As a call center agent, you need to develop your muscle of diplomacy strong because you don’t know what sort of customer, you are going to encounter in the next call, email, etc. if your customer is angry for some reason, it’s not a quite simple situation to deal with. According to research published on Vonage, 51% of customers avoid buying products or services from a company after having a bad experience. So you need crucial skills to handle this inevitable scenario of receiving angry customer call where you make things manageable for yourself and for the customer too.
Let’s explore the winning strategies to deal with angry customers at a call center that will prepare you to be strong in the face of frustration during customer service.
1. Listen Carefully
Even in the presence of Omni channel customer services, customers like to talk to a real person at the time of payment disputes or complaints. When you receive such a call, listen carefully to what your customers are saying without any interruption. It will provide them an opportunity to explain the issue and provide you a chance to take some notes on the important points to address, if necessary.
2. Remain Calm
When angry customers lose control over their behavior, as a call center agent you need to stick to your professional standards because you’re the representative of a company. In order to keep your calm, remind yourself the actual reason for the stress is the reaction to the situation, not the situation itself. Use your skills, knowledge, and professionalism to diffuse the situation carefully.
3. Empathize with the Customer
Respond to your customers and reassure them, you comprehend the situation and their perspective about the issue. You can use sentences like Yes, I understand why it’s distressing and Let’s solve this together. It will give the impression that you and the customers are both on the same side.
4. Avoid Putting Them on Hold
Don’t put the angry customers’ calls on hold because it will act as fuel on the fire. Keep them engaged by telling a brief overview of the way you try to solve their problem as it may be like adding some information about the issue. When you paint such a verbal image, it helps the customers to understand, you are working on resolving the problem.
5. Focus on Conflict Resolution
Call centers have their policies for dealing with tricky matters and customers. However, the main objective of the situation is to restore customer satisfaction and loyalty to the brand again. It could be in the form of offering some discount or replacing the product altogether with a better one. The compensation for the time and money will help the customers to keep on using your product and services.
Conclusion
Angry customer is a challenge for the call center agent which becomes easy to deal with if you know the right strategies. As an agent, you are a representative of the company so it’s important to keep your calm and stick with the policies of the company for conflict resolution. It could be in the form of offering some discount to the customer or replacing the product altogether. It will help to restore customer satisfaction and loyalty toward your brand that was once lost.
