Customers! Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em. The majority are easy to work with. But what about the ones who yell like drill sergeants? The ones who lecture on how to do your job? The ones who laugh at your bad jokes, agree with your ideas — and then never do what they promised?
If you can afford to ignore annoying customers, great. But the law of averages dictates that you’re bound to encounter these folks. Keep in mind that annoying customers automatically stack the deck in their favor. To level the playing field, you’ve got to return the favor by responding differently from the way they’ve “programmed” you to do so. In the short-run at least, the following counter-strategies may turn annoying customers into somewhat reasonable people, and allow you both to get on with the business at hand.