April 27, 2021

Wanna know why customers are so rude? Maybe it’s you.

Sometimes it’s our own fault that our customers become rude to us. Here are the things you need to attend to and keep them happy.

Nigel Seah

Digital Marketing Executive

Reading time: 5 minutes

Why are customers so rude you ask? Sometimes, we really need to look no further and our own reflection in the mirror. 👀👀👀

Of course, I’m not saying that it’s always your fault.

But ensuring that your customers are satisfied forms the very foundation of what makes your customers happy. And we can’t deny that there have been times where our own services were so lackluster that our customers can’t help but be in a bad mood.

That said, let’s take a look at some of these scenarios and see if you have ever been guilty of committing these mistakes.

Your sales reps over-promised

Your product is too expensive for what it’s worth

As you can see in the reviews above, some companies do overcharge for their products for some very basic features.

Who’s really going to be happy when they just paid $100 for a product that’s worth just $50?

To sell at a fair price, it is important for you to conduct research to see the market rate at which your competitors are charging for their products. You should also pay attention to the number of features provided per pricing plan.

If you want to sell your product at a much higher price, you need to ensure that you are providing more value to justify the higher cost.

Otherwise, don’t be surprised if an unhappy customer rings you up and raises their voice at you 😅

Your features aren’t as great as your sales reps made them out to be

Now, just because you’ve done your research and are selling your product at a reasonable price, it doesn’t mean you can build lackluster features.

Customers still expect you to be the best at what you do.

If your product cannot holistically address all of your prospect’s business problems, don’t sell it as one that can. Be honest with them.

If you hid this fact from them and they make the purchase only to realize they’ve made a lackluster purchase, you can expect a few calls from angry customers.

Poor customer service

Your reps were not able to help your customers with their problems

Realizing that you’ve spent money on something that cannot address your problem is very frustrating.

But you know what’s more frustrating? The company you purchased from not being able to address the issues with the product they made.

As the company that sells the product, you are expected to know it inside-out. This means that you should be aware of types of issues that may pop up from time to time, as well as the steps to fix the problem.

If you don’t know these things, you can come off as unprofessional and unprepared.

You don’t seem to care about their problems

As someone in a fast-paced startup environment, I know that feeling all too well. You sometimes have so much to do that you just forget to respond to your customers.

That said, it is not an excuse.

If you ignore their message for too long, you can come off as a company that does not care about your customers. Even if you have no time to respond immediately, you should let them know that you will get back to them as soon as possible.

At Novocall, a lil something we do to make our customers feel heard is to use automated messages on communication channels like Facebook Messenger. That way, you acknowledge that you have received your customers’ messages and will attend to them as soon as you are available.

Their problems persist despite complaints

This problem happens more often than you think.

Imagine this. You spent quite a sum on a product to solve a specific problem. And the very feature you purchase the product for doesn’t quite address the problem.

So, you reach out to the company for help. But despite your pleas for help 😭 and the acknowledgment of the issue, nothing gets done.

As you can see this company did just that.

And if you went through what I just described, would you be polite to the company who promised to help solve your problem?

But as I said, sometimes it’s not your fault

You can have the best support team in the world and sometimes, even that is not enough.

Your customer could be going through something really hard in their life and cannot control their emotions. Sometimes, they’re just mean-spirited and entitled people.

When you encounter cases like these, it acknowledges the complaint and proceeds to help them solve the issue in a professional manner.

What should you do if your customers are rude?

Say sorry

Now, this is by no means an acknowledgment of your mistakes. Sometimes it’s not your fault and people are unreasonable.

Saying sorry is a way of acknowledging how your unhappy customers are feeling at that point in time.

If indeed the customer was just being unreasonable, your sales rep can say something like “I’m sorry you are experiencing this. Let me quickly see how I can help you fix it”.

In this case, not only did your sales rep not accept blame for something they didn’t do but continues to act in a professional manner.

Have dedicated customer service and customer success teams

Customer service and customer success teams have similar yet different functions. Here’s a quick overview:

If you have a general support team, chances are, they may end up doing too many things and mix up the functions they are supposed to perform.

Having a dedicated team for customer support and customer success means that each team will be able to focus 100% on specific support tasks and is thus able to provide help more efficiently.

Conclusion

I hope you’ve picked up a thing or two about why your customers end up being rude to your teammates.

It never feels good to be in the wrong. But sometimes, we really need to look within ourselves to see if we are indeed the ones who made life so difficult for our customers that they end up being angry and rude.

The best and right thing to do is to always acknowledge the frustration they are feeling and proceed to help them out in a professional manner.

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Nigel Seah

Nigel is a Digital Marketing Executive at Novocall where he specializes in SEO. Prior to this, he had written for several SaaS companies including Workstream and the now defunct Hatchme. In his free time, he engages in strength training and is a lover of languages.

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