Strategy To Handle An Angry Customer In A Community Pharmacy

`Customer is always right' so says Harry Gordon Selfridge in 1909. However, there is a limit to that right. When a customer step on it, it is time to get them to their right senses before it is too late.

Many merchants including owners of community pharmacy sell their own rights to customers. This they believe will help to increase sales. At the end of the day, they end up selling their own sanity trying to please customers that will always find fault with every service. The people that suffer it more is employee.

Community pharmacy spend most of their time teaching their staff personally or in schools how to treat a customer. They are expected to act in certain ways to customers. Failure to do so may result in getting sacked. Unfortunately, nobody teaches the customer on how to mind their boundaries. At the end of the day, many customers act with so much pride. This they also do to the pharmacist. And I can authoritatively say this kind of situations do not happen to medical doctors in the hospital because they are not under pressure by their employers to act in certain ways to their patient.

Read Also: Benefits of super market in a community pharmacy

Type Of Angry Customers

Angry customer

From years of experience, it has been observed that some customers are always on the nerve of staff. They exhibit the same characters and attitude anytime they want to make a purchase. They are either the aggressive, verbally abusive or demanding type.

Verbally Abusive Customers

This is by far the most common cases to deal with in a community pharmacy. It happens almost on a daily basis. They are good at using foul words on anybody.  Unfortunately, they don't give a tangible reason for picking offence at the staff. The worst cases are those who will insist on seeing the owner to report the case for the staff to get sack. I wonder what they tend to gain from that.

Aggressive Customers

Some will not just end their problem with abusive words. They will go violent. They may even threaten to come back with boys to beat up the staff or with a police for an arrest.

Demanding Customer

They want a product but is either not covered by their insurance company or it requires a prescription. The next thing is words to show the pharmacist is not a professional and does not know what he or she is doing and something about bad home parenting. They can go on and on explaining the purpose of the drug in their life or why will their insurance company exclude the product.

Strategy

When a customer turns abusive, remember that other customers may be watching how well the case is handled. Be tact about it while looking for a simple way to make them leave without more offence. Give them a little more time to rant but not long enough to distract your attention from better customers waiting. Do not interrupt them. When the person seems to have rounded up the rant, in a low tone and voice repeat the questions to make the angry customers know that you have listened to all what was said. Then explain what you understood by all what they said. This help solve the major problem of communication which is understanding each other.

Explain your stand or reason for what happened. Don't make the customer feel they are wrong. Don't accept you are wrong if you did nothing bad. Use a tactful sentence to arrive at that. If the rant is about an issue that can be referenced, point the angry customers to the reference point. Remember, the manner of an approach matters a lot here. You may have a valid point but wrong approach can kill the day. Other staff can attend to other customers. Defend each other in the pharmacy.

If it is possible, figure out the native language of the angry customer. If you can speak the language, please do. If there is another staff that does, let the staff handle the situation. At this point, don't let your body language sends the wrong message. A single body posture can mean different things to different tribes and people. If a particular body language sends a wrong signal, be quick to adjust. However, this is not easy to achieve because Nigeria is a multicultural environment. The basic is just learn about the do's and don'ts in the community which may be where the angry customer is coming from.

Another approach to ending a feud between a staff and an angry customer is to look for an alternative solution to the problem that is making them angry. Some patients complain of medication that are dose 6 hourly. An alternative medication that can be dose according to the patient wants such a once a day should be sorted out fast. Lastly, when a customer is angry with a staff, directing the customer to a staff of higher rank such as from a sales assistant to the pharmacist does the magic. They will talk about it a bit and calm down.

Read Also: Success tips for community pharmacy

When they become overly abusive or overly demanding or violent, show them the door. When they refuse, call for help. Other staffs can help. But where the situation degenerate further, call neighbors and security agent.Customers are not kings and queens as some of them want to be treated at the detriment of staff sanity. Staff are not servants especially the pharmacist. They are there to render professional healthcare service.

There are some scenarios angry customers recognize their mistake and apologize. Don't Lord it over them. Play down the drama and never rewind it. 

The solutions above have worked on several occasions but it is not a guarantee it works all the time. Some customers are just not worth the stress.

Share On Social Media With Family And Friends To Show You Care!