1/22/08 Staying calm while handling difficult customers
Please post techniques you utilize to calm yourself when facing a difficult situation. (If you work with customers consider how you effectively deal with difficult customer situations.) See Project 5-8, page 198.
try to stay calm. If I am dealing with a difficult customer I will try to help them as much as I while staying polite. I will save my negative comments until they are gone.
I find that a deep breath and sit back tends to calm me down. I really try to put myself in their shoes and put them at ease and let them know that I am here to help. If they can't be "talked down" a notch then I explain that if they are yelling at me the entire time I can not provide good customer service. Most times they are just frustrated and want the problem fixed, once they know you are on their side they usually calm down.
I generally have a calm nature but sometimes if i do face a difficult situation I will just breath easier or maybe scribble on a peice of paper or maybe even a stress ball. I dont let the customer know of my feelings though i act the same way with every employee and act very polite and helpful.
I have taken a breath, which has helped. I have also written down all the information, told them I would get back to them in 30 minutes, went for a smoke break, wrote everything down that I needed to say that would help the customer resolve the problem or concern and called them back within the time frame I gave them. Sometimes I will vent to someone when I took a smoke break and they would give me some feedback or confidence to handle the situation.
In difficult situations, I usually let my mind go "blank". (I'll still be listening, but fazing in and out somewhat.) After a brief period of "silence", I assess the situation and figure out the best way to further get rid of the stress, like "listening" to my favorite music with a built-in mp3 player in my mind.
I usually take a deep breath and let them express their frustration. While they are venting, I'm usually saying some unpleasant things about them in my head.
My number one way to stay calm is to avoid situations that I know will stress me out. In the Navy I believed, as I still do now, that some people feed off of negative energy and try to bring others down. They generally wear khakis or wish they did.
But it is sometimes unavoidable, and I will just have to deal with an obtuse person. In one particular situation I had a first class that just didn't see logic or was unable to accept a better solution to an easy problem. He wanted three of us to take sandbags that were staged for inclement weather, but weren't used, to the storage bays in the garage. “That’s fine,” I said “security will turn in the fork lift in 10 min and we’ll get it done.”
Unfortunately, he assured some higher-ups that he would take care of it immediately, meaning my guys and I are going to take care of it immediately. This geniuses plan was for us to check-out a pick-up truck, unload the sandbags from the palette they were already on and put them in the truck. Then, take the sandbags to the storage bay and unload them from the truck, put them on another palette and move into the storage area. It would have taken the three of us close to an hour for use to finish.
I explained this to the first class and suggested we wait 10mins for the forklift to return and the sandbags would be out of sight in 15mins. He either didn’t understand or was completely against someone having a better idea, either way I attempted to explain it two more times. I was being a respectful and professional as I could but he wouldn’t change his mind. This took a great deal of patience on my part because I hate stupid people or people that are just trying to ruin my day, which I believed he was both. Eventually, I just said “aye” and ignored his idea and went with mine.
The moral is, I avoided getting outwardly angry and just ended the possible conflict that I could have easily turned it into.
If i was dealing with a diffuclt customer, I would tell the customer that I'm here to help not argue,(In a calm and collective voice)and continue with trying to help the person.
I found that when dealing with difficult customers it was always necessary for me to take the information out that was important and "throw away the rest." Using this approach I would keep the customer's needs the priority and take the stress out of the situation: for me anyway.
When confronted with a difficult internal customer, I usually like to calmly antagonize them even further until they become abusive. If done correctly, you can turn the entire incident around on them and play the victim.
If communicating with a difficult customer through email, I find it interesting to quote their own words from prior emails and use it on them. Pointing out spelling errors to condescending individuals is also entertaining.
Both these activities keep me calm when handling difficult customers.
Deep breaths usually work for me when trying to calm myself down. Just try to stay professional about the situation and try to resolve it as quick as possible.
