The Angry Customer Strategist

Turn Angry Customers into Loyal Ones!

Your business has customers who are angry because of some real or perceived slight. The product or service that they purchased from you did not meet their expectations, or it was not delivered on time or in perfect condition, or maybe the rep that they dealt with was rude and/or incompetent. As a businessperson, you know it is imperative to minimize the number of unhappy customers. Your goal is to provide an enjoyable, quality customer experience to each person or organization that does business with you, because you know that happy customers spend more money, and they also refer business.

This lens will introduce you to someone who can positively impact your bottom line by helping you identify the circumstances that caused your customers to be angry, advising you on how to remedy these circumstances, as well as enhance your service delivery so that these circumstances are not repeated in the future.

Your Friend, the Angry Customer

Fear not your angry customers. They are not the enemy. Quite to the contrary, angry customers are possibly some of the best friends your business has.

Every business has had to deal with angry customers. Even the best-trained, most conscientious customer-centric businesses have occasional lapses where they do not measure up to their customers' expectations.

When that happens, if you get past the anger, the tone of voice, the occasional insult or invective, you'll realize that angry customers are speaking to you because, although they feel wronged, they also feel that you can help remedy the situation. This is a golden opportunity to win and solidify your customer's loyalty.

A study by Technical Assistance Research Programs shows that customers who have had a problem resolved successfully and amicably tend to be more loyal than customers who have never experienced a problem with a particular business.

When a problem arises - where things do not go the way the customer had hoped - smart businesses use this opportunity to fix the error quickly and happily. They learn from the error to ensure that it does not occur again. And this is where the angry customer helps you.

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5 Tips for Handling Angry Customers

Always listen to everything the customer has to say before providing any kind of answer. Ask questions to gain greater clarification of problem. Then assure them that you understand the problem by sincerely restating their problem to them.
Assure customer that you empathize with him. You know this problem is a bad thing, and you, also, hate being inconvenienced by these types of things. However, don't go too far with the empathy, to where you bad-mouth other people, departments, vendors, etc. You don't want to seem like you are passing the buck or looking for someone else to blame. That is of no help to the customer.
Don't be negative; frame information in the positive. Get the customer to articulate what problem resolution would look like to him in this specific case. Find out as soon as possible what it will take to resolve this customer's problem to his satisfaction. If customer makes an impossible request, avoid saying "no," but rather, say what it is you can do to address the customer's needs.
So don't take anything an angry customer says personally. Take it seriously, but not personally. The customer is angry, but not necessarily angry at you. In fact, the customer's anger may not have anything to with you or your organization. They could be having a bad day, or be in pain, or just cranky. Keep this in mind, and try to let the customer that you are in fact an ally who can assist him in his problem resolution. The problem is the enemy, not you!
Defuse an angry customer quickly with the assurance that the problem will be addressed. They need to know right away that they are speaking to the person responsible for that resolution. As soon as you figure out how to resolve the customer's problem, tell him what you're going to do, get his approval, then do what needs to be done. Once everything is complete, re-contact the customer to confirm that the issue has been satisfactorily resolved. Use that opportunity to apologize again. Do this immediately; do not let angry customers stew for long.

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Anatomy of an Angry Customer

You should not consider angry customers to be the bane of your company's business. You should embrace them. They are oftentimes the catalyst or stepping stone to helping you improve your business to the next level of quality.

Therefore, it behooves you as a businessperson or a service agent, to brace yourself, suck it up, and listen to (and actually hear) what your angry customer has to say.

When an angry customer contacts you or your business, there are four elements that absolutely need to be addressed, with care and urgency.

1. The Issue at hand - what brought on this anger in the first place?

2. The Anger itself - how to handle the interpersonal aspect of dealing with an angry person?

3. The Resolution - how will you rectify this situation to the customer's satisfaction?

4. Going Forward - what changes/safeguards will you put in place to ensure this problem does not again anger this, or another, customer?

We will look at these issues one at a time, but please realize that in the heat of the moment, you may very well have to juggle more than one of them at once.

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The Angry Customer: What Happens Next?

