No matter the industry you work in, company you work for, or how many customers you have, every once in a while you will have to deal with an upset customer.
We are in the golden age of “Customer Service” where the aim is to make sure all customers are completely satisfied with the service we provide. How you react to upset customers can change whether they feel satisfied with your company or if they leave the conversation more upset then when they started.
It’s never easy to deal with unruly, aggressive customers, but if you follow 7 simple techniques, you can make this process much easier and increase the likelihood that you’ll diffuse the situation.
The 7 Wonderful Ways to Handle an Unruly Customers![]()
1. Remain calm and collected
Sometimes customers will yell, swear, or be disrespectful toward you.
Don’t respond in a similar manner. Remain calm, and compassionate towards the situation. Simply don’t let the words affect you and disconnect emotionally from the situation. Look, customers are usually upset at something that is much greater than you.
Since you are the only person they can speak with, they have no other outlet for their frustration.
I know this is hard to do, and you probably want to retaliate.
Just don’t!
Take a deep breath and continue to respond in a calm, collected and cool manner.
2. Stop and Listen
It’s natural to want to defend yourself or your services, but usually the best strategy is to just listen.
Upset customers sometimes just want to have someone who listens to and acknowledges their complaint. When they are done speaking, repeat what you heard and ask more qualifying questions.
This will help build trust and rapport. Sometimes this is even enough to diffuse the situation.
3. Be Compassionate and Considerate
After customers vent and express their frustrations they like to be acknowledged and understood. Show that you understand the situation, and try to see how the customer feels through his or her eyes.
This goes a long way in alleviating the situation. Be as sympathetic as possible towards the situation and always remember to keep a cool head.
Seeing where the customers are coming from and understanding their directive and triggers will go a long way in helping them through this situation.
Remember, they may be completely wrong. But, in this case, who is right and wrong doesn’t matter. Your goal is to leave the conversation with positive, happy customers.
4. Forget the Anger
Most of the time, customers call in fuming and angry at the situation. Since you’re on the receiving end, they feel that they want to take their frustration out on you, even though you have nothing to do with it.
When a customer is upset and expresses their feelings towards you, always remember it’s not you they are upset with; it’s the situation or product that is causing them stress.
If customers begin to make personal comments, make sure to bring it back to the issue and stay calm. Don’t take it personally. Just brush it right off.
5. Know When to Compromise
Sometimes all the customers want is an apology for the product or service (or lack thereof).
Come to a compromise that will satisfy the customer and help save you the time that dealing with them for hours will cost you.
Just remember that sometimes the best relationships with customers is after you solved a problem and smoothly relieved their pain.
Once you’ve done this, you may end up with even more loyal customers because they understand that you’re not unwilling to bend.
Because of your flexibility, customers may feel grateful for saving both parties the time with needless disagreement. Obviously, the compromise must be mutual, but always consider the long term objective of keeping customers as a customers.
6. Know when to Stop
Sometimes, customers are just being unruly and you must cut your ties with them to prevent further wasted time.
If customers refuses to come to an agreement and continues making outlandish remarks or demands, it’s time to close this door. If they are just unwilling to budget, apologize and move on.
You’ll know you are continually wasting your time if you’ve thrown a couple scenarios out there and customers refuse to work with you.
It’s your call at this point to just close this book.
7. Always Apologize
At the end of the day, customers are usually right. Always leave the situation apologizing for customers’ negative experience and always try to bring it around to a positive experience, regardless of how angry they may seem.
Sometimes, all they want is a simple apology and acknowledgement of guilt. If you messed up, or even if you didn’t, apologize and it could completely stop there.
At this point you can offer something in return for customers’ complaint. Perhaps offer them a free month of the upgraded package. Or, offer them a free product or service for this minor inconvenience.
You know, kind of how when you call into the cable companies to complain and they give you a free month of HBO.
You always want to end the situation on a good note.
And hey, who wouldn’t want a free month of HBO?
At the end of any call with your customers, make sure you repeat the next step are and make sure that you actually follow up on them. Making empty promises can ruin the relationship at this point.
I mean, wouldn’t you be pissed if you were told you would get a free month of HBO and you didn’t? You would certainly call in and complain!
Make sure you are the one being proactive with said next step, never assume customers will correspond with you after the call.
It’s your time to shine here, make sure customers get the right communication no more than 1 hour after the initial phone call.
Remember, in dealing with customers, it’s not about the initial business, but about the long term. Customer satisfaction will weigh in a lot more than a one-time transaction.
This one-time transaction can become recurring, or even become an additional source of word-of-mouth business for you.
It takes significantly more positive reviews to outweigh a single negative review.
Therefore, you want to prevent those negative reviews as much as possible by always trying to satisfy their immediate need. By doing so, you prevent potentially catastrophic business blunders.
You may have lost some money up front, but consider it a loss-leader. You will recoup all your dollars after customers remain happy with your services. And who knows, there’s a chance that your customer may be open to helping you acquire user generated content.
What sticky situations have you been in with customers before?
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