Dealing with angry callers can be a challenge for your business or a burdensome part of your job. But while these situations are difficult or even unpleasant, they can still be great opportunities to create and grow customer satisfaction.
Callers get angry for many reasons. This can happen when they’re facing unexpected costs or when their products break within a week. As a business, you will probably cross paths with an angry customer at some point. But if you are not prepared for this situation, it can be costly in several ways.
Even for the most patient people in the company, dealing with angry callers regularly can be tough. Moreover, it can lead to burnout. Angry callers also put your company at risk. As the unresolved issues can easily escalate, it may turn into a public disaster.
But you need to understand that dealing with angry callers is healthy for your business. It gives your business or company a chance to learn but also to make things work in the right direction. This article discusses certain tips that you can follow which make it easier for your business to deal with angry callers and convert them into happy customers.
How Should Your Business Deal With Angry Callers?
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Listen Actively
Angry callers want to vent their frustration and you need to let them. Moreover, don’t interrupt even if the information they are giving you on the call doesn’t even relate to the matter. Rather, let them get it all out but do listen closely. Because you need to figure out what the caller or the customer needs.
As soon as they complete their piece, you need to first sincerely apologize and then take full responsibility for their lack of satisfaction. You need to personally take the blame because it diffuses the angry caller. Your attitude towards the angry caller should portray that you will assist in fixing the issue right now and right here. This is all an angry customer wants to hear.
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Ask the right questions
Arguing with the caller about why they’re wrong is not the way to go. It will only make them feel like you are not understanding their view or taking them seriously. Instead, the topmost priority at the beginning of the call is to calm the angry caller. You need to first handle the caller and then the issue.
Asking questions is a good technique to calm their anger. So, next time you speak to an angry caller, ask them to explain their issue in detail without doing any judgment. Then, you need to ask the follow-up questions to understand the situation in detail. Also, talking and explaining will help the angry caller communicate more rationally. So, as things become clearer, the caller is more likely to start calming down.
You can also make a practice of doing call quality monitoring within your business to ensure that excellent service is always provided to the angry callers to make them calm down and get to know how to handle such situations. Call quality monitoring will also help you understand much better about the issues customers are facing and how to deal with them.
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Be compassionate
It is usual to feel good when you are talking to someone who can relate to your struggle. So, while talking to the angry caller next time, try to empathize with their issue. You may tend to feel exhaustive if you try to connect with customers in such a manner.
Rather than showing blind customer empathy, try to use rational compassion to deal with the angry caller. This means that you wish for everyone to do well without being affected by their emotions.
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Be apologetic
If you are part of any customer service team in any business or organization, there can be callers angry at you for reasons beyond your control. But as a customer agent, you represent the company which makes it important to apologize to the angry caller whether or not you were directly involved.
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Be Polite
It’s no secret that kindness is disarming. On the other hand, rudeness only breeds rudeness always. So, being polite to an angry caller during the call break’s an angry person’s behavioral pattern. It is easy for angry customers to justify their attitude if you are rude back to them even if they started it first.
But as you will be representing the business or company and stay polite throughout the conversation, no matter how many curveballs come, this will help to defuse a situation.
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Never take it personally
If you are taking an issue of the angry caller to heart, it will make you more vulnerable to act out of emotion which will only escalate the problem. However, there are certain things to avoid taking things personally which depends on your mode of communication with the angry caller.
In case you’re using office phone systems, try changing your body posture to change your mind. This means slowing down your body movements, lowering your voice on the call, and to take a cool composure.
This will help to relax your body and mind but sets a presence of calmness for the angry caller. During the live chat or email support, try to delay your response by closing your eyes, taking a deep breath, and a small break from the computer screen. This will help you refresh your mind from a tense situation.
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Show appreciation
After an angry caller has ranted and raved, you need to regain control of the conversation by interjecting, not interrupting. Interject to thank the caller for taking the time to give you feedback. An example can be, ?We appreciate customers who let us know when things aren’t right.”
You need to show appreciation at the end because the last thing your unreasonable customer expects is for you to respond with kindness and gratitude. It’s a shock factor and many times you will be finding that the angry caller is stunned silent and this is exactly what you want. This will help you steer the conversation in the direction you want it to go.
Summary
So, these are some of the essential tips that can help your business deal with angry callers. These tips will surely help to change these angry callers to satisfied customers.
Moreover, handling angry callers is part of the business for any company or organization. Knowing how to deal with such calls makes the company go a long way in improving the customer’s experience. This will also help with building trust and respect in the eyes of the customers.