When I am faced with a difficult situation, I fail to remain calm a small percentage of the time. Usually I am able to stay calm in most situations, and I achieve that by taking deep breaths and stepping outside the situation so I can see the big picture and put everything into perspective. When encountering a difficult person, I stay calm by not allowing him/her to provoke me, and I think before I speak, trying to determine the least confrontational way to say something to this person.
You'd think that working with video games, difficult customers are scarce. Most of our difficult customers are people who have no idea what they're buying but only because their kids sent them on a journey. But when I deal with a difficult situation, I just take a quick breather, reassess the situation, and help the customer step by step. Eventually they stay cool and my job is done. Always stay calm and cool.
If someone is angry, and because of that, is acting irrational, I try to realize that by becoming angry myself, I am just giving them what they want. Instead, I give them room to be angry and after listening to their complaints, I try to offer solutions that will help them without compromising myself and my feelings. This, of course, is only referring to strangers and is in no way applicable to my home life wherein I take no prisoners!!
When dealing with difficult customer, in person I allow them to vent rather it's blatant or quiet I maintain my professionalism and try to help the customer resolve there problem. Usually with a relaxed customer the dilemma can be resolved in a matter of minutes But If the situation get out of control, wipe the sweat off your fore head because that's when $h!t is heated" look them deep the eye's with a blank stare in a calm, firm and impartial manner. Let them understand How important the problem they have and advise them to please calm down in a nice tone, tell the customer we value there service and we will resolve the issue. If you have to use the the supervisor or manager has been notified, then say it! Most of the time this works.
To stay calm I usually try to see it from their point of view and see how I can assist them. If they are not making sense I will just dodge them and go on with the day.
Staying calm I believe is an art, that is deffinately learned. Usually, I try and just breath deeply before I answer, and usually do the check list in my head of optional things... Which the 1st couple are always thrown out... (They normally are things like choak the person, call 'em a dumb *ss) What I also try and do is break stuff down into "Crayola terms"... problem is you have to figure out if they are the normal crayon, or if they have to have the FAT CRAYON!!!
21 comments:
try to stay calm. If I am dealing with a difficult customer I will try to help them as much as I while staying polite. I will save my negative comments until they are gone.
I find that a deep breath and sit back tends to calm me down. I really try to put myself in their shoes and put them at ease and let them know that I am here to help. If they can't be "talked down" a notch then I explain that if they are yelling at me the entire time I can not provide good customer service. Most times they are just frustrated and want the problem fixed, once they know you are on their side they usually calm down.
I generally have a calm nature but sometimes if i do face a difficult situation I will just breath easier or maybe scribble on a peice of paper or maybe even a stress ball. I dont let the customer know of my feelings though i act the same way with every employee and act very polite and helpful.
I have taken a breath, which has helped. I have also written down all the information, told them I would get back to them in 30 minutes, went for a smoke break, wrote everything down that I needed to say that would help the customer resolve the problem or concern and called them back within the time frame I gave them. Sometimes I will vent to someone when I took a smoke break and they would give me some feedback or confidence to handle the situation.
In difficult situations, I usually let my mind go "blank". (I'll still be listening, but fazing in and out somewhat.) After a brief period of "silence", I assess the situation and figure out the best way to further get rid of the stress, like "listening" to my favorite music with a built-in mp3 player in my mind.
I like to pause for about 10 seconds and clear my mind. I try to imagine that if I take my time and carefully choose my words I cant fail.
I usually take a deep breath and let them express their frustration. While they are venting, I'm usually saying some unpleasant things about them in my head.
My number one way to stay calm is to avoid situations that I know will stress me out. In the Navy I believed, as I still do now, that some people feed off of negative energy and try to bring others down. They generally wear khakis or wish they did.
But it is sometimes unavoidable, and I will just have to deal with an obtuse person. In one particular situation I had a first class that just didn't see logic or was unable to accept a better solution to an easy problem. He wanted three of us to take sandbags that were staged for inclement weather, but weren't used, to the storage bays in the garage. “That’s fine,” I said “security will turn in the fork lift in 10 min and we’ll get it done.”
