When dealing with customers, sometimes you will have to deal with those who are more troublesome than others. Even though you want to satisfy every customer, not every problem can be solved. Use the guide below to find solutions on dealing with a customer who is angry at you.

1

What Responses Do Customers Like To See?

RESULTS – get the issue at hand resolved in as a timely manner as possible. 

CARE – Actively show the customer that you are handling their issue effectively 

OWNERSHIP – take ownership and responsibility of the issue at hand even if it is the first time you are dealing with this specific case. 

COMPENSATION – where appropriate compensate the customer for anything where liability from their side cannot be established. 

2

What Makes an Unhappy Customer?

An unhappy customer is a person who feels that a service or business did not provide for their needs and expectations as they required. 

Customers come in all different kinds of forms and personalities. For example: different age ranges and different technical abilities.

Customers can be unhappy for a range of different reasons for example: poor customer service, mistakes in payments, faulty equipment, time consumption, The list is endless and no customer is the same and we must adapt each time and make it a personalised experience. 

3

What To Do When Faced With an Angry Customer.

Firstly remain calm and do not react. Show a level of calmness, understanding and that you are there to help resolve their issue. It is always better to first let the customer vent their anger and show their dissatisfaction as this will allow them to be calm afterwards. Don’t turn it into an argument with the customer. Show compassion and empathy towards the customer issue that they are presenting you with Seek help from a higher authority if needed. 

4

Must Have Abilities to Deal with Angry Customers.

EMPATHY – This is the big one and you must be empathetic towards all customers not just the angry ones.INITIATIVE – you must be able to resolve these issues most of the time on your own without the help of a higher authority. The higher authority should only become involved as a last resort. PATIENCE – Sometime it can be very hard to bite your tongue when being verbally abused by customers which does happen but you MUST remain calm and not react. Sometimes older customers for example are also not as technically advanced as the rest of us and require a longer service to avoid confusion or conflict. 

5

TNPS or Touchpoint Net Promoter Score.

What is TNPS? This is a customer feedback survey normally scored from one to ten one being the worst or wouldn’t recommend to friend of family and ten being the best and would recommend to friend or family. It is a traffic light system red, amber, green. Red is known as a detractor, amber is neutral and green is Promoter. 1-6 is a red detractor, 7-8 neutral and 9-10 promoter. Customers will always be brutally honest in the comments and you must be aware of this. Detractors are not uncommon particularly when you are the face of a company and they want to slam the company but not yourself you will recieve a detractor. This isnt always the case so any negative feedback should be taken on board and adapted to for your next customer.

6

Scenario

Customer comes in to a phone store and says her phone isnt working. It’s brand new they have only had it for a week but the screen has gone dead. You run diagnostics to see if you are able to fix the issue yourself but are unsuccessful in doing do. Customer is demanding a new phone and shows anger towards you. What do you do?EMPATHY – be apologetic towards the customer and have a level of understanding that its a new phone and shouldn’t have happened. OWNERSHIP – show that you are taking responsibility and doing everything you can to fix the phone or replace it. INITIATIVE –  replacing a phone with a brand new one can be expensive to a company so try to think outside the box and offer different solutions to the customer such as a courtesy phone and sending the phone off for repair. REMEMBER TO ALWAYS DO THIS THING