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How to Prepare Your Employees to Get An Angry Customer to Back Down

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Imagine your newest and most timid employee’s next call is from an irate customer. The customer is ranting so loudly that the person across from her can hear his voice.

But your employee is calm and confident. She’s saying things like,

“Umm…hmm,” “I see….” and “I realize this whole thing has been frustrating for you.”

She’s leaning in toward her computer and listening to the customer. After listening to the customer for several seconds, she says, “We want to fix this just as much as you do.” And then….you hear her typing away while she nods – and within 3 minutes, the customer hangs up happy.

Keep imagining with me for just another minute. Lauren just got a live one. Right out of the gate he’s asked to talk to a supervisor. Here’s how Lauren responds.

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“I can certainly let you speak to my supervisor, but you know what, Brendan? That’s why I’m here. Why don’t you give me a chance to help you first? If I’m not able to fix this, absolutely, I’ll get you to my supervisor.”

You brace yourself for the transfer to your phone that you know is about to happen… but, the call isn’t transferred. Lauren has convinced Brendan to let her help him!

No, you weren’t imagining perfect agents in the Zappos Call Center. But they could just as easily be your employees after skill training on how to calm down angry and agitated customers.

Help your employees eliminate their fears and doubts about getting angry customers to back down

On Friday, May 31st at 1:00 pm ET I’m facilitating a webinar training to help you prepare your employees to get any angry customer to back down. If your people struggle with escalations and demanding customers, join me for this webinar and gain tactics to train and coach your employees to handle demanding customers with more confidence and ease. See the webinar outline.

Three Ways To Fix the Escalation Problem

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Escalated calls are frustrating for everybody – the employee who knows she could’ve done the exact same thing the supervisor did, the supervisor whose hair is on fire, and for the customer who has lost time. It’s time to fix the escalation problem. Here are three ways you can prepare your employees to de-escalate so you can take a little stress out of everybody’s life.

1. See How Much It Costs You To Resolve Most Customer Issues

Continue reading “Three Ways To Fix the Escalation Problem”

What I Wish Everyone Knew About Getting Angry Customers to Back Down

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Anger Can’t Be Ignored.

We’ve all chosen to not dignify a person’s absurd comment with a response, or perhaps you’ve stepped over a toddler sprawled on the floor in a tantrum, letting them scream. Dismissing fits of anger can be a healthy response in some situations – unless the infuriated person is your customer. Let me unpack this.

Psychologists talk about what they call the Communication Chain. The Communication Chain says that when a person puts out a verbal message, they expect a response to that message. That first message is a link in the communication chain. If there’s no response to the link, the chain is left unlinked or broken.

Now, we know that we have two different parts of the brain that serve two very different functions. The right side of the brain is where we feel emotions – like fear, joy, dread, shock, and love. The left side of our mind is the logical side. This is where we perform tasks that have to do with logic, like science and math.

So back to our Communication Chain – if you have a customer who expresses concern, frustration, or anger and you don’t acknowledge it, that is, if you ignore the rage, you break that chain, and this break forces customers into the right side of the brain where they may become more intense or challenging.

You don’t want an upset customer to operate from the right emotional brain. Because if they do, they’re likely to be more talkative, irrational, and far more intense.

You want your customer coming to you from their logical, rational, and calm left brain. If you link the communication chain by just responding to the customer’s anger, you keep the customer from getting stuck in the right brain.

Here are some things you can say to respond to anger without getting pulled into the drama.

Continue reading “What I Wish Everyone Knew About Getting Angry Customers to Back Down”

What’s Your Customer’s Panic Question?

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After six weeks in the hospital, we got the news that Dad would be released and that he would go to a rehab center eight miles away. Mom called me frantic, “He’s so weak, I have no idea how I’ll get your dad into the car to take him to rehab.”

In my customer service workshops, I improve the customer experience by challenging employees to consider, “What else does my customer need to know?” And then meeting that need without the customer having to wonder, fret, or even ask.

If you’re a hospital case manager, and you’re telling a 71-year-old spouse that her husband needs to check in to rehab tomorrow, what questions might the wife have? The name and address of the rehab facility, indeed. An estimate of how long rehab will last, sure. She’d also need to know how she’s going to transport her husband to the facility.

It turns out Mom had been stewing in fear of how she’d get Dad to rehab for several hours before she called me. She knew Dad couldn’t walk – he could scarcely stand at that point, which is why he was going into rehab – to learn to walk again. “Mom, the rehab center will send a van to transport Dad from the hospital to their facility. All you’ll have to do is make sure Dad’s bag is packed and ready.” On the phone I sensed mom’s anxiety fall off her, like a sack of onions.

Answer Your Customer’s Most Pressing Questions Before They Panic

Continue reading “What’s Your Customer’s Panic Question?”

3 Steps to Reducing Stress and Escalations With Customer Service Teams

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Back in my call center days, I paid a consultant a wad to tell me to, “Give your employees time after each call to debrief with their co-workers, and create a culture where they can turn to each other for advice and guidance for how to navigate a tough call.” Here are the top three things my consultant advised me to do immediately to achieve the goals she set for me.

1. Create a spider web type layout where all of your employees can see and interact with one another at once.

2. Encourage employees to place callers on hold while they seek advice from the team on how to manage tough situations.

3. Build in time after calls for employees to cool-down after a particularly grilling interaction, and to talk the situation through with colleagues.

I took the consultant’s advice, and here’s what happened. Continue reading “3 Steps to Reducing Stress and Escalations With Customer Service Teams”

Take Challenging Customers From a Boil to a Simmer Using the Reframe Method (Step 2 of My De-escalation Strategy)

Reframe.001When you need to pre-empt an escalation in aggression with a customer, reframe the conversation using the three steps politicians and CEOs use for damage control and to control the message.

Explain: Continue reading “Take Challenging Customers From a Boil to a Simmer Using the Reframe Method (Step 2 of My De-escalation Strategy)”