Good customer service is often seen in the same vein as a good lawyer.
You don’t know the value until you need it.
When an angry customer contacts your company, you really want to have great customer service. Someone that can see the calm the customer, gather information and solve the problem.
For the benefit of the customer and for the business. For the long-term.
That’s obviously easier said than done. Angry customers often have valid reasons for being angry. Sometimes it’s simply a situation of a straw breaking the camel’s back.
The first step to these situations is often working to calm the customer.
Here are a few tips to help with that…
1. Attentiveness
When someone is angry they’re often frustrated on multiple levels. I think about my toddler and when she is angry she’s often frustrated for two reasons…
First, she’s frustrated because she’s struggling to communicate what she wants or is feeling.
Second, she’s frustrated because she feels she’s not being hard. Which is related to the first one, but could be a result of her communicating her feelings fine, but me not listening.
In either case, taking the time and energy and effort to be attentive with her seems to help nearly 100% of the time.
I’m not saying that customers are toddlers. But give toddlers credit. They’re pretty smart. They know how to negotiate and get what they want. And that’s what we’re doing as adults when we’re customers.
There is a lot of distraction in our world today. Practicing attentiveness goes a long way to calming situations down.
2. Curiosity
Being curious helps with a lot of things in life. We’re all curious about certain things. But I find that it is possible to train yourself to be curious about things that you’re not naturally drawn to.
For example, you can train yourself to be curious about why someone is angry. This can help you to ask the questions that make the person feel heard, understood and validated.
It’s not a 100% of the time kind of thing. But the more you practice being curious with angry customers the better you get at understanding them and what they’re having an issue with.
3. Avoid Blame
The last thing a customer wants to hear when they’re angry is that they’re also wrong. It’s not a competition in this sense. But many people often want to play the blame game.
Yes, many times it is a customer’s fault. Maybe they filled out a form wrong or didn’t even buy the right item that they thought they were buying.
But here’s the thing…that doesn’t solve the issue. In fact, it likely escalates the situation and delays a solution.
So what’s the point?
Don’t blame the customer. Always take the position that you’re to blame. That your organization is to blame. That you’re responsible for finding a solution.
4. Give Them A Quick Win
It feels good to make progress.
When someone is angry it’s likely because they’ve had a string of losses. You can break the chain by helping them gain a quick win.
Maybe this is hearing the situation and saying that you’re going to do a full refund right away. “I’m going to refund this for your troubles, now let’s get to work on solving the issue.”
That might not work 100% of the time. Some people might want to get right to the issue. But the quick win can help snap the person back to a calmer state and work with you to solve the problem.
5. Speak Calmly & Breathe
Back to toddlers…
One of the best tips I read about toddlers is that when they’re being loud it’s good to be quiet. Speak quietly. It gives them an example of how to act and they often realize that it’s difficult to listen if they’re being loud and the other person is being quiet.
Again, customers aren’t toddlers, but this seems to help. If you escalate to the level of the customer you’re just going to be shouting at each other. If you try to lead by example you can often succeed in bringing the other person down to your level. One that is much better suited for problem solving.
6. Distraction
This seems a little out of the ordinary, but I’ve experienced in with customer service when I’ve been a customer and also as a small business owner.
I call in kind of frustrated. The person answers calmly and friendly. The listen to my problem. Say they’re going to look up my info and in the meantime ask me a question. Seemingly to distract me from my frustration.
How’s the weather there?
You’re from Wisconsin, how about those Packers this season?
You’re in the blogging business? That’s very interesting…
Just something to kind of snap a customer out of their current frame of mind.
Conclusion
Angry customers are a reality in business. If you’re audacious enough to own or operate a business, you’re going to run into it. Yourself and with your employees. So it’s good to prepare. It’s not fun to deal with someone that is angry with you. Knowing how to help the situation is the best approach. These tips should help.