Tips for communicating with an angry customer
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We all know it – a customer is upset about a problem that has not been solved the way they imagined. The cause can be anything: a billing problem, a system that does not work, or a system error. The customer needs to let their anger out and you are a great target. Sometimes the customer has no reason at all to be angry with you – they are angry with the whole world, and customer support staff are simply an easy target. So what do you do when you have a customer like that on the line or on chat? Here are our tips.
We have been looking after customers for several years, both on the phone and on chat, so we have written up a few pieces of advice on how to handle an angry customer.
Stay calm and make the customer happy
This is the moment to take a deep breath and stay calm. You have to resist the urge to sink to their level – that solves nothing. Try to put yourself in your customer's shoes. Essentially they want nothing more than to have their problem solved and to be listened to.
A customer's anger depends on how much they want to work with your company. Even if it does not look like it right now, they like you and they want to stay with your company. If that were not the case, they would have gone to the nearest competitor long ago. So take the opportunity and turn an unhappy customer into a happy one, for a long time to come. It all depends on how you treat them. Be pleasant, be patient and do everything you can to solve their problem – it will definitely pay off.
Listen actively and be patient
It may sound like a cliché, but active listening is one of the most important things. The customer needs to vent their anger and tell you what is troubling them and what caused it. Do not rush and do not start pulling suggestions out of your sleeve before you fully understand their situation. If you try to solve something the customer does not need solving, you will only make them angrier.
Suggest a solution, do not invent excuses
Sometimes things go wrong. A system can fail or a mistake can happen during data entry. An upset customer does not want to hear why the mistake happened or who caused it. They want the problem solved right now, so if it is within your power, help them and fix the mistake immediately.
Do something extra for your customers
Do the most you can for your customers. If a system error occurs and the customer cannot use a service, nothing is simpler than saying: "We apologise for the outage and as an apology, please accept two weeks of this service for free." Or if a customer receives the T-shirt they ordered in the wrong colour, send them the T-shirt in the right colour along with an apology: "We are sorry about this mix-up. You can keep both T-shirts, one of them is a gift from us." Believe us, the customer will usually forget the complication immediately and will like you even more.
Be honest in every situation
Always tell customers the truth. Never try to lie to avoid a problem, save face or dodge responsibility. If you got something wrong, admit it. Customers like being spoken to straight and they know how to appreciate it.
And that is it – those were our tips on dealing with furious customers. Every now and then, though, you will be talking to someone who does not want to understand anything and whose only goal is to pick a fight, be unpleasant and make the whole situation as difficult as possible. With customers like that, none of the advice above usually applies. So keep a cool head, rise above it and do not let it ruin your day – simply do not take anything customers do personally.