Defusing Customer Frustration

When interacting with angry customers, it can be difficult to remain calm. However, following a simple process for handling complaints can help you keep your cool and be effective at resolving problems.

hat pushes your buttons and makes you angry? It may be a sense of unfairness, for example, or feeling your valuable time has been wasted. And when you're angry, what helps you to calm down? It's usually soothing to talk about how you feel and what has happened. But it's even better if you can solve the problem and remove the source of your anger.

When interacting with angry customers, it can be difficult to remain calm. However, following a simple process for handling complaints can help you keep your cool and be effective at resolving problems. This process includes four steps:

1. defuse the customer's frustration before proceeding, so the customer is calmer before you begin addressing the problem
2. investigate the problem, ensuring you're clear on all the facts
3. present viable alternatives for addressing the problem and agree on a solution, and
4. follow up to ensure the customer's problem is resolved

An angry customer is likely to struggle to be objective. So, before you handle any complaint, it's important to defuse the customer's frustration. You allow the customer to vent, listen with empathy, and focus on the customer rather than on yourself. This sets the stage so that a solution can be found.

The following are some of the best ways to diffuse the customer’s frustrations:

ALLOW THE CUSTOMER TO VENT

It can be hard listening to someone who's angry. Try to remember the customer isn't angry with you and is just looking to resolve a problem. In other words, don't take it personally.

Resist the urge to interrupt or contradict a customer who's venting, even if you disagree. Confrontation is likely to anger the customer further and exacerbate the problem.

Your aim should be to allow the customer to vent so you can both search for a solution once everyone feels calmer.

LISTEN WITH EMPATHY

Listening with empathy and understanding is one of the quickest ways to defuse a customer's frustration. This involves listening with an open mind, rather than assuming the customer is either unreasonable or mistaken.

You should also express your understanding and pay careful attention to details that may help you find a solution later.

FOCUS ON THE CUSTOMER

It's distressing to listen to somebody who's in the grips of a strong emotion, especially frustration. Your own emotions can prevent you from really listening. For example, if a customer is shouting at you, you may get flustered and fail to take in important information. So it's important you control your own emotions and stay focused on the customer.

You should avoid trying to form a response in your mind while the customer is talking. If you keep an attitude of caring curiosity, you're more likely to understand the customer. You also shouldn't deny the customer's feelings by saying you don't understand the problem.

Suppose a customer has been wrongly billed for a service. The first thing the customer wants to do is express frustration or anger. Only then is the customer ready to move on to the practicalities involved in resolving the billing error.

Don't make the mistake of taking the customer's anger personally. If you do, you're likely to get emotional yourself and may start reacting irrationally. You may respond verbally or nonverbally – expressing tension and impatience through your body language and expression.

NOTE

If a customer uses offensive language, you could say "I'm happy to help you, but bad language is not acceptable. Please don't swear at me." If you remind customers you're on their side before commenting on their language, you reduce the likelihood of conflict.

Also avoid telling the customer to calm down. This is confrontational and likely to do more harm than good. It will come across as though you're trying to invalidate what the customer is saying.

Active listening goes a long way toward showing empathy and calming a customer. To listen actively, you first need to stop what you're doing and pay full attention. Then listen carefully, responding with connecting sounds such as "uh huh" or "I see" to demonstrate you're listening. Avoid interrupting with your own responses or trying to complete your customer's sentences.

Also listen to what lies beneath what a customer is saying. Ask yourself what the customer wants you to understand. Is this person feeling disrespected, for example?

Finally, gather any further information you need by asking clarifying questions. Then summarize what the customer has said in your own words to ensure you've understood correctly.

Tracy calls Thom, a customer service representative, about an insurance claim for her car. As soon as he takes her call, Thom stops compiling his weekly call statistics. Follow along as Thom now listens actively and empathetically to what Tracy has to say.

TRACY: My car was stolen last week and you aren't holding up your end of the deal.

Tracy sounds angry.

THOM: I'm sorry to hear that. Can you tell me what happened?

Thom sounds sympathetic.

TRACY: I visited a friend's house for dinner and when I came out, my car was gone.

THOM: Oh no!

Thom sounds kindly and concerned.

TRACY: And now your company wants to tell me it's not worth what I paid for it? If I don't have a car, I can't work. I really don't understand why you're letting me down. I've been paying my premiums on this car faithfully for more than four years now.

THOM: Four years is indeed a long time! And I know how worrisome it is not to have a car when you rely on it to get to work. I'm going to do my best to help you.

TRACY: Um, OK. Thanks!

Tracy responds with relief.

Thom stopped what he was doing so he could pay attention to Tracy. He listened silently to let her vent her frustrations. He encouraged her to speak with the connecting sound "Oh no" in response to what had happened to her. He gathered information by asking her to tell him what happened. He then summarized Tracy's dissatisfaction, while expressing a desire to help. This calmed Tracy down and they can now move on to resolving the issue.

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I have been teaching and training agents, team leaders, supervisors, managers and admins of call centers and other businesses in BPO related fields. This series, comes as a result of that experience. I have more than 4,000 modules that I plan on sharing here. This is # 002-06

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