How to Keep Your Cool When Dealing with Irate Customers

There isn't a day that goes by, at work, when I am not attacked by an irate customer of some sort. The customer is usually mad about a price, about a store policy, a change the store made, or something in their personal life. It doesn't matter what the customer is mad at; the customer will take their anger out on me.

There have been days when I've been verbally assaulted, there have been days when customers have thrown things at me, there have been times I've had to listen to a stream of obscenities and there have been days when I had to wonder if it was going to be safe to leave work and go home.

Customers have this delusion that they are always right. The fact of the matter is: they aren't always right.

A customer might want something, that usually requires 24 hours notice, right this second. A customer might want the price changed when that is obviously not possible without me losing my job. A customer might say they want this that or the other thing and when you give them exactly what they wanted, they tell you it wasn't even remotely what they wanted and get angry. The customer gets angry and walks off sometimes.

There are ways of dealing with these customers to make them happy and also keep your cool.

The first thing you want to do is listen. Make sure you listen to the customer completely. Don't interrupt them. Interrupting them before they are finished with what they need to say with only make them more angry. At the appropriate times, do ask questions to try to clarify the situation.

Make sure you empathize with the customer. Try to, honestly, feel sorry for the customer because of whatever the situation might be. Once they realize they are talking to someone who understands what their problem is and wants to help, they are more willing to be rational.

Don't apologize for the company first thing in the conversation as, most likely, you won't know who's at Farly yet. One of the best first responses is to say something like: "I completely understand why you are upset. If the same thing happened to me, I'd be just as upset."

Whatever you do, do not take anything personally. Make sure you remain calm and relaxed. Getting unnerved will only make for grated chaos. Just remember, the customer is yelling at you, but they are really angry at the company and the situation they are in. They aren't necessarily angry at you.

Make sure you get the facts from both sides. Make sure you let the customer know that you will do everything you can to solve the problem. Make sure you check out all sides of the story, on their end and yours. Find out what is really going on. Find the truths.

If the situation warrants it, apologize to the customer. Make a sincere apology verses a fake apology as a sincere one will make customers much more happy and satisfied. Tell them that we made a mistake and that we interned to make it right.

Make sure the customer knows what you can do. Don't promise them things you know you can't deliver. Find out what can be done and make sure it gets done. Try to give the customer a time frame to ease their minds.

Find out whether or not that will satisfy the customer. There isn't any point of going to great lengths to try to satisfy a customer that, in the end, won't be satisfied.

If this won't satisfy the customer, ask the customer what will satisfy them. Ask them various questions such as: "What would you like me to do?", "What would make you satisfied", "How can this be rectified?". After you find out what it is that the customer wants to be truly happy, go to the right person to try to get a more positive solution for the customer.

If the customer cannot be pleased, it's best to hand the problem over to someone else- a manager, or someone higher up who will be able to be of more help.

In the end, not every customer can be pleased, but most can be calmed down. I've had customers eventually apologies to me for being out of line. I've had customers apologies to me because they were taking their problems out on me. In the end, it does pay to be nice to an irate customer because you never really know why they are upset and in the end, they might be the one to apologies. Either way, it's best to remain calm and take the situation one step at a time.