In Customer Service, everyone gets stressed callers from
time to time. Stressed callers are Customers who have the potential to become
irate. Poor Customer Service skills will
actually make them become irate. The
skilled, high performing Customer Service agent will defuse the situation, and will
prevent the Customer from becoming irate. This article offers key tips and
techniques to avoid any caller becoming irate.
Despite
what the poor Customer Service representative may think, no Customer wants to
be irate. Customers become irate when they believe something is wrong or that
they have been treated inappropriately. They then become frustrated, angry,
annoyed or stressed. Some people become irate more easily than others,
but all of these Customers are irate because they have reacted to something you
or your Company either did, or failed to do and they feel that you in
Customer Service are continuing to be unresponsive.
The Goal
of the Customer Service Professional
Everyone
has stressed Customers from time to time. A stressed caller is someone who has
the potential to go irate. Your goal in Customer Service is to divert the
Customer away from the irate zone and to steer them confidently in to the calm
zone.
It
is the role of the Customer Service professional not only to have the knowledge
and skills to address the issue, but also to have the focus and skills to
manage the Caller's emotional state. It takes clear focus and careful use
of skills to take this caller out of the irate zone and in to the calm rational
zone. Sometimes this looks impossible, particularly if the Customer Service
representative has a lot of irate callers. This is a catch 22 situation. If you
believe it is impossible, you will not build the right focus and skills, and
you will trigger more and more people to become irate. You are generating irate
Customers with your poor approach and skills. The expert Customer Service
professional will have few, if any, irate callers.
How to
Avoid Irate Callers
There 3
key elements you can use to take a stressed Customer in to the calm zone
1.
Focus
2.
Skills
3.
Timing
The
first, focus, is about getting yourself in to the right zone to handle this
Customer. When you are in the right zone, you will use the right language and
will be better placed to control the call.
Think
positive thoughts about your Customers. Think of them as real people,
like your relatives or friends, who have a problem and who are stressed about
this issue. You are the strong, confident person who will help them sort this
issue out, like a warm confident parent. That is the zone to begin the call,
the confident parent zone.
The
Sequence at the Beginning of the Call
Let us
think about what a good, confident parent does when they have a problem. That
will give us the sequence of what to do, and how to time the call. The
confident parent first shows empathy - Oh dear, That's not good. They show
empathy as they listen to the problem. They ask questions that show they are
interested and that they appreciate the issue. They then stop. They move from
the empathy mode, to the brisk adult Let's get this sorted out' mode.
This
gives us the zones and sequence for handling the stressed Customer
Step 1
Empathy
Step 2
Listen to the issue. Show empathy as you listen - I understand, I can
appreciate how you feel.
Step 3
Question for details again with empathy. Validate what they say, repeat
it back You ordered this last week, and you still have not got it? If the
Customer is totally in the right, show some shock that this should have
happened.
Step 4
Acknowledge the issue confirm that you understand the issue and the impact
this has had on this Customer. Judge the tone of this appropriately for
this specific Customer and this issue. Avoid overplaying or underplaying the
situation. This phase of the call is critical. If you do NOT confirm the issue
back to the Customer, they will feel you still do not understand fully, and
they will continue to tell the story. Acknowledging the issue stops that cycle.
Step 5
Move to the adult, calm solution phase. Here you use a neutral, adult tone and
good, positive language to present your solution to the Customer.
The
Company is at Fault or the Customer is at Fault
This 5
step sequence will work with any caller. It is a question of getting in the
right zone, and timing the sequence well. It is the same sequence whether the
Customer is right, they did not get their order, or when the Customer is wrong,
they did not order at all. What is said is obviously different, but the
sequence is the same. You still show empathy, listen to the issue, acknowledge
the issue and then move to your approach for this situation.
Practicing
these techniques with stressed Customers will ensure you can effectively avoid
meeting that irate Caller in any Customer
Service situation!
Interesting article! Another important factor is being confident and clear in your knowledge of the situation. Appearing to be (and actually being) not quite sure of what the process is or what has happened can make a customer more likely to get irate...but being confident in your knowledge (whether it is about the product, the process or whatever) is very important, and helps you give a calm and sound explanation to the customer.
Very good point! Confidence in you knowledge is really vital. I also like your point about the Customer needing to know the process - this is a good pointer for anyone handling these type of calls.
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