We all wish to deal and encounter great customer every day. But for the fun of it, let me set the scene. It’s 1966 in a Clint Eastwood movie where the two of you meet eye to eye in front of a saloon, the tension rises, you want to take the first shot but instead, you play the good, while the customer is the bad and the ugly!

We feel you. We know exactly where you are this is coming from. So how can we make them great customers as front liners?

Everything from someone coming in two minutes before close (because of, face it – you have no life!) or the customer who insists on taking a call while you serve them, we’ve all been there!

It takes a lot of patience to handle the array of customers that we are confronted with on a daily basis. It takes super powers!

But don’t get mad, get to laughing.

We have collated a list of the most common personalities who ‘do not’ make the greatest customers, for a little fun.

Let’s begin with the one who knows how to do your job better than you (and your boss). Think of them like a business consultant advising on best business practices (come on they’re basically doing you a favor!)

Then there’s the ninja who envies you so much that he wants to be you. He’s like your apprentice, posing as a customer to learn more from you.

Slightly more frustrating is the one who is the greatest of all hagglers, he treats your company more like a Sunday car boot sale than actual established business. Just breathe!

And the worst, ugliest one of them all, the very vocal customer. He’s angry, he’s loud and you’re going to hear about it.

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We share with you this fun infographic of some of the most challenging customers and strategies to help you cope.

As Clint Eastwood would say “Go ahead, make my day”, after all who doesn’t wish to meet at least one great customer per day?

The Website Group created an infographic to spice this topic with fun and not bitterness when it happens to you. See how it shows you how customers can be different and how they all can be of varying characteristic.

Letting the infographic above set in, about “Not Everyone Makes A Great Customer” you can always counter and make your job enjoyable meeting these people and more fun despite.

Less stress is guaranteed when you finally come to realize tips to use like weapons to counter. Listed and discussed bellow are tips to help cope if not adapt faster in the context of how to see the situation as an opportunity and not a disgrace handling the above-mentioned customers after all.

In any line of work that has customer handling, we meet and hear from hundreds of people a month and connect with clients potentially in a more public way. Through this experience, it is safe to say we’ve seen scores of awkward and unique behaviors of customers that push people away (that includes us). It is safe to assume we’ve not just realized but witnessed the damage these behaviors can cause too.  Of course from customer relationships, customer experience aspects,  professional growth, and success, to the well-being of both the individual behaving negatively, and to everyone around him or her. In this encounter, it is you the battle of handling. You as the superpower vs. the challengers. (great customers, unique customers and us handling them)

The good news is, Instead of dwelling on the negative connotation of the unique customers, our well-controlled responses are the key dealing with the ‘Know-it-all’ hero, the ‘Ninja’ snooper, the Penny Pincher or the Langry, with a Smile!

Keeping in mind that it is almost everyone’s imaginative dream to one day have the superpower of cherry-picking a great customer to speak with every single time. Dreaming is free go for it!

Bullet points bellow can be helpful tips for you too.

• Always remember, It’s not you. So smile and don’t take anything personally.

We all know how taking everything personally makes the difference in every situation? Do we, or do we not? In the powerful little book The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz talks about the importance of taking nothing personally.

In most of the teachings we get in coaching programs and books such as Breakdown, Breakthrough there is so much pushback. “Really, Kathy – don’t take anything personally?” as it reads. The control is always with us. So don’t take anything personally. As the infographic shows two out of five customers are the ‘know it all’ heroes voted three annoying faces in the level of how annoying they are as customers.

Four out of five customers could be one of the ‘Penny Pinchers’ voted four annoying faces in the level of how annoying they can possibly be in the encounter, we can always put ourselves in their shoes in the aspect of frugality which money seems to have an imaginary spring back in and their pockets.

• Don’t treat yourself as the Victim

Chin up Buttercup!

Another aspect of control we could help ourselves to handle the ‘Langry’ customers as front liners are not to treat ourselves as a victim not to believe that we are being victimized but always as a victor. After an encounter, we all know that a non-stop complaining that fuels your sense of victimization is a toxic behavior. Believing you’re the victim with these individuals, instead of aiming to revive and convert them into a great customer before leaving.

It’s toxic when you believe that you have no power to exert and to influence the direction of the encounter. It is a toxic stance that keeps you stuck and small.

It is important t to know that we have access to far more power, control, authority, and influence over our situation than we initially believe especially with the ‘know it all’ hero. As dealing with a toxic or a great customer can possibly be influenced by you. Either good or bad its how you manage and rise against the situation, and choose to still be the survivor and a victor despite

• Needing Validation

There is a bigger picture to life, (so chillax, relax and release a little bit) it’s not about what you achieve or fail at today, in your encounter. It’s about winning the games every day and passionately learning the art of adaptability. It is also the journey, the progress, the path,  what you’re learning and applying, how you’re helping others, make them better if not great customer than they originally were when you first met them, the growing process within you that you allow yourself to engage in every day.

We can not please everyone but we can always control our response towards them. Winning by default, it is by being confident, relaxed, in-control with the situation. We conquer if we never falter to rise against it by always enjoying what we do.

We may not meet great customers every day but we can always be great front liners in everything we do.