How to Deal With Difficult Customers

Interacting with customers is a big part of being a business owner. While many customers can be easy to interact with, there will always be difficult customers who present challenges to you and your employees. Knowing how to interact with these challenging callers is key to growing your business and maintaining a positive reputation. 

What Leads to a Difficult Customer?

Typically, challenging customers fall into one of these categories:

• Frustrated: If something continues to go wrong, a customer will likely call feeling frustrated about the situation. These callers may be quick to anger or combative given their frustration levels. Recognition of their frustration can be validating for these customers, helping to diffuse the tension. 
• Confused: A confused customer needs help more than anything. They might misunderstand a service or continue to have a repeated problem and not know why. Calmness and clarity are key for confused callers, so they can feel understood and have the support they need to learn. 
• Critical: Your critical customers have strong opinions about how things should or should not be, and they won’t hesitate to share these opinions. Critical callers are typically dissatisfied with some aspect of your business, so being solution-oriented is best. 
• Angry: Angry callers are typically the peak response of the other three sentiments. A caller might start off confused or critical, but their attitude can quickly morph into anger if they’re not approached correctly in the interaction. These callers want to feel heard while also receiving clear solutions to their problems. 

How to Handle Difficult Customers on the Phone

Many of your customer interactions happen over the phone, so knowing how to manage these types of callers with de-escalation techniques is important.

1. Maintain a Calm Demeanor

The key to learning how to deal with upset customers on the phone is to remain calm and collected at all times. This can be difficult to do when you’re feeling frazzled and frustrated, but it’s important to remember that the customer is not trying to purposely make your life difficult. They’re just upset about a problem they’re experiencing.

Speak with a calm voice and avoid getting defensive, as this will only make the customer angrier. Take a few deep breaths before responding to the customer to keep your cool.

2. Practice Active Listening

Difficult customers — whether they’re angry, frustrated, critical or confused — want to be heard, and one of the best ways to show them that you’re taking their complaints seriously is to practice active listening. This involves repeating back what the customer has said to you, using phrases like “I understand how you feel” and “I’m sorry that happened.”

By actively listening, an upset customer will feel like you’re truly trying to understand the problem and that you care about resolving it. This can help diffuse the situation and make the customer more cooperative.

3. Be Professional at All Times

The role of customer service representatives is to be professional at all times, no matter how difficult it is to deal with frustrated customers. This means using positive language, avoiding profanity and refraining from making any personal attacks.

It can be tempting to lash out at an angry customer, but this will only make the situation worse and damage your company’s reputation. Remember that you’re representing your business, so always behave in a way that you would be proud of.

4. Sympathize and Empathize

There are times when a difficult caller just wants to be heard and acknowledged. In these cases, it’s important to sympathize and empathize with the customer. This doesn’t mean agreeing with everything they’re saying, but rather acknowledging that you understand how they feel and that you want to help them resolve the issue.

When dealing with difficult customers over the telephone, always put yourself in your customers’ shoes and imagine how you would feel if you were in their situation. Angry phone calls are often the result of a customer feeling like they’re not being heard, so by empathizing with them, you can show them that you understand their frustration. This recognition can help calm a caller down and make it easier to manage the interaction. 

5. Apologize When Necessary

If the customer’s anger is justified, then it’s important to apologize for the situation. This will show the customer that you’re willing to take responsibility for the problem and are committed to making things right.

Sometimes, an apology is all an angry customer wants. By admitting that you made a mistake, you can diffuse the situation and turn a negative customer experience into a positive one.

6. Get to the Root Cause of the Problem

The best way to deal with a difficult customer on the phone is to get to the root cause of the problem and resolve it as quickly as possible. This will often involve escalated calls to supervisors or managers, but it’s important to do whatever it takes to solve the issue.

In some cases, you may not be able to resolve the problem immediately, but you can still diffuse the situation by letting the customer know that you’re working on it and will get back to them as soon as possible.

7. Offer Reasonable and Fair Solutions

The goal of customer service is to resolve problems, so it’s important to always offer a solution to an angry caller. This may involve providing a refund, issuing credit or sending a replacement product.

Whatever the solution may be, make sure you’re clear and concise about what the customer needs to do next. Create a straightforward plan of action that will resolve the issue and make sure the customer understands it. If a follow-up is needed, make it clear how that follow-up will be sent. For example, should the customer expect a second call? An email? When will this communication come through? This level of clarity prevents confusion and frustration from building up. 

8. Ask for Support When Needed

When you’re on a call with a difficult customer, you might realize you’re not the best person to solve the problem. Trying to resolve the issue when you’re not equipped to do so can lead to more problems. For that reason, it’s helpful to reach out for support the moment it’s required — this shows you care about responding to a customer’s complaints properly and promptly. 

For example, a caller might have frustrations about an error on their bill. You may realize that the source of the billing issue is a technology bug, not an accounting error. In that case, you can let your caller know you need support from IT in order to clear the charge. 

9. Follow Up After the Call

Last but not least, always follow up with the customer after the call to ensure that their problem has been resolved. This shows that you’re committed to providing excellent customer service and that you care about your customers’ satisfaction.

It’s also a good opportunity to see if there’s anything else you can do to help the customer. By following up, you are showing the customer that you value their business and that you are always working to improve their experience.

Take Your Call Answering to the Next Level With AnswerHero™

Dealing with difficult customers is never easy, but our live virtual receptionists at AnswerHero™ can help. We’re here to take your calls, 24/7/365, and our team is trained to handle even the most difficult inquiries. Our contract-free services offer scalable support that doesn’t lock you in, while our bilingual agents facilitate professional communication with callers in either Spanish or English.

When you partner with us, you can rest assured that your customers will always receive the best possible experience. We will help you build trust and loyalty with your customers, and go above and beyond to resolve their problems. Get in touch with us today to get started.