How to Neutralize an Angry Customer

What do you do if you’re sitting at your desk, minding your own business, and an irate customer disturbs your peaceful day?  People who work at call centers for a living are experts at neutralizing angry people, and they suggest acknowledging the customer’s frustration and listening without interrupting.  If you get defensive or sound annoyed, you'll fuel her fire, but if you let her vent for a few minutes and don’t allow her to engage you, she’ll eventually cool off.  Even if your ears are burning, try not to revert to these common but ineffective responses:

“Calm down” – this is bound to elicit the response “Don’t tell me to calm down!”

“That’s not my fault” – whether true or not, the angry customer will not appreciate hearing you deny responsibility.  He is looking for your help.

“You’re way out of line” – needless to say, this will just make the situation uglier.

“If you just hold on, I’ll transfer you to-” – this lack of urgency and personal ownership will just irritate her more. She wants YOU to come up with an action plan NOW.

The point is worth repeating.  Remain calm.  People don’t want to argue with themselves. Empathize with her problem and try not to take accusations personally, even if they are directed specifically at you.  Show that you’re eager to do whatever it takes to remedy the situation, and then follow through.  You’ll derive some satisfaction from the fact that you turned an unhappy customer’s day around, and plus you won’t have to explain to your manager why you got into a screaming match on the phone, or risk losing the client. 

Comments

[Steven Rothberg CollegeRecruiter.com]

Great entry, Alexandra. Your suggestions apply just as well to neutralizing anyone who is upset, including a supervisor or manager.

[Geoffry Rotich]

This is great. I have learnt alot with this.

[Alexandra Levit]

@Stephen: You're absolutely right. I use it on people I work with all the time. :)

@Geoffry: Good to know, thanks.

[Alan Kula]

Good suggestions, Staying Calm with the person and taking notes on what they claiming is a good idea.Then offering to try and resolve their problem by researching the situation and advising you will or someone else will get back to them. I wrote aboutthis on my blog as post titled: GETTING AN IRATE CUSTOMER TO LISTEN.

www.mychecksinthemail.wordpress.com

One piece of advice, make sure the person is called back after you do your research.

[Mary Leedy]

Yes, I totally agree. I've had this technique done on me, lol. There were a couple of times I would call a company telling them how upset I was for not correcting a bill like they said they were going to. Then I would hear a soft voice say, "ok, Mary, I'm sure it's easy to fix just give me a moment to pull up your account." Just like that, I softened up, lol. And my problem did get fixed with less turmoil.