When Customer Is Angry

An Angry Customer is not rational

The most difficult customer in the world is an angry customer. An angry customer is someone who comes into your store, calls you on the phone, or send you e-mail while they are downright angry.

An angry customer is not the customer who has a problem. Most customers who have issues are not necessarily angry. When a customer feel like they've not being treated in the manner they feel is appropriate. As long as the treatment is deemed appropriate in the eyes of the customer, problem can be resolved easily.

When a customer felt like they've not been treated properly, they became angry. This may be their imagination, perception or truth. Either way, the problem become larger as long as the situation lingers. Generally, the longer it takes to resolve an issue, the harder, and more expensive the solution becomes.

If a customer has a defective product or a problem with some services rendered by your company and you replace the product or give a consolation for the poor service, the customer will likely appreciate the good service response and remain a customer. They may even become more loyal to you or your company because of the problem and you have succeeded in turning problem to opportunities.

But if you ignore the problem or make excuses or failed to return a call or answer an e-mail, then you have succeeded in making the customer more angrier and whenever he decide to show up at place or office, you will have a whole lots of problem calming him down because he has already form his opinion about you or your company.

Even when you eventually sort out the problem the customer may be lost already due to lack of trust and prompt response. He wont be coming back to you in a hurry because he doesn't want a repeat of the experience. So, because of this you must make sure to handle problem and their effect as quickly and easily as possible.,

Some of these customers may have experienced similar treatments in the past somewhere else, so you may just be reaping the outcome of such experience and therefore you need to be very wise in order to effectively tackle the situation because you are dealing with customer with emotional baggage. So you need to take care of the baggage.

angry customer don't communicate effective information

You cant communicate effectively with an angry customer. The first thing to do is to try and reduce the anger and put him in a relax state as soon as possible. This could be achieved by letting the customer know you sincerely want to help them. Apologize for whatever injustice or unfair treatment they might have encountered in the past and presently. If you encountered customers that believed they were right and refused to accept rational solution or take responsibility for their role in the fiasco, then don't apologize because you will validating the customers claims that they are right in their minds

Steps To Take...

1. speak to customer in a calm voice.

2. Agree that you are going to help them solve their problem

3. Don't apportioned blames to anyone inside or outside, even when you know the customer is 100 percent wrong. because he will never accept and became defensive at that moment.

4. In breaking the ice between you and the customer, adopt a non confrontational approach

5. Make it your goal to relief the customer's anger and frustration to a point where they are reasonable. They do not have to feel happy at this stage but the should rational

6. Get the customer to a neutral state where you have a little or no strong emotion to deal with. People in neutral state are easier to obtain meaningful information from. Angry customer cant have rational conversation or provide accurate and useful information. Emotions cloud people's mind and muddle their thoughts.

7. Concentrate on what you can do as customers especially as an angry customer don't care about what you cant do neither do they care about policies and rules that may get in the way of resolving their problem.

8. Use positive words in your conversation like -can and will- instead of -cant and wont-

9. Offer a peace offering like a cup of coffee, water or a little break can be useful to reduce anger and frustration

10. Don't get too close to an angry customer when you are talking because it can make them feel uneasy or threatened

11. Smile and act friendly. Beware of body language, try and keep stance open and do not cross your arms or act defensive. this will make it easier to calm down a customer.

12. Let the customer vent their anger and don't rush them while talking because venting help reducing frustrations.

to be continued...