MODULE I Communication & Customer advisory Page 18

• Publicity
  -> One should not discuss a complaint with a customer or argue about it in the presence of other customers.
  
  
• Time
  -> Complaints have to be dealt with immediately and should never be postponed.
  
  
• Blaming other people
  -> One should not put co-worker, suppliers, other brands or competitors in a bad light.
  
  
• Re-establishment of trust
  -> Should a customer complaint turn out to be unjustified one can consider to solve the problem with an obligingness or fair dealing arrangement. In such a case the customer should be politely informed that through the generosity of the company no further costs will occur for him even if in his particular case the company can not be blamed for the faults committed. Generally, obligingness or fair dealing arrangements have positive effects on future customer orders.

If one has done everything to satisfy the customer the company will not suffer from a damage to its image by a customer complaint. An important condition however is that such an incident is not continuously repeating or cases of complaint become a fixed part of the daily business.



11. Service, sales and the handling of different types of customers

It is an important goal in the service sector to have satisfied customers, especially in the sanitary, heating and air-conditioning business since in this business the handicraft companies operate very customer oriented. The customers for which one is going to work are often as different as the orders and jobs one has to fulfil. So, it is not always easy to deal straight away with a customer appropriately whose home one enters. Sometimes it happens that a customer opens the door that one finds immediately sympathetic. The next customer however is so rejecting on the first impression that one would like to immediately turn back on the threshold.

As a service technician or salesman one has to be able to skilfully handle different kinds of customers and people so that they do not sense that we possibly dislike them. In dealing with other people it happens quite frequently that we "put them into different drawers" if we meet them for the first time and have not known them better before. This "category determined way of thinking" influences very often and we might not even be aware of it what we first expect from these people. Very easily such thinking leads to a prejudice where we "label" or "type classify" other people like e.g.:

• "Just look how he moves, a typical government paid official....."
• "Like this drives only a BMW or Mercedes driver.........."
• "This can only be a teacher just like he knows everything better........."
• "A typical beginner.........."
• "This is typical for a woman............"