Argumentative customers!

[Greg_T]

I've had a good run with customers for a while, but this morning had a young man spray painting parts of his 4WD and doing other maintenance tasks in a bay. I started politely and gently, asking him to move on and explaining that it is a paid car wash, not somewhere for him to work on his vehicle. It soon escalated into the young man screaming at me, somehow trying justify what he was up to. With my wife dialling the police and me telling him very forcefully to get in his car and leave the premises, he decided to leave.

For me, the worst part is the big adrenaline rush! I can get fired up really quick, but it takes me hours to wind down again. No way to spend a Sunday!

 

[Eric H]

I think that most of us can sympathize with your situation. I don’t hold onto the anger all day like I used to. I don’t know if I deal with it better now because I’m older or have been in the business for 22 years.
I would recommend you come up with a script to follow when dealing with these situations. That way you stay focused and don’t say anything stupid. “Good morning, I’m the owner here. I looks like your doing some auto repair. I’m sorry we don’t allow that here. You’re going to have to pack up and go somewhere else.” Also, don’t raise your voice, let the other person be the aggressor. Stay calm but don’t back down. When they are trying to escalate the situation and you remain calm it really confuses them.
there are some good YouTube videos about dealing with aggressive behavior that helped me a lot. Try this one:

 

[bert79]

I feel your pain Greg. I know how angry I can get with customers who do stupid sh$%# too. I had a guy clean out his cement mixer in a bay a while back and his business phone number was on the side of the truck. I lost it on him on the phone when he tried to make excuses as to why he left wet concrete on my bay floor. Most recently I had a guy spray paint car parts on the bay floor but I was not at the wash at the time. I reviewed the video footage to find out who did it. He had a distinctive vehicle. Of course a few weeks later I saw the vehicle and confirmed that it was the same driver. I had a woooooosaaaaaah moment before approaching him and tried to get my script down. When he was finished washing I approached him and it went like this "Can I talk to you for a second? So a few weeks back in the bay next to us here someone spray painted car parts on the floor of the bay. I just wanted to let you know that that can not happen here. We spend a lot of time and effort trying to keep this place clean and that absolutely can not happen again. Do you understand?" His response, "Yes, that won't happen again." I found that by not directly accusing him the conversation went better. But that of course is after dealing with the initial anger of discovering it of course. I must say that I am struggling with the same problem that you have and if anyone has advice I am all ears also.

 

[Rodebaugh1]

The reasoning some of these guys have is simply amazing. Recently, I saw a guy on the camera that was cleaning and gutting fish on the back of his boat - then throwing all of the entrails on the bay floor. I drove over there as quick as possible to confront the guy. He assured me it was no big deal because he was going to wash all of the scales and fish guts down into the bay so it would be clean. Needless to say, the conversation escalated. Haven't seen him since.

 

[Andy Burn]

I have found out the hard way that “blowing the steam” does not make my blood pressure go down. I get more riled up - a real flaw in my personality. Getting angry at them is akin to holding a burning coal in your hand. Everyone is different and there are a lot of techniques from meditation to therapy and everyone of us got to find something that will work for us. No point in inviting a heart attack or a brain hemorrhage over bucket wash in my bay.

 

[MEP001]

I used to get really riled up. I guess I just learned over the years that it doesn't do any good. When I have to confront someone I just state everything firmly. It mostly works, but some people are so unreasonable I just get my phone out and tell them I'm calling the police. If they're decent and reasonable with me, I thank them for understanding and try to make a joke or something to lighten the mood. I've actually gotten to know a lot of decent people that way.

 

[mjwalsh]

FWIW,

If you are pretty sure of heated verbal exchange that is about to happen ... where the person & possibly his "bought, sold & paid for witness" will lie to PD when & if they are called & arrive, it might be wise to have hit the audio record app button on your smartphone. If needed later ... I would hope that some judge or other gov't official would not be so "anti small business" that he or she would misrepresent the intent of "privacy laws".

I actually did this before a potential tough verbal exchange ... when inside the laundromat ... a "I what believe to be from a big city 'master thug'" called the police on me accusing me of being racist & improperly harassing. Two very youthful police officers actually believed him & not me. Before 8AM the next morning I had "when he came in ... when he left" from video DVR & also exactly what was said. The footage & audio were sent to the police chief & the city attorney's office. I was also concerned about the local media potentially getting the "juicy in their eyes" police call-report on their police scanner.

I also recorded the verbal abuse that I took from the officer who called me on the phone while I went for my "fresh air" walk later on that day. I probably should have sent that specific "audio file" to those specific officers' higher ups ... but I did not. The way things are going lately politically ... the fact that the officers believed him & not me ... the media might have used that as some "definition of proof" against me. The evidence was what helped me keep my sanity. Had I not had the evidence of both the perp's & the officers' misjudgement ... it would at minimum ... been an even more stressful event!

I kind of like the few Wyze Cams that I have installed .... since if the parties (persons) are talking loud enough ... the audio is also part of those specific mp4 video clips.

 

[Greg_T]

I have found out the hard way that “blowing the steam” does not make my blood pressure go down. I get more riled up - a real flaw in my personality. Getting angry at them is akin to holding a burning coal in your hand. Everyone is different and there are a lot of techniques from meditation to therapy and everyone of us got to find something that will work for us. No point in inviting a heart attack or a brain hemorrhage over bucket wash in my bay.

From the outside, I think I probably remained quite calm. Whilst the young man became hysterical, I remained relatively polite. The trouble I have is that despite being calm outside, inside is an adrenaline-fuelled mess! Anyway, as of Monday it was back to our other business, with a whole bunch of other headaches!

 

[soapy]

I always take a picture with my phone first now. It seems that they are much less argumentative with you if they know they are on film.

 

[mjwalsh]

Soapy & others,

Honest to God. The young PD officer that I referred to in my post # 7 ... actually verbally reprimanded me when I told him that I took a phone pic of the loiterer. The officer seemed to think that was too offensive. That was after I told the "punk" officer that I took it from distance enough ... so the rascal should not even assume that the pic was specifically for him. Talking about trying to make us "walk on eggshells" so to speak. Smells "anti small business IMHO.

I did follow one suggestion from the officer ... I put up a sign stating that the laundromat customer's time needs to be limited to the time required to process their specific number of loads etc. That way the trick of the person thinking that putting in 1 load & taking 4+ hours to do it would make it clear that we do not provide them with "entitlement" of WiFi &/or laptop whatever space etc during that "unreasonably grabbed" extended time.

I personally think the guy had previous "big city slicker" experience of successfully finding ways to come up with a way to put a wedge between PD & any business owner they unfairly take advantage of.