the time so do not take it personally – listening and trying to understand why that situation has occured makes a massive difference.

 

 

Turn it around

We all know that businesses can make mistakes. But what make them fantastic businesses is how they respond to complaints or “tricky situations”.  What may seem to be a “tricky situation” can often turn into that customer becoming an advocate for your business.  Showing them you care about what they are saying and that you want to put things right, makes your business shine.

How often have you seen comments on twitter to big companies such as Virgin Media, complaining that their broadband is down, and how quickly do you see such companies responding positively and sorting the problem out for them? You will also see that “complainer” tweet how fantastic the customer service was at Virgin and how quickly they responded and put things right!  Fab publicity for Virgin :)

 

Make Your Customers Feel Special

If you have messed things up, or got something wrong, then admit it! Honesty is the best policy ever in our book! We are all human and sometimes we can get things wrong! By apologising and perhaps sending an unexpected token gift makes a massive, massive difference.  Showing your customers that you care and making them feel special certainly helps in tricky situations! We like TuckTuck for a little gift for people (fab for saying Thank You too!) ;)

 

So, when you find yourself in a tricky situation, don’t panic!  Keep calm, keep professional and keep a level head :)

 

 

Did you find these tips useful?  We would love to get your feedback and any tips you may have for tricky situations – please email [email protected]

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