If you work in customer service, you’ve likely experienced a time where you had to deal with an angry or upset customer. Regardless of what the issue is, these types of situations can be taxing for both the customer and the customer service representative, leaving both feeling frazzled and annoyed. However, there are a few tricks you can use as a business professional to handle this type of situation with grace and ease and not have it completely ruin your day or your customer’s experience with your business.
Try To Salvage the Situation
Although this tactic won’t always work, going into a conversation with an angry customer knowing that you can turn this negative into a positive will help you try harder to have the situation resolved. In fact, MindTools.com shares that if you are in the mindset that the situation could do a complete 180 and become an opportunity to improve this customer’s relationship with your company, you may just find it easier to deal with. For this reason, your goal starting out should always be to try to salvage the relationship with the client, not just hear their complaint and move on.
Find The Customer’s Humanity
When a customer is yelling at you, it can be hard not to take the complaint personally even if the issue they’re having had nothing to do with you. And once you feel offended by what the customer is saying, it’s easy to get defensive or belligerent with the customer. To combat these feelings, Avery Augustine of The Muse recommends for customer service representatives to use the name of the person they’re talking to whenever possible. This will help you to remember that you’re dealing with an actual person and to treat them as such. It will also help you and the customer to subconsciously develop a connection that may ease the tension of your conversation.
Say the Right Things
In a stressful situation such as this, it can be easy to let your mouth go off on its own without really thinking about what you’re saying to the customer—all you want is to get them to stop yelling and end the conversation. However, being deliberate about what you say could help the conversation go much smoother even with the most irate customers.
According to Ron Burley, a contributor to Inc.com, there are five things you should be sure to say to a customer when they’re upset. Some of these phrases include, “We’re going to solve this together” and “What would you consider a fair and reasonable solution?” Both of these phrases show the customer that you’re committed to doing all you can to make the situation right with them, something that can go a long way for smoothing over problems.
The next time you’re faced with a disgruntled or otherwise upset customer, consider using some of the tips mentioned above to sort out the problem and attempt to keep the customer loyal to your business.
Originally posted on December 24, 2015 @ 7:05 am