CUSTOMER SERVICE CORNER: Understand an angry customer’s point of view

Posted on July 29th, 2010 by Eli Journals

Thinking about where your customer is coming from will help you to get to the root of his problem, and thus to the solution, sooner.

Believe it or not, most customers don’t set out with the goal of ruining your day. They have specific needs that they simply rely on you to meet.

When a tense situation erupts, you’re often left wondering what your angry customer wants from you. Read on to gain some insight into problematic customers and how you can calm them down.

Angry customers want:

You to solve their problem. An angry customer usually enters your agency with an objective in mind, whether it’s speaking to a specific person or having a certain check mailed to him. If he doesn’t get what he wants, he’s likely to become even angrier. But oftentimes, the constraints of your job don’t allow you to do what he asks. In those cases, fulfill the customer’s other needs (listed below) to decrease the chances that the situation will escalate.
Help. Few things are more infuriating to a customer than to tell a service rep about his problem, only to hear, “That’s not in my job description.” Customers need to see that you’re at least making an effort to help them. So, if you’re not the right person to solve their problem, for example, tell them that you’ll put them in touch with the person who is.
Choices. Customers will feel more secure and in control if you give them choices. If a customer asks to speak to a supervisor who’s not in, for instance, instead of just telling her to leave a message, ask whether she’d like to leave a message or come back at another time when the supervisor will be around.
Acknowledgement. One of the most frequent mistakes customer service reps make is to start right in on solving a customer’s problem without paying attention to the customer’s emotional state first.

Upset customers want you to validate their feelings almost as much as they want you to take care of their tangible problems. A simple statement like, “You sound angry about that” can reassure them and calm them down.