Dealing with irate customers is a part of business. Turning an irate customer into a loyal customer depends on how you deal with that irate customer.

Imagine this…A customer, who is 99 percent enraged and 1 percent logical, is transferred to you. The customer wants nothing more than to draw blood. And, tag, you’re it, because the buck stops with you when it comes to ultimate, bad, customer experiences with your company. There are so many reasons today why a customer becomes enraged that I will not endeavor to mention any of them. I feel assured that if you think hard, you may be able to recall a situation that brought you close to being an irate customer. Your main objective should be to calm the customer so that s/he can think clearly and talk logically about the problem. At this point the actual problem becomes secondary to what the customer feels about your company. Before you talk with the customer there are a few things that should be in place: Eliminate the requirement for the customer to repeat information: When a customer reaches you, you should have her/his name and any other personal information and all relevant product or service information to move forward. Establish a “voice/tone” to use each time you speak with a customer. Establish a problem-resolution pace for customer conversations: Pace your conversation so that no words run together or drag; and, each word should be articulated, leaving no room for misunderstandings. Do not use industry jargon or acronyms. Speak softly so customers listen harder. Make sure the tone of your voice is authoritative, confident, and inquisitive: never permit your tone to sound superior. When you speak to a customer, you should do the following: Take control of the call upfront by providing a few ground rules or establishing your expectations for the call. Introduce yourself and tell the customer you want to understand the situation. Do not apologize for the problem before you know what happened and who is at fault. Do let the customer know he or she will receive your full attention and that you will work diligently to resolve the problem. Tell the customer you would like to record the conversation so that you can give her/him your full attention without missing any details and will not have to rely on note-taking and memory as you move through the steps of resolving the problem. This may require using some recording device (e.g. cell phones, etc.) for the actual recording. Ask the customer’s permission to record the call. State the problem as you understand it and ask the customer to confirm it. Establish the customer’s baseline for resolution. Ask what’s at stake for the customer: Customers buy products and services for a reason. Find out what the customer has lost because of the experience with your product/service and going through this escalation process. Ask what criteria the customer will use to measure a successful resolution. Tell the customer what you will do and what result you plan to achieve. If follow-up is required, agree to a time and way to contact your customer with information. Negotiate a timeframe for a reasonable resolution and stick to it! Do what you told the customer you would do! Tell the customer when it is done. Check with the customer to ensure her/his criteria for resolution has been met. I am the author of Rat Bastard Customer Care: Committed to the fix! I am a no-nonsense service professional and I have been escalation for both, products and services, across industries. It has been my experience that conveying a confident tone, speaking with a natural-listening pace, supplanting profuse apologies with a resolve to get to the bottom of problems to help customers; and, asking customers to have our conversations recorded neutralized the anger they felt and helped them think and speak more clearly and thoughtfully about their experiences.