Unfortunately, he assured some higher-ups that he would take care of it immediately, meaning my guys and I are going to take care of it immediately. This geniuses plan was for us to check-out a pick-up truck, unload the sandbags from the palette they were already on and put them in the truck. Then, take the sandbags to the storage bay and unload them from the truck, put them on another palette and move into the storage area. It would have taken the three of us close to an hour for use to finish.
I explained this to the first class and suggested we wait 10mins for the forklift to return and the sandbags would be out of sight in 15mins. He either didn’t understand or was completely against someone having a better idea, either way I attempted to explain it two more times. I was being a respectful and professional as I could but he wouldn’t change his mind. This took a great deal of patience on my part because I hate stupid people or people that are just trying to ruin my day, which I believed he was both. Eventually, I just said “aye” and ignored his idea and went with mine.
The moral is, I avoided getting outwardly angry and just ended the possible conflict that I could have easily turned it into.
If i was dealing with a diffuclt customer, I would tell the customer that I'm here to help not argue,(In a calm and collective voice)and continue with trying to help the person.
I found that when dealing with difficult customers it was always necessary for me to take the information out that was important and "throw away the rest." Using this approach I would keep the customer's needs the priority and take the stress out of the situation: for me anyway.
When confronted with a difficult internal customer, I usually like to calmly antagonize them even further until they become abusive. If done correctly, you can turn the entire incident around on them and play the victim.
If communicating with a difficult customer through email, I find it interesting to quote their own words from prior emails and use it on them. Pointing out spelling errors to condescending individuals is also entertaining.
Both these activities keep me calm when handling difficult customers.
=)
Deep breaths usually work for me when trying to calm myself down. Just try to stay professional about the situation and try to resolve it as quick as possible.
When I am faced with a difficult situation, I fail to remain calm a small percentage of the time. Usually I am able to stay calm in most situations, and I achieve that by taking deep breaths and stepping outside the situation so I can see the big picture and put everything into perspective. When encountering a difficult person, I stay calm by not allowing him/her to provoke me, and I think before I speak, trying to determine the least confrontational way to say something to this person.
Basically, stay calm and let the customer show the customer that you know what you're doing. Treat the customer how you want to be treated.
You'd think that working with video games, difficult customers are scarce. Most of our difficult customers are people who have no idea what they're buying but only because their kids sent them on a journey. But when I deal with a difficult situation, I just take a quick breather, reassess the situation, and help the customer step by step. Eventually they stay cool and my job is done. Always stay calm and cool.
If someone is angry, and because of that, is acting irrational, I try to realize that by becoming angry myself, I am just giving them what they want. Instead, I give them room to be angry and after listening to their complaints, I try to offer solutions that will help them without compromising myself and my feelings. This, of course, is only referring to strangers and is in no way applicable to my home life wherein I take no prisoners!!
I’m a type of person that pressure from other people doesn't affect me. I would think about how it would affect me, if I was in the same situation.
When dealing with difficult customer, in person I allow them to vent rather it's blatant or quiet I maintain my professionalism and try to help the customer resolve there problem. Usually with a relaxed customer the dilemma can be resolved in a matter of minutes But If the situation get out of control, wipe the sweat off your fore head because that's when $h!t is heated" look them deep the eye's with a blank stare in a calm, firm and impartial manner. Let them understand How important the problem they have and advise them to please calm down in a nice tone, tell the customer we value there service and we will resolve the issue. If you have to use the the supervisor or manager has been notified, then say it! Most of the time this works.
To stay calm I usually try to see it from their point of view and see how I can assist them. If they are not making sense I will just dodge them and go on with the day.
I ignore them and pretend to still care
Staying calm I believe is an art, that is deffinately learned. Usually, I try and just breath deeply before I answer, and usually do the check list in my head of optional things... Which the 1st couple are always thrown out... (They normally are things like choak the person, call 'em a dumb *ss) What I also try and do is break stuff down into "Crayola terms"... problem is you have to figure out if they are the normal crayon, or if they have to have the FAT CRAYON!!!
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