Keeping Cool With a Fiery Customer

While an irate customer can easily fluster you and your associates, a poor response will only make matters worse. Taking the following steps will help defuse these situations in a professional, courteous way. 

Listen:  For most angry customers, how an issue is handled is more important than the original complaint. Calmly responding to their needs can cause them to match your tone and cooperate to solve the issue.

Acknowledge their anger: Empathy is powerful.  Failing to acknowledge and respond to a customer’s frustration will make them feel like you’re not listening or don’t care. Try balanced responses that recognize why your customer is upset and convey that you understand the situation.

Ask Questions:  Once you have an understanding of the situation, try to avoid making excuses for what happened. Defensiveness can make your customer even angrier than they are already. Instead, show them you’re invested in solving the problem and ask how you can make that happen.

Suggest Alternatives: Ask what you can do to keep moving the situation along in a productive way.  After your customer expresses what he or she wants, decide what you’re able to do and tell them.  You can stay within your organization’s guidelines and still come up with an alternative.  They will view it as a sign of respect and an indication that you are listening to their specific concerns.

Apologize: It may not be your fault, and in all likelihood, it’s probably not. But apologizing without laying blame will better position you to act in a manner that your customer perceives to be in their best interest.

Solve the problem: Apply everything you’ve learned about the situation in preparation for this final step.  By now, both you and your customer share a strong desire to find a solution. If you need help while you’re solving the problem, find it.  Regardless of how a problem is solved, ensure that a solution is reached quickly. After you solve the problem, provide your customer with your contact information for any lingering questions or problems.

John Tschohl is founder and president of the Service Quality Institute in Minnesota.