It happens, it shouldn’t, we do our best to avoid it, but occasionally it happens. The client does not get the service they or we expect, so they call us and they are angry. So what can we do?
Lots of trainers or coaches will give an acronym to follow in dealing with angry clients but the first thing to do is very simple.
We let them talk.
We let them express their anger.
We let them blow!
- Don’t interrupt them. Let them talk and let them keep talking. When we get angry due to poor service some of us just want to let off steam. We need to let the angry client express their anger, interrupting them may well just make them angrier!
- If we have to say something just try continuation words or phrases like ‘I see’ or ‘Mmm’, so that they know you’re still on the line.
- Resist the urge to answer their problem, just let them keep talking.
- Help them to talk some more! Make sure we’ve understood the situation by asking them open questions. The more they talk the chances are the more they are likely to calm down.
- It may be that we don’t say anything except for the odd word for a few minutes, but this is fine. Allowing the angry person to express their anger can have a cathartic affect on them, in that this is exactly what they need.
It may sound simplistic but the first thing that we need to do with an angry client is just to shut up and let them talk.
What do we do after that? That will be in a future post.
If you have experiences of dealing with angry clients, please write below by clicking on the words ‘no comment’.
How should we handle an angry client? Step 1 = Let them talk!