Anyone who has ever had the pleasure of working in an industry that involves customer service or management of the public via phone or in person has experienced various levels of customer satisfaction. One of the most common occurrences of the job is often related to the need to calm an irate customer and without the proper training and approach the situation can become quite volatile. It is important for the customer service representative to maintain a quality level of professionalism during the entire process in an effort to immediately diffuse the situation with an outcome that is positive for the customer and the company that is represented.
The Approach
First, the company representative must realise that most customers are simply in search of a solution to their problem and will calm down once they see that the approach to the issue is a positive one. It is imperative that the representative maintains a professional and polite demeanour during each and every exchange with the customer. In any case where the customer becomes verbally or physically abusive, refrain from retaliation and attempt to use a tone that soothes and calms their aggression without sounding condescending. Attempt to ask the customer to calm down in a professional and respectful tone and explain that a solution to their problem can be better obtained if they allow you to fully understand the depth of the conflict. The goal of the approach is to help the customer to realise that you are there to help facilitate a common solution to their problem but only if they allow you to do so.
The Strategy
Each situation will be unique and vary greatly depending on the industry of the problem. In some cases, the confrontational customer may be on the phone or in person inside the business. In any case, it’s important to remember that as a company representative, honesty is always the best policy. Be completely honest and upfront about your capabilities and what position you take on dealing with the problem. Leading an angry customer to believe that you can repair a problem when you can’t will only make the situation worse. Always regard company policies and how they apply to the situation at hand attempt to explain these policies to the customer. If necessary, involve higher management in an effort to show the customer that all has been done to rectify their complaint. Most importantly, make every effort to maintain a safe and secure environment during the confrontation.
There are effective Ways to Manage Customer Aggression in order to maintain customer satisfaction. Conflict Resolution Training & Consultation values the superior efforts of companies to produce well trained customer representatives.
Company Name : Conflict Resolution Training & Consulting (CRTC)
