Why You Shouldn’t Turn Angry People Into Your Biggest Fans

One of my super powers is turning any angry customer into a raving fan.

The only trouble is that sometimes it’s quick and sometimes it takes all day.

An important realization about this:

There’s the 5% of people who won’t be happy no matter what.Maybe it’s more, maybe it’s a little less—that’s not the point. The point is that no matter what you do, a small percentage will always complain, ask for a refund, or just won’t be soothed.There’s a name for them.

They're called haters.

Trying to make them happy is futile.

Then there’s everyone else.

They could be split up into the groups of “people who just want their money back,” or “people who just want a manager to hear them out,” or “people who are trying to game the system so they can get free stuff.”

There are a lot of people in this category and it’s up to you to decide who to spend your time on.

And that’s the lesson.Are you going to make a customer for life with your effort to transform them? Will empathizing and listening and collecting their feedback make them feel heard enough to give you a second chance?If the answer is “they’re going to be unhappy no matter what,” then it’s probably time to bail.

2 Minute Action

Whats something that’s taking up 80% of your time right now?Now is a good time to prioritize fixing that.Make a call, make a list, send an email, whatever you need to do to start fixing that.Its usually the bottom 20% of your tasks that take up 80% of the time required to complete it.