At Medtronic, our medical devices can truly change people's lives. Sometimes, though, a patient may have a question or concern about one of our devices. How did you handle a difficult customer interaction in a previous position?
The interviewer wants to know if you can handle the stress of a difficult customer interaction. The customer could be a physician group who uses the medical device or an actual patient who has a question or concern about your product. Show the interviewer that you can stay cool under pressure and resolve the concern.
"I am a lead in our department, so I take the calls that are escalated or too difficult for one of the other reps to handle. I had a customer who yelled about how much money he spent on a device that didn't work. He was beyond the return date, so we couldn't give him a refund. I let him get all of his anger out and finish talking. I then asked him questions and always addressed him by his first name to build some rapport. I learned that he hadn't been to see his physician for a follow-up. We have relationships with the caregivers at one of the local facilities, so I was able to put him on hold and see when they had an appointment available. When I transferred him over to the scheduler, he calmed down a bit. It wasn't a perfect scenario, but I tried to treat him with dignity and respect and not take his attitude personally."
"I used to be a waitress in college, and dealing with difficult customers was my specialty. My co-workers would always give me the cranky regulars because I had a way of working with them that made it look easy. One evening, I had a customer who was very upset with his food order. I listened to his concern and asked him if he would like me to bring him something else, but he kept going on and on and was getting quite loud. I apologized and told him I could give him a discount on his order or bring him another choice. He took the discount and left. Difficult customer interactions don't always end perfectly, but I feel I handled the situation appropriately."
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Anonymous Answer
I worked in a deli in college. We had a ticketing system that required us to do the orders as they come in. There was also a kiosk where customers could continue shopping while they wait. During a busy time, we'd ended up with all kiosk orders so we weren't allowed to take the in-person orders yet. Some customers started to get angry that we seemingly weren't taking any orders. I explained that we have to do them in order and right now the queue has all kiosk orders and we'll get to them as soon as we can or they can also leave a kiosk order and continue shopping. Some seemed to choose the kiosk route instead while others decided to still be angry but that was the best solution I could think of.
Amanda's Feedback
Good! You've used an example to share how you helped customers understand the order fulfillment process and then provided a solution to resolve the issue. You can build on your response by sharing how you attempted to see the situation from the customer's perspective and empathized with the frustration of waiting before sharing a means of resolving the issue.
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