| When faced with a disgruntled or angry customer, | | | | be listened to, and have their upset and distress |
| people usually assume that the first thing to do is | | | | recognised and acknowledged. |
| to fix his or her "problem". Sounds logical, doesn't | | | | What most of us are tempted to do is to leap |
| it? And it is certainly true that you are being | | | | into solving the problem without giving that |
| asked to do something practical to solve the | | | | recognition. What happens then is that the |
| issue. But this is only part of the story. | | | | customer stays angry, isn't really prepared to |
| Firstly, it can be a mistake to leap into suggesting | | | | listen to our solution or work with us to solve the |
| a solution before you have heard everything the | | | | issue, whatever it is. We find our suggestions |
| customer has to say. Sure, it can certainly be | | | | aren't heard anyway, and we keep having to |
| difficult to listen patiently if the customer is "in | | | | repeat ourselves, which can drive us nuts! |
| your face" with angry complaints! But instead of | | | | A much more effective method is to listen for |
| justifying, apologising, or moving into problem-fix | | | | and acknowledge the angry or upset feelings. Try |
| mode too quickly, first ask some extra questions | | | | saying something like "I understand you're really |
| such as: | | | | upset about this, and I don't blame you. Let's see |
| "Can you tell me more about that?" ... "What else | | | | what we can do." Or "Most people would be |
| did you find frustrating? ... "Was there anything | | | | angry if they found that ... ". |
| else that made you angry?" | | | | So when you are faced with a customer |
| In other words, get ALL the information and | | | | complaint, the first Golden Rule is LISTEN, |
| details you can as a first step. | | | | LISTEN, LISTEN. Not only to the problem itself, |
| Secondly and even more importantly, moving into | | | | but also to the customer's feelings. |
| fixing a problem immediately can actually make | | | | Include in your response a little summarising of |
| the whole issue even more difficult to solve! Have | | | | what the customer has said, as well as |
| you ever noticed that, if you are faced with a | | | | acknowledgment of their angry feelings, and you'll |
| really angry customer, even if you can fix the | | | | be amazed at how much easier dealing with |
| problem they don't stop acting angrily? This is | | | | customer complaints can be! |
| because they actually ALSO want to be heard, to | | | | |