Dealing with Abusive Customers

Article by Donna Earl

Today’s customers are angrier than ever. Some customers go beyond angry and become abusive. They might start the call in abusive mode, or might escalate to abusive from mere anger. Sometimes if you don’t tell them what they want to hear, they become abusive. Abusive is defined as verbally threatening, using foul language, and emotionally out of control. When you’ve used your best skills to defuse the angry customer and the customer is still out of control, or if the customer begins the conversation in an abusive manner, its time to utilize some advanced strategies for addressing customer behavior. It’s also time to protect yourself from absorbing customer emotions.

Here are specific steps to manage out of control customers.

1. Personalize the conversation. The less personal the interaction, the more likely it can escalate. As soon as you perceive the customer’s anger might escalate, and you’ve tried your well practiced defusing skills and nothing works, its time to personalize the conversation. Call the customer by name, and refer to their company by name. Restate your name, and remind them that (your company name) wants them to be satisfied.
2. Declare your intent and boundaries. Remind the customer you want to problem solve. Tell customer you can address the problem only when the language is appropriate, and demands are reasonable. Never allow the customer to dominate the conversation using inappropriate language or if out of control. Nothing can be accomplished. They lose respect for you and your company. If they cannot maintain self control to conduct a reasonable conversation, its time to switch strategies.
3. Transfer the call. Whether you transfer the call to a supervisor or to a colleague, the customer has the opportunity to regroup. When you transfer the call, tell the customer you’ve done all you can, and its time for them to speak with “fill in the name” who will handle their issue. This serves notice to the customer that they cannot continue to abuse you. When the second person handles the call, typically the customer will try to be reasonable.
4. Discontinue the call. If there’s nobody to transfer the call to, or you’ve been the recipient of the transferred call and the customer is still out of control, it’s time to end the cycle. Remind the customer you’re there to help, and discuss a solution in a reasonable manner. Let them know your company wants them to be a satisfied customer, but also doesn’t allow customer service professionals to continue abusive conversations. Ask them to please contact the customer service department at another time.

Remember, if you’ve tried the above strategies, the customer behavior has nothing to do with you, so don’t take it personally!

Take our workshop on Dealing with Difficult Customers for advanced strategies and techniques for dealing with difficult customers and while managing your stress.

See our article on Stress Management for Customer Service Reps

Copyright © 2024 Donna Earl. All rights reserved.

Donna Earl teaches the above techniques for dealing with difficult and abusive customers, in addition to many other techniques, in her customized on-site seminars on Customer Service. For more information on her courses or for permission to reprint this article phone 415.929.8110 or email at email@DonnaEarlTraining.com.