How to properly refuse a client so as not to lose him

Crisis in wallets and heads

Two years of crisis have changed the situation. If earlier employers were forced to put up with the boorish behavior of their staff, especially during personnel shortages in the market, now they do not want to deal with aggressive employees. The reason is the decrease in the purchasing power of the population. In exchange for a purchase, customers are allowed to do whatever they want. But the rights of sellers have diminished.

There is less money, depressive moods are growing, wages, on the contrary, are not increasing. In such a situation, rarely does anyone think about shopping “for pleasure” - about unnecessary, excessive or unreasonable spending. Problems are increasing like a snowball - people are losing their jobs, they cannot pay off loans. Hopes are crumbling, old dreams look naive. A cloud of fatigue and irritation hung over us all.

The body requires release - aggression needs to be thrown out. But to whom? Arguing with your superiors is more expensive for yourself. Getting involved with one of your relatives is fraught with even bigger problems. It’s a nice thing to pour out all the accumulated negativity on the seller! It's simple, fast and affordable - sellers are always nearby; It is very easy to get to the bottom of them even for the smallest reason.

How to file a denial of service

Due to changes in legislation, three more reasons for refusing service to clients have appeared:

• the activity is licensed, but the client does not have a license;
• the client’s website is included in the Unified Register of Prohibited Websites;
• the client refuses to disclose information about himself or the company necessary for identification.

Provide the customer with a formal service denial letter. Then send the FES about this to Rosfinmonitoring. Don't forget to indicate the reason for refusal in your message.

Svetlana Kirlanova , Kontur.Prizma expert on AML/CFT legislation and compliance risks

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Seller vs buyer: who is right and who is wrong

There are still more cases when the seller is to blame. Often, the buyer is provoked into a scandal by the elementary bad manners of the store employee, his reluctance to perform direct duties. If this is your option, re-educate the seller. Or just fire him.

If you want to delve into the underlying causes of inappropriate staff behavior, start analyzing management processes. Management often neglects to train their employees: sellers do not know their job responsibilities, have no idea about control methods, or the system of punishments and rewards adopted in the organization. They just work - and they work poorly.

It also happens: the seller behaves adequately - he is polite and courteous. And the buyer is dissatisfied - he demonstrates his superiority too harshly, makes a scandal out of nowhere and attracts other clients. What should the seller do in this case? Should I respond in kind or remain tactfully silent?

How often and what licenses to check

Even before the changes came into force, subjects of 115-FZ had to check information about licenses. However, the requirement was tightened (clause 15, article 7).

Now if a company or individual entrepreneur has OKVED, which is subject to licensing, but does not have a license, it is impossible to work with a client. The purpose of the changes is to limit the work of entrepreneurs without the necessary permits.

So far, the verification mechanism is not clearly described in the law. The Bank of Russia removed some of the questions. The regulator provided a response to a request from market participants.

As stated in the response of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, information about licenses must be updated at least once a year or when doubts arise that the information provided by the client is unreliable. In this case, 7 working days are given to double-check the information.

Prizma will warn you if the client's activities are subject to mandatory licensing

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The difficult question remains which OKVED to check: only the basic ones or additional ones too. For example, in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities there are two OKVED codes. Both are subject to licensing. Moreover, the company has only one license, under which it operates. There are no activities under the second OKVED. What to do in such a situation?

In answer to a similar question, the regulator emphasizes that the law does not exempt subjects of 115-FZ from checking all licenses. However, it is worth finding out what kind of activity the client intends to conduct. If the issued license and the specifics of the activity coincide, then there is no need to refuse service.

It seems advisable to proceed from the client’s stated goals for establishing and the expected nature of the business relationship with the management company, as well as the goals of financial and economic activities (planned operations).

Pay attention to existing clients as well. If you are already working with an organization without a license, and its activities are subject to licensing, then you cannot conduct operations in favor of the company or provide services on its behalf. However, the prohibition applies only to those cases when the client carries out operations within the framework of a licensed activity.

If the buyer provokes a conflict

Standard conflict pattern: the buyer is angry, and the seller:

• Endures;
• Justified;
• Responds with aggression.

The “patience” phase ends after 5-7 minutes. Next, depending on the nature of the seller, “justification” or retaliatory aggression occurs. This will not resolve the scandal - the quarrel, mutual reproaches will only grow, the situation will develop into a catastrophic one.

