Have you ever worked or been closely associated with a public dealing department? If you have, then you will agree with us that a career where you have to deal with public and offer them products services can be a real challenging and exasperating task as making customers happy and satisfied is easy said than done. A public dealing agent sighs relieve when his customers are content with his offerings, but in such cases where customers are not satisfied by the offerings he is often left helpless.
The customer service industry is the most tough and challenging industry to work in. Call centre is one such daunting customer service industry where tele-callers face challenging scenarios where they have to deal with irate customers almost on daily basis. Industry wide research suggest that as much as 66% of customers who are facing some issues with the products or services that they have bought experience anger and are frustrated. The data is significant for call centre and telemarketing services providers as it gives insight of customers behaviour and help vendors train their employee on ways to tactfully manage and handle irate customers, without further raging their anger.
Dealing with irate customers is a skill that can be mastered by experience. No script can help customer care representative handle difficult customers proficiently; rather pre-scripted lines can boil their anger and make matters worse. For effective handling of difficult customers, it is a prerequisite that a call centre agent quickly understands the situation and play with words to calm down the fuming customer. Though an executive will learn all these tactics with time and experience, there are some tips can come handy in such tricky situations. Call centre and telemarketing services providers have been conducting training sessions to ensure that their customer care representative does not end a conversation with a difficult customer on a bad note.Some of the learnings that are imparted in these training sessions that can come handy while dealing with an irate customer are:
- Customers’ harsh comments and anger are not personal attacks directed towards customer care executives. The first learning that all call centre and telemarketing services providers want to impart in their executives is never take customers’ anger on heart. Even in the scenarios where customer is directly blaming you of the inconvenience caused, always remain firm, yet polite. Instead of feeding a customer’s anger, you must be focused at listening and deciphering the real issue. Presenting customer with an optimal solution must be your motto.
- The key to dealing with an angry customer lies in calming him down and gaining control over the situation. The easiest way to calm down a customer is to patient listening and empathising. When a customer care executive at call centre and telemarketing services providers’ end gives ears to the customer, he makes the customer feel valued. Empathising with the customer makes him feel that the executive is genuinely concerned and wants to offer a solution. While patient listening allows an agent to better understand the situation, empathising allows him to establish personal rapport with the customer.
- Apologies work every time. There are reports making rounds on internet that suggest as much as 75% of customers who are facing some issues with products and services that they have acquired want an apology. So the next time you receive a call from a frustrated customer who does not want to budge down, put your foot down and apologise, even when you are not at fault. After apologising, build the conversation, try to gain the lost trust and present the customer with a viable solution.
- Allowing the customer to vent out his pent-up frustration also works. When a customer is given time to say what he wants to say, he feels that customer representatives sitting at call centre and effective telemarketing services providers’ end are there to help them and not to argue. This will not only calm the customer down, but will actually work out in the favor of customer care representative.
When a customer reaches out a contact centre, he is already frustrated. If you want to offer better customer service, it is imperative that you don’t fuel their anger by asking futile questions. Rather, keep the above mentioned tips handy and help your customers by providing them the best possible solution. To ensure customer satisfaction, always follow up with the customer.
