How to Communicate with Clients and Customers

1. Speak clearly, slowly, and use easy to understand words.

2. Do not judge the way the customer or client is dressed or presents themselves.
3. Be respectful of the customer’s or client’s feelings.
4. Use the customer’s name. This helps people feel respected and valued.
5. Be aware of your own words and body language.
6. Be interested in the customer’s or clients needs.
7. As open-ended questions (not questions that can be answered by yes or no) to find out
what customers are looking for.

How to Deal with Customer and Client Complaints

Customers usually have a good reason for complaining, so it is important to a business to take
care of customer complaints. Less than half of unhappy customers take their complaint to the
company. On the other hand, dissatisfied customers who don’t contact the company will tell an
average of 11 other people about their bad experience. Businesses should be happy when a
customer takes their complaint to the business, and should handle it as follows:
 Stay calm, and give the customer a chance to get their emotions out. This is called
venting or blowing off steam. Give unhappy customers a chance to vent.
 Listen carefully until the customer is calm.
 Admit if the company has made a mistake, or if there has been a misunderstanding, and
apologize on behalf of the company. Find out what would make the customer happy.
 Make sure you know company policies, so you know what you can offer the customer.
Then offer a solution. Tell the customer what you are willing to do to solve the problem.
 Follow up with the customer in a few days to make sure everything is okay.

Listening and Feedback (response or reaction to a sender’s message) Skills

Good listening skills help to lessen the chance of misunderstandings, and feedback helps to make
spoken messages clearer.
Listening requires paying careful attention to the speaker. Feedback can be both given to the
speaker and received from the speaker. Feedback, in workplace settings, is a term that is used to
refer to information that is given or asked for in response to communication, a product, or a
person’s performance of a task.
In a workplace, the supervisor, leader, manager, or human resources (HR) department may give
feedback to an employee about the quality of his or her work. Businesses often send out
customer surveys to get feedback about their products and services. Co-workers may give or ask
for feedback about work concerns. Giving feedback that is helpful is an effective communication
skill.

Using the Right Words

A company’s president entered the conference room and stood at the head of the table. All eyes
were on her. She said, “We’ve had a terrible fourth quarter. This is unacceptable. You need
to work harder to turn this around.”
Everyone in the room felt their efforts were not appreciated. The words were clear and direct, but
they produced feelings of anxiety and stress in the employees. The words made the situation
worse. Productivity sank to a new low.
Imagine the employee’s feelings if the president had said “We’ve had a low fourth quarter,
but I’m confident we can turn this around. Thank you for your hard work in difficult
times. Let’s all pull together to make the company stronger.”
The words we use can be powerful and positive, and can inspire people to try hard. Or, they can
be negative and destructive, and produce anger and frustration in listeners.
In Canada, we use direct communication, but that doesn’t mean we should be rude. In the
workplace, we have to choose our words carefully and find a balance between being honest and
being positive.
Some words and phrases cause negative reactions in people, and sometimes seem to attack
people. Once the words are spoken, it is impossible to take them back. Here are some words and
phrases that can cause negative reactions in people:
You’re kidding me, that’s stupid, absurd, brain-dead, crazy, foolish, idiotic, inconsiderate,
irresponsible, nonsense, nuts, off your rocker, pitiful, ridiculous, rude, selfish, senseless.
If you don’t understand something at work, you should ask questions, but you should choose
your words carefully. Beginning questions with “why” can make people feel threatened. For
instance, “Why did you do that?”
If something has gone wrong at work, focus on correcting the problem rather than blaming
someone. Use a tone of voice that sounds like you want to find a solution to the problem, rather
than blaming a person for the problem. Instead of saying “Did you break the photocopier?” you
can ask “What happened to the photocopier?” Here are some other useful questions:

Words to Use When You’re Angry or Upset

If you fell angry or upset, you have to express it, but it’s important to use the right words.
Avoid beginning sentences with “you” which can make someone feel attacked. Focus on the
problem rather than the person.
Instead of: You missed important details in your report, try Some important details are missing
in this report.
Instead of You forgot to send out the memo, try People need the information in that memo
before the meeting. Could you please send it out right away?
Instead of You should have read the instructions first, try I think you’ll find useful information
in the instruction manual.
Instead of You keep interrupting me, try I’ll be interested in your input when I finish explaining
my idea.
Instead of Why didn’t you tell me you needed help? try Please ask me for help if something
isn’t clear. My door is always open.
Instead of That’s not going to work, try That’s an interesting idea. My experience is …