Revealed: The 10 customer habits that tradespeople find most annoying
Posted by: electime 21st June 2022
Being watched while they work is the number one irritating behaviour (41 per cent)- One in six (16 per cent) tradesmen get annoyed if customers don’t offer them a drink
New research has revealed the customer behaviours that tradespeople find most annoying, and being watched while they work tops the list.
The study, conducted by IronmongeryDirect, the UK’s largest supplier of specialist ironmongery, found that more than two in five (41 per cent) tradespeople find it irritating when clients won’t leave them alone while working.
Being constantly asked how they’re getting on is another major annoyance (34 per cent), as is the cheeky request to do additional little jobs ‘while you’re here’ (28 per cent).
The 10 customer habits that tradespeople find most annoying are:
| # | Annoying habit | per cent |
| 1 | Watching you closely while you work | 41 |
| 2 | Constantly checking your progress | 34 |
| 3 | Asking you to do extra little jobs while you’re there | 28 |
| 4 | Asking for a discount | 26 |
| 5 | Not paying on time | 25 |
| 6 | Making suggestions or instructing you how to do your job | 17 |
| 7 | Calling during non-business hours | 17 |
| 8 | Insisting a job is urgent when it’s not | 15 |
| 9 | Not offering you a drink | 14 |
| 10 | Not being in when you arrive so you can’t get to the job | 14 |
The top grievances are similar for both tradesmen and women, but male workers are far more likely to be irritated by customers not offering them a drink (16 per cent vs 9 per cent). Meanwhile, tradeswomen are more bothered about clients calling them outside of business hours (23 per cent vs 13 per cent).
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the self-employed are far more angered by customers who don’t pay on time (33 per cent vs 22 per cent) and ask for discounts (31 per cent vs 23 per cent) than employed individuals, likely due to it being their own personal income on the line.
Dominick Sandford, managing director at IronmongeryDirect, said: “Customer interaction is an inevitable and important part of most tradespeople’s lives, and, as difficult as it might be, workers need to stay calm and professional, no matter how frustrating their clients get!
“That’s why we’ve worked with a behaviour expert to offer advice to tradespeople on how to diplomatically deal with each of these customer habits, so that you can keep everyone happy while getting the job done.”
For expert advice on how to deal with each of these annoying customer behaviours, visit: https://www.ironmongerydirect.co.uk/blog/expert-advice-to-deal-with-annoying-customer-habits