It is, of course, beneficial for every manager that his employee endures to the last. Moreover, the fate of sellers is to endure. “And if you don’t like it, look for another job. There are no irreplaceable people, as they say.”

Such reasoning in the second year of the crisis is not uncommon. And sellers are aware of management's opinions. That’s why they try to find a way out of unpleasant situations on their own - not to complain to their superiors, but to seek a compromise with the client based on their own experience.

To tell the truth, they do it poorly. There is no relevant life experience; special knowledge - even more so. As a result, the mood is at zero, health is dwindling day by day, and I no longer want to sell. The last point should concern management the most.

If the administration continues to fail to act, this will lead to:

• Losing a client.
• The loss of several clients - people who became accidental witnesses to the unpleasant scene.
• A decrease in the seller’s performance due to an imbalance in his psychological balance. This is a slow process that is not immediately noticeable. But it will bring great harm to the company.

When both parties stop arguing, the buyer goes home. The seller remains at work; for him the conflict is not over. After the buyer’s attack, he will also have to endure a blow from management - a scolding for “wrong behavior.” But after a series of attacks, the seller will have to go out into the hall “as if nothing had happened” to continue working with clients. You understand how effectively he will carry out his duties after the incident.

The seller must learn to effectively respond to aggression from the buyer. And he must do this first of all - for his own sake, and only then - for the sake of the good of the attack, the leadership is obliged.

What regulations have come into force?

From the end of June to September 2021, changes to 115-FZ were introduced by five federal laws at once, and a new Regulation of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation came into force. We collected the main things in one table.

Let's look at the most discussed changes in more detail.

A simple model for responding to buyer aggression

The sequence is:

1. Localize the conflict. Find out the reasons for dissatisfaction.

2. Try to convince the client to start negotiations. To negotiate.

3. Take your mind off the conflict. Regain strength using stress management techniques.

Let's look at each point in detail.

What operations are subject to mandatory control?

These are transactions in an amount equal to or exceeding 600,000 rubles . or the equivalent in foreign currency, and related to one of the following types of transactions (the most relevant for legal entities are given below):

• withdrawal from an account or crediting to the account of a legal entity of funds in cash in cases where this is not due to the nature of its economic activity ;
• crediting/transferring funds to an account, providing/receiving a credit (loan), transactions with securities, if at least one of the parties is a resident of a state that does not comply with FATF recommendations , or if these operations are carried out through a bank registered in such a state. Currently, such states include Iran and the DPRK (Order of Rosfinmonitoring dated November 10, 2011 No. 361);
• crediting/debiting funds to/from the account of a legal entity, the period of activity of which does not exceed 3 months from the date of its registration, or crediting/debiting funds to/from the account of a legal entity, if transactions on the specified account have not been carried out since the moment of its opening ;
• receipt or provision of property under a financial lease (leasing) agreement;
• provision by legal entities that are not credit institutions of interest-free loans to individuals and (or) other legal entities, as well as receipt of such a loan.

A complete list of transactions subject to mandatory control is given in Part 1 of Article 6 of Law 115-FZ.

Operations subject to mandatory control are not prohibited . However, they are subject to control by the Federal Service for Financial Monitoring (Rosfinmonitoring) based on the information provided by the bank. The bank is obliged to document and submit to Rosfinmonitoring no later than 3 business days following the day of the transaction, information about the client’s operations that are subject to mandatory control (the list of such information is subparagraph 4 of paragraph 1 of Article 7 of Law 115-FZ).

Localize the conflict. Find out the reasons for dissatisfaction

Lasts 3–6 minutes

Trying to talk down a client is stupid. You will not be able to prove anything to the buyer while his emotions are flowing. At this moment, it is important to get rid of unwitting witnesses. There is no need for you to put on an act in front of other clients. Therefore, act calmly and confidently:

1. Tell the angry client that there is no reason to make noise, because you have already turned your attention to him. Convince the buyer that their problem will be taken care of right away.

2. Find out the root of the problem. Agree on options for solving it. So that during a conversation the client does not feel silent support from other customers, take him to the corridor, to another part of the hall or to a utility room. Invite him to sit down - it’s much more difficult to make a row while sitting.