Okay, so you've messed up an interaction with a customer. Your work came in late. Your product was damaged. Your service didn't fix the problem. Your rep was pretty rude. Nowadays, with all the options available to customers for any product or service imaginable, any one of these faux pas is enough to send a customer heading for the door. If you've combined two or more of these bad moves, you can definitely kiss that customer good-bye.

Do you ever wonder what happens when the angry customer storms out that door, or slams down that phone? Or are you simply relieved that this growling windbag is no longer raising a ruckus? Well, depending on your stake in the business, or your aspirations for a career in the service industry, it would behoove you to consider the angry customer's next moves...

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Standards of Customer Service

Standards of Customer Service: the sum of all the little details and interactions between a business and its customers.

Every business has them. They all sound great, too. In fact, if you listened to all of the mission statements pertaining to serving the customer that echo throughout the halls of commerce, you'd think you were on some strange utopian planet, where the customer is king.

The problem lies in the difference between the talk and the walk. There is no doubt that the executives at McDonald's know how to serve customers. They know how to dress neatly, and smile courteously, and listen carefully to their customers. Unfortunately, it's not the executives who are flipping burgers and serving the sodas; it's the local 16-year-old high school kid, earning minimum wage in his first part time job. And quite honestly, he is much more interested in a) his car; b) his girlfriend; c) his buddies; and d) everything else in the world than ensuring that your dining experience at McDonald's is a pleasant one.

So the executives can honk and flap through employee manuals that describe in detail just how each customer is to be treated, but unless they find a way to connect with the kid working the counter, McDonald's standards of service remain theoretical. And friends, theoretical service ain't no service at all.

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The Hardest Word to Say is No

There are a lot of over-the-top maxims in the lore of Customer Service. Many of them sound good, and look good on the printed page, but frankly, they do not properly serve the customer or the vendor.

For instance, "The Customer is Always Right." Please! The customer is not always right; sometimes the customer is dead wrong AND being foolish about it. Quite honestly, sometimes the customer is way off base, and needs to be educated. Now, this is not a license to treat this customer like an idiot. To the contrary, this is an opportunity to acknowledge your customer's presence, thank them for coming to you, and to help them understand exactly what it is that you can do for them.

If the product or service they desire is so different than anything that your company offers, you do them, as well as yourself, a disservice by trying to force-fit your product/service into their needs. Even if the customer insists that the product/service he needs can be purchased through you. This is often a supreme test of your patience, diplomacy, and maturity as a service provider.

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Customer Service, but at what Cost?

We talk a lot in this space about doing whatever is necessary to serve the customer, as we consider the customer to be the lifeblood of every business. But oftentimes, skeptics counter with talk of fiscal responsibility. Their fear is that the floodgates will open, customers will take advantage of the company's desire to please them, and make unreasonable demands, ultimately leading to the company's financial demise.

This is certainly a point worth considering. However, if you were involved in some sort of accident which caused you to start bleeding, chances are, you would not form a task force to mull over the most efficient and cost-effective way to stop the bleeding. You would not refuse medical attention because it is too costly. You would most likely do whatever it takes to stop that bleeding, and then, once the bleeding is under control, you would review the cause of the accident, and make appropriate adjustments to ensure that the accident does not get repeated...

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Links to Other Customer-Focused Sites

Knowledgence Associates - See the World Through Your Customer's Eyes: Knowledgence Associates is a marketing, sales, and customer service consultancy dedicated to a customer-centric philosophy.
The Customer View: a blog of customer experience: This is a blog by Knowledgence Associates, on the good, the bad, and the ugly customer experiences that we face every day.
Church of the Customer: This is a blog by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba, the "Creating Customer Evangelists" folks. Great insights, interesting finds, and good humor.
Customer Service Reader: This is an excellent resource for articles and ideas about customer service.
Customer Experience Management: This is Kim Proctor's blog expressing her thoughts on the Customer Experience.
Customer Service Manager (CSM): CSM is the leading resource for Customer Service Managers and professionals. With over 30,000 readers each month, their mission is to help improve customer service worldwide.
Confessions Of A Marketing Addict: The marketing blog of Sunny Cervantes - perceptive and funny!
CustomerBliss: Jeanne Bliss' information-packed customer care web site - a companion site to her book, "Chief Customer Officer."
Service Untitled: Insightful and well-written blog by Service Untitled, a customer service consulting and training firm.