Customer service insight: never lose your cool

Published on September 11, 2010 Customer service insight: never lose your cool

It’s happened to us all: you are emailling or talking to a customer on the phone who has been hurling nothing but abuse at you, accuses you of being a fraud just because the product you are selling doesn’t suit them and demands a refund from you even though you haven’t done anything wrong as far as you are concerned. What should you do?

Although it’s very tempting, one of the worst things you can do is to yell at your customer or let your frustration show.  It might make you feel vindicated that you defended your point of view, but in the long run it does more harm to you than good. It’s this simple: don’t do it.

That’s all good and wonderful for us to say, but it’s easier said than done. We are all humans and some people have a way of just rubbing you up the wrong way, right? If you have been bombarded by people relentlessly throwing digs at you and saying that your products or services are rubbish even when you work your guts out to keep them satisfied, and then just at the end of the day you gets someone who just goes off at you with a barrage of insults and accusations, it’s easy to lose your cool and yell at them.  Even our former top politician Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was known to be bad at keeping his cool in certain situations, even though keeping your cool is one of the trained skills that politicians are taught to do.

So when you are in that situation, and the heat is on, what can you do to keep yourself in check? Here are three top tips from us.

1. Breathe. There is no better advice in life than think before you speak, and it applies to all parts of life, not just business. Take a deep breath when the tirade of insults is coming your way. If you insult your customer back it will make them worse, and you’re not giving in to customers by not responding to them straight away.
2. Stick to the facts. Don’t get into a heated debate about what you will or won’t do on the phone or in an email. If the argument is about an item they want to return, ask the customer to follow your returns process and send the item back to you so you can discuss it with the item in front of you. If the item has already been returned and you feel you’ll get into a big heated discussion with the customer, write to them instead and set out your facts and why you think what you do. Don’t be drawn into comments. It’s hard but don’t do it. Whatever you do!
3. Stick to your process. As above, if you have a returns process discuss the process not the facts of the matter. Sympathise with the customer but don’t give in to them. Try to really understand why they are angry and upset with you. It’s not an admission of guilt to understand why they are frustrated. You are merely agreeing to disagree. Stay calm and explain what will happen “if you agree with their assessment of the situation” for example.

Keep saying to yourself “process not passion” – even if you feel strongly that the customer is lying to you and just trying it on, dont’ get passionate about it. Pretend that you’re on TV and being videoed – would you want your behaviour shown to other customers? If you stick to your process and stay as calm as you can, you are always going to be in a better position than if you lose your cool and go nuts back at them (even if you feel like they deserved it!)