How did this customer slip through the crack?
WHY oh WHY did this customer come to me?
Ever have this HORRIBLE or somewhat unpleasant experience with a customer that made you want to hide in a corner and cry your eyes out?
Oh yea, I had one in April, and I’ve had many before then.
In fact one time, I had a cake client where it felt me DEVASTATED!!
I was bawling my eyes out at my mom's house and temporarily shut my business down.....but I was just playing!
Anywho, a loyal customer ordered an anniversary cake and as I was working on the cake order, I knew something was off.
I should NOT have booked this cake order.
But, I put my big girl pants on and completed it.
After I delivered the cake, the client didn’t really like the cake.
And a week after the event, she called me to tell me she was highly disappointed with the cake I made for her. *sad panda over here*
I got really upset because I truly felt I gave that cake my all and I liked the finished product.
But, at the end of the day, I had an unhappy customer.
So how do you deal with the TOUGH Customers?
1. Be grateful you attracted this customer.
If you aren’t having tough customers, you aren’t growing.
When I’ve had tough customers, I’ve actually became a better business owner and designer. These situations helped me to uncover the hidden “holes” inside of my business and place some much needed boundaries.
They helped me to uncover exactly what I needed to put in place to not have that situation to happen again, place them inside my contract (if you don’t have one, you can grab one here), and how to strengthen my boundaries.
2. Don’t take it so personally.
As designers, we can take a lot of things personally because we designed the cake the cakes.
It’s an expression of our creativity.
However, customers may not view our cakes the same way, they see it as a product.
Take a neutral approach to the cake you provided or whatever happened inside your cake business and view from there.
That way, less emotions are involved and you can make a clear decision on how to handle the customer instead of making a decision based on your emotions.
3. Handle the customer by doing right by you AND the customer.
Is the customer always right? hmmm not usually. But, how they feel is legitimate and real. However you are a small business owner.
Have some company policies in place for when these sticky situations happen so you know how to handle them going forward.
This helps you stay consistent and takes the guess work out of how to handle these tough customers.
Each one needs to be mastered in order to see the results you really want inside your cake business.
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What's the worst customer you've had in your cake business?
Come on!
We all have them!
How did you deal with the situation? Leave it below in the comments.
