Informing

Angry Customers What do you do when you have angry customers who come into your office or work place and start yelling at you? Do you get upset and yelling back? Do you ignore the customer’s complaint and tell them to leave? Copyrights © 2007 – Retail Mavens Blog

First Experience My first assistant manager position in an auto-shop was anything but a pleasant one I had disgruntled customers Unsatisfied customers Customers who fought every little thing I did to get a cheaper price Worst of all “Angry” customers

Clueless At first I was lost and usually sent the customer to the manager but as time went by I learned that letting the angry customers vent made them calm I learned to firmly and nicely say NO In the end I ended up more able to deal with customers than my boss

Learning Curve Is it hard for us as humans to change our nature We have written in our genetic coding to be confrontational We defend ourselves from verbal attacks by attacking back We fight fire with fire

Customers are always right One thing I learned and was taught is that customers are always right You should always try to agree with the customer whether you think they’re right or wrong Don’t fight with the customer Don’t argue with the customer Don’t be aggressive

Spoken words There is one word in which you should always use when dealing with a upset customer or person “LETS” It helps the person feel like you’re listening and care about their problems (Wourio, 2010)

Spoken words “Let’s go over what happened” will help ease the tension drastically as it forces the person to think about what went wrong and not only to vent their anger (Wourio, 2010)

What do you do? When confronted by an angry person don’t panic as it will cloud your thoughts and judgement Stay as calm as possible Speak in a nice friendly voice and let the person know that you care Sympathize with the person (Gadfly, 2008)

What not to do! What ever it is that has made the person upset don’t Blame the problem on other people like your boss! As that most like won’t go well with him/her and it’ll make it seem as if you don’t want to deal with the problem (Gadfly, 2008)

What not to do! Don’t blame the products as the customer or person will most likely get more angry as they ask you why you sold them a defective product in the first place So you’ll now have two problems to deal with plus a lower level of respect and trust from the person (Gadfly, 2008)

Apology When you’ve finally gotten the problem solved and the situation is somewhat calm it doesn’t mean it’s done and over with You’ve got to apologize to the customer even if you think the person was wrong Having a person leave happy and thinking they’re right is better for business and personal image than arguing over who’s right (Gadfly, 2008)

Exception There is one exception to the customer always being right There are always going to be people who just want to start trouble and make everyone miserable Sometimes you have to sacrifice one persons happy-ness for the happy-ness of a group (If you’re running a business) (Gale, 2008)

Conclusion In the end whether you’re running a business or dealing with people you should always treat them with respect and dignity Treat them as a person Show sympathy Verbally tell them that you care and are going to do something about it Even if they are wrong it doesn’t hurt to act like they’re right (unless it’s a big deal) Learn to have control over your actions

Jeff Wourio (2010) 7 ways to defuse angry customers, retrieved November 13, 2010, Microsoft Business, us/resources/management/customer-relations/7-ways-to-defuse-angry- customers.aspx#waystodefuseangrycustomers Gabriel Gadfly (2008, December 15) How to defuse an angry customer, Retrieved November 13, 2010, Business and Finance, ngry_customer.html?cat=3 Gale (2008), Tough customers: cool heads can defuse heated exchanges: with difficult diners remain calm and n control, but know when to ask them to leave, industry experts say, Retrieved November 13, 2010, Cengage Learning, Rescources