The Know-it-all Customer

What sort of behaviours will they display?

Seem to know everything about your business, product or service, looks everything up, the information they have may be anywhere between entirely accurate and very wrong. Can be critical or rude, they are convinced they are right all the time.

How can we manage the know-it-all customer?

This customer type responds really well to an ego boost, start with a genuine sounding compliment such as:

•         You really know a lot about x product/service.

•         You’ve done a lot of research about x product/service.

Try to avoid patronising the customer or sounding surprised they have some knowledge. E.g. “wow you’ve done your homework” sounds patronising, insincere and makes them appear childlike.

As with other customer types stay calm and don’t be tempted to argue with them. If you need to correct their knowledge use statements like “you’re right but this product also….” Or “that’s almost right apart from….” These make the customer feel like they have knowledge and you are adding to it rather than that they are completely wrong. You could also use “that was correct, but they changed x/y/z recently to a/b/c”.

This type of customer may challenge you about a piece of information you have provided. Don’t take this personally and deal with it professionally. Make sure you are advising within your competency and seek support if you need it. Depending on who is right depends on what happens next:

•            If you are correct, then thank the customer for checking and confirm the information is correct.

• If you aren’t sure whether you are correct, ask a colleague for some support or look it up. You can either do this openly e.g. “I’m not 100% sure about that, let me go and ask a colleague/check that for you” or if you’re not comfortable saying that try “excuse me a second, I’ll be right back” then go and check the information.

• If you have made an error, don’t be afraid to admit it. Apologise and comment something such as “You’re right, I made a mistake, thank you for correcting me”. We are only human and sometimes we make mistakes. If you don’t feel confident about something speak to you line manager about additional training for that area.