Dealing with angry customers is one of the most common scenarios that customer reps encounter throughout their working day.

Understanding how customers feel in a specific situation can greatly improve or worsen their experience.

You shouldn’t worry though, not at all. In this article, we will bring you 5 tips that will help you a lot in handling angry customers.

#5 Remain Patient and Stay Calm

These three things should be written in gold because they are very important. Humans, by nature, are emotional beings. This means that they express their feelings positively or negatively, respectively.

However, once you reach the point where you’re dealing with an overly frustrated customer, the moment is indeed very challenging.

First and foremost, identify the cause of their frustration and apologize in advance. The second step is to balance the conversation and lead the way toward the solution.

People want to hear that you care about them, and of course, to recognize that you’re very honest.

What will make you stand out from other reps is the ability not to get into a “verbal war” and to listen more instead of reacting impulsively.

This is more than logical, isn’t it? The last thing that an angry customer expects from you is to judge him or question him/her why is he/she angry.

A great technique to accomplish this is to take a deep breath, remain positive and calm during the interaction. Try to set your tone to be welcoming and warm.

In the end, you will not only solve the problem but the next time, the customer won’t be frustrated as much as he/he was at the first time.

#4 Remember: It’s Nothing Personal

It is more than sure that even you, as somebody’s customer got frustrated about a thing. Right? Even if you act impulsively, you know that the customer rep is there to help you. So, you don’t have a grudge against that person.

Instead, you had a problem with something related to a service, product, or something else.

As a customer representative, what’s very challenging is to avoid being targeted as a channel of expressing frustration. We know that.

The whole point is to maintain your mental well-being be strong, and not feel completely stressed out. Keep in mind that if you don’t learn how to manage the stress in your workplace, there will be consequences. There’s nothing in this world worthy enough to affect your state of mind.

#3 Improve and Practice Active Listening

Regardless of whether it is an angry customer, or an ordinary, calm customer, active listening matters. Yes, it matters that much to be categorized as one of the most important soft skills for every call agent.

If you’re asking yourself why is this so important, the answer is fairly simple. Well, active listening helps you obtain information and respond properly.

Would you like to deal with people who aren’t fully focused on solving your problem? Either we.

As a plus, once the angry customer recognizes that you’re a great active listener, the overall customer experience will be greatly improved. Additionally, the customer will unlikely churn.

Here you will find more information on the topic – Why customers churn.

#2 Resolve the Problem

You’re dealing with an angry customer because of a problem. So, he/she expects nothing less than a solution, and everything else is less than important [for your customers].

The most crucial thing you should note is to find a balance between expectations and solutions. You can’t simply overpromise and under-deliver. This is the #1 problem for numerous businesses, not only for call agents and customers.

What you need to do is, to be honest, be proactive and set a time frame by which the problem will be solved. At any cost!

Confidence is a magnet in the business world and in real life, right? So, your customers won’t be angry if you bring them solutions while keeping them as confident as possible.

Avoid things like: 

• “This is the problem we have of this nature”
• “I’m not sure that we can solve this in the foreseeable future”.
• “I will TRY to solve this issue”

Last but not the least, you’re a problem solver, not a problem deliverer. Go there and solve the issue without hesitation!

#1 Follow Up With Your Customer

The job isn’t finished unless you recognize that the customer isn’t (as) angry as before. Having this mindset is yet one more thing that makes you stand out from your fellow agents.

Make one more step further and summarize every point that made the customer angry. For instance, you can call your clients later and ask them if they are now satisfied.

Or, schedule a meeting where you can ask what things can be improved, what did work, and what didn’t.

Every one of us would love this. Knowing that the business along with the customer support department cares is always welcome.

Short-term benefits are great, and even greater are the long-term ones. Above all, be as transparent as possible and express your professionalism in the best way!

Conclusion

Even though dealing with an angry customer is challenging, this doesn’t mean that it is impossible.

These 5 tips will undoubtedly help you a lot in these unwanted scenarios because you can overcome such situations way more easily.

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