Tell Me About a Time a Customer Had an Unreasonable Request. How Did You Handle It?

What it’s testing

This question is different from being asked a situation in which you provided great customer service, or dealt with an angry or upset customer. In those situations, you are often demonstrating how you went above and beyond and looked for solutions for the customer’s issue.

But there are sometimes occasions when the customers request is unreasonable. You can’t fulfil their request but you must be able to handle the interaction diplomatically and with grace.

Think of what this might look like in an airplane cabin just before takeoff. You are securing the cabin and doing compliance checks when you come across a Business Class cabin who has fully reclined their seat and has their personal belongings scattered across the extended traytable.

The passengers begs you to leave them alone but you can’t. You have to properly secure the cabin whether the passenger likes it or not. How would you deal with this situation?

What recruiters are looking for

Recruiters are looking for you to identify a situation in which it would be absolutely wrong to meet the customer’s unreasonable request – not because you simply didn’t want to let the customer get their way but because what the customer was asking would break safety rules or a policy that simply can’t be bent.

It’s then up to you to handle this conversation with tact, grace, and empathy. A really useful framework that you can use in this type of situation is CARE:

• C – Clearly explain the issue – Be clear, concise, and assertive.
• A – Acknowledge the impact – Show empathy and apoligize for the inconvenience
• R – Respectfully listen – Use active listening techniques and respond appropriately
• E – Explain the next steps – What are you going to do now? Or what should the customer do?

Think about how this might look like in practice with our Business Class passenger who has reclined their seat before departure:

• Explain why their seat has to be in the upright position to comply with emergency evacuation rules that are set by regulators.
• Apoligize for the fact that this will disrupt their plans to sleep as soon as possible.
• Give the customer time to express their feelings. Use active listening techniques and, if necessary, use what they are telling you to clearly explain yourself.
• Tell the customer that they can recline their seat as soon as the plane has taken off and if they would like, you can check on them as soon as it is safe to do so.

How to structure your answer

You will be expected to draw upon a real-life example from your professional experience to answer this question. Utilise the SOAR or STAR framwork to effectively answer this question in a structure that the recruiter is expecting:

• Situation: What the customer was asking for, and why it wasn’t something you could simply agree to.
• Objective: What you were trying to achieve – such as safety compliance.
• Actions: How you used the CARE framwork to communicate with the customer, active listening skills, how you ended the conversation on a good note.
• Result: How a safety rule was complied with or how you saved a customer interaction.

What you shouldn’t say

Don’t describe bending or breaking a rule to make the customer happy if you weren’t explicitly authorized to do so.

What to do if you get stuck

Think about a time any time you had to say ‘No’ to a customer, client or coworker. From there, the rest of the CARE framework falls into place.