When you are dealing with difficult customers, you must have efficient customer service skills. This quality is much more important if you are dealing with irritated customers. Although the customers are ‘always right’ in their feedback, they may not be easy to deal with. Learning about dealing with these challenging situations is another crucial step for a business owner, especially those who are associated with the customer service industry.
We have successful businesses and services having occasional spats with frustrated customers. To build a positive customer interaction, you must have a trained staff to work with who can cope with these situations and sort out the customer’s problems. This step is one of many steps that we will discuss in dealing with such customers.
Steps in Dealing With Frustrated Customers
There are many types of upset customers. Therefore, you can follow certain tips to enhance your customer service skills and solve customer issues. The following are some of the key strategies that you can look into while dealing with conflicting customer issues:
1. Maintain Professional Communication
When you are communicating with an angry customer, make sure that your language and tone are professional, friendly, and formal. Your ethical values represent the nature of your business. Therefore, it is important to know the actions that you will take and refrain from any impulses to tackle the demands of the customer.
To maintain professional communication, keep an even tone and ensure that your body language is letting the customers know you will accept any kind of feedback from them. For example, you can look at them directly in the eye and use their names when responding.
Dealing with difficult customers can be a complex task, and there can be a possibility that you may not understand the factors that contribute to the customer’s frustration. However, having a professional tone is the common denominator in this situation.
2. Remain Composed
When you are dealing with frustrated customers, take a deep breath and control your emotions. It is the most ideal approach for you to relax and interact with every customer appropriately. If you want to know how to deal with angry customers, you must stay calm during difficult moments.
Make sure that you go through the practices of achieving peace of mind before interacting with customers. For example, you can ask yourself, “How are they going to make me react?” You may start to feel that you are getting angry and not having deep breaths anymore.
You may start feeling the tension inside your body. Therefore, you must decide on the current situation straight away instead of making the situation get the better of you. Your interaction with the customers will only be successful if you have emotional control. For example, if your customer is frustrated, have a professional and serious tone.
3. Speak Politely
Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website
When the customers raise their voices, make sure that you go even softer with your tone and language. If you are dealing with difficult customers, you must approach them calmly and collectively. If you can stay calm, it will dampen the situation and keep things under control. Speaking politely is a step that may be beneficial in resolving tense arguments between the business owner and the customer.
4) Maintain Active Listening
Active listening is an ideal way of enhancing readability and communication skills. It involves the prioritization of your customer, visualizing their opinions, and responding to them appropriately.
Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website
Active listening enables you to listen to the customer’s demands and make you highlight every single word of them, which will be ideal in dealing with difficult customers. Hence, you may require active listening to assure the customer that you are listening to all the details that he is giving. Prioritizing the demands without giving them divided attention will enable you to understand their problem and the way you can generate the outcomes.
One way of adopting active listening is by creating affirmations for your online community that ensure your customers that you are paying attention to them. We have shared some examples below:
- “I understand”
- “I get you”
- “I agree”
- “Yes, definitely”
- “I hear you”
Active Listening is a strategy that may require time for you to master. However, they are crucial in offices as it enables you to identify and resolve customer’s issues effectively.
5) Give Them Room to Talk
Customers want to ensure that their point is getting through to the business owner. If you cannot interpret their sayings, this will make them angry. For example, you are selling a product on Instagram, and your customer leaves a comment that you do not reply. Soon, he/she will come after you in frustration. If you want to know how to deal with difficult customers, you must let them know you are paying attention to them. One way of doing that is by nodding your head and letting your body language send a message to them.
Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website
You must give them as much time as they require before you respond. Giving them all the time to express their thoughts will enable you to understand the situation clearly and give the customers time to reflect on their opinions and emotions. Dealing with difficult customers can be a tempting task, but you should show patience until the customer’s demands get fulfilled.
If the customer cannot communicate for any reason, make sure that you let them know you are ready to receive any kind of feedback that they provide. Once they communicate, ensure that you absorb every single word coming out of their mouth before you respond.
6) Understand Customer’s Opinions
Image taken from Strikingly Product
When you are dealing with difficult customers, you can take time to describe their opinion. Empathy skills enable you to understand other people's feelings or intentions. Practicing empathy will enable you to understand your customer’s emotions and respond appropriately.
It takes multiple to take part in an interaction. When you are speaking to a customer, the customers may vent their anger on you, and you must absorb their intentions before responding. If you want to understand the customer’s demands in a better way, you can create a set of questionnaires for them. If you can clarify their demands, it will be beneficial for you to generate effective outcomes for them.
To practice empathy, make sure you do the following:
- Nod
- Ask the customer about the precise solution
- Show respect
- Hold yourself accountable on the slightest of undoings.
7) Visualize Their Demands
One of the best ways of dealing with difficult customers is to identify all the precise requirements of a customer. If you can understand the customer’s needs, it will enable you to resolve their issues quickly. For example, you can create an option for an FAQ page for them. Your customer must have the feeling that you have everything at your disposal to address their complaint.
Strikingly is a platform with immense credibility that provides 24/7 customer service via email and chat. Our Happiness Officers are available to address your concerns and ensure that your demands are heard.
8) Get to a Solution
Sometimes, it is better if you simply ask the customer about their demands. For example, you can ask “What should I do to improve upon this product?”. Their feedback will enable you to get straight to satisfactory outcomes. Hence, you will prioritize those outcomes to have a better chance of resolving the customer’s issues.
Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website
When it comes to dealing with difficult customers, this option is the best. If you can hear the customer’s demands, the lack of clarity in your mind will be extinguished. Make sure that you give them the authority to select the best solution, which will enable you to have a better opportunity of meeting their demands. By fulfilling their demands, you will also be able to keep them.
9) Ask for Support
There are a few cases in which customer complaints go over your head. This is where you need some support from your website manager or administrators in helping you out with the matters. When you are dealing with difficult customers and cannot conclude with them, make sure that you reach out to someone within your admin panel for support.
You must make your customer know you are bringing someone else within your team that has substantial knowledge about their complaint and is better equipped to handle their questions. Usually, customers like this step because they get the feeling that you are trying all you can to rectify their issues. You can also retain them after this positive conclusion.
Conclusion
It is highly significant if you are successful in dealing with difficult customers. For that to happen, you must have great customer service skills. Strikingly is a recognized platform that keeps its customers with effective customer service. You can look at the tips and tricks that we have provided to cope with these challenging situations.
It is great for changing a negative situation into a positive situation and ensuring that your customer becomes a massive advocate of your brand because of the way you deal with them. A difficult customer may walk away from your shop feeling satisfied after communicating with you, as compared to an ordinary customer who doesn’t communicate as much. Hence, ensure that your practice effective communication skills to improve your interaction with the customers.