3. Ask the client to describe his dissatisfaction in detail. He will have to slow down - emotionally speaking about the problem in detail is incredibly difficult. When he begins the story, listen without interrupting. Leave all clarifying questions for later. And no objections.

Checking company websites

New requirement of paragraph 15 of Art. 7: check client websites against the register of prohibited resources. But the question in which cases it is necessary to refuse service remains open.

Companies that carry out transactions with funds or other property are prohibited from: accepting for service and conducting transactions with funds (or other property) on behalf of persons providing services through a site on the Internet, if the domain name or page index of this site are in the Unified Register of domain names, indexes of pages of sites on the Internet and network addresses that allow identifying sites on the Internet containing information prohibited for distribution in the Russian Federation.

Conclusion: restrictions apply only to sites that are used to provide services. But the legislation of the Russian Federation does not provide a definition and criteria for such activities, so almost any site falls under the category of providing services.

Try to convince the client to start negotiations. To negotiate

Lasts 7–12 minutes

The buyer talks and calms down. Don't rush to dot the i's. If you are not to blame for the conflict, the buyer will most likely understand this himself during the monologue. Your own speech will gradually drown out emotions. The screaming will be replaced by rational thinking and, possibly, repentance.

As soon as the client comes to his senses, begin negotiations. Remember: it is not in your power (if you are “just” a seller) to promise compensation to the brawler. All financial issues are decided only by management. Your task is to reassure the client and save your nerves. And therefore: do not interrupt, do not re-educate, do not be rude and do not fawn.

But let's get back to the negotiations. Ask the client a question that makes him think about what all this fuss was about.

Here are three options:

1. And what should we do in your opinion?

2. What actions do you expect from us?

3. And what do you think is the way out of this situation?

A buyer might respond to this question like this:

1. Come to the conclusion that nothing can be done. He says goodbye and leaves.

2. Offer a real way out of the conflict.

3. Offers an unacceptable way out of the conflict.

4. Shifts all responsibility to the seller: “Have you asked a question? Answer it yourself.”

5. Will continue the accusations.

6. Another option.

Any of the options is good. Even the most unprofitable one. Treat the buyer's response as material on which you need to build further tactics. Admit guilt and ask for forgiveness, refer to company rules and apologize, offer some way out, call security, etc.

Do you need to check only the main OKVED documents or additional ones too?

For example, the Unified State Register of Legal Entities indicates two OKVED codes that are subject to licensing. But the company operates only in one of them under a license, and in the second there is no activity and there is no license.

What to do in such a situation?

The regulator explained that subjects of 115-FZ must check all licenses. In this case, you need to find out what kind of activity the client is going to conduct: if its specifics coincide with the license, you can not refuse service.

Pay attention to the company's current clients. If you are already cooperating with a company that does not have a license for the licensed type of activity, you should not conduct transactions in its favor or provide services on its behalf.

Important : the ban applies only to cases of operations within the framework of licensed activities!

Bank client rights

A bank client who has received a refusal may send a confirmation proving that there are no grounds for such a refusal.

The bank is given 10 working days to consider the client’s application (clause 13.4 of Article 7 of Law 115-FZ).

Next, there are two options:

• the bank will be satisfied with the explanation, the bank will cancel its decision and services will be provided to the client;
• the bank considers the provided explanations and evidence insufficient or unconvincing, then it informs the client about the impossibility of providing services.

After this, the bank client has the right to contact the interdepartmental commission under the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and send a complaint with the necessary documents attached. The period for consideration of a complaint is 20 working days.

Once the decision (positive or negative) is made, the commission will notify the client and the bank about it within 3 days.

The applicant may attend the commission meeting, including the possibility of remote consideration (via video link).

Should the bank notify about the suspension of operations?

As a rule, the bank notifies about such an event through a notification in the online bank or mobile application, as well as via SMS.

An employee can also call the manager or chief accountant and report that transfers to the account have been suspended. Deposits are not blocked.

If you need to check your accounts or the accounts of counterparties for blocking, you can use the service on the Federal Tax Service website - for this you only need to know the TIN of the account owner and the BIC of the bank.

A company may have several accounts in different banks; if operations are suspended in one, this does not mean that another bank will do the same.

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