The Customer Is Always Right
Oct 14, 2020This has been a year of tricky and unusual real estate situations. Bringing these to a coaching team can help you explore options and choose a smart course of action. One such situation proved to be the exception to the old rule, "The customer is always right."
Usually when someone brings up a problematic behavior from a client or customer the advice is to remember that the customer is always right, even when they are wrong. And the customer is always entitled to their opinion, even when their opinion is wrong. Even when you have documents and evidence to the contrary.
But in this recent case, not only was the customer wrong, but their opinion crossed the line into abusive and threatening. That's called bullying.
Difficult clients come with the territory. Real estate is a people business and a service business. As you are aware, real estate transactions can be so stressful that we sometimes encounter extreme emotions.
Empathy goes a long way to understanding what people are going through and handling it with grace and calm. So does knowing you have a choice of whether or not to work with any given person. Floyd says, "The biggest mistake new people make is thinking they have to work with everybody."
THE QUESTION: “How do I handle allegations and accusations after a closing, along with threats of formal complaints and lawsuits?”
THE ANSWER: After listening to the advice of her R Squared Team, this is the message she sent to the customer in question.
"Our business is concluded. Your recent communications have crossed the line into abuse and harassment. I have documents showing your final acceptance of all terms and conditions. This evidence disproves each of your allegations and complaints. Any further communication will be referred to our attorney for legal action."
The customer is always right, except when they are wrong, you can prove it and it becomes an unhealthy situation. That is something you don't have to put up with.
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