The customer is always right… sometimes.

It is no secret that worst part of a customer service job is all too often the customers. Don’t be fooled by charming usernames, such as puppies123, or kittens4eva; matter how infuriating their caps-locked insults may be, as the customer service representative it is our job to maintain a polite disposition, and rise above caps-locked obscenities. As perfect as the product or you may be, there will always be the few who find something to complain about, and unfortunately this is a way of life. The customer may not always necessarily be right, when they expect you to perform magic tricks, but at the end of the day, your business simply would not survive without customers, of all kinds. It will be in your and your business’s favour to work things out with your customer as pleasantly as possible.

As many times as we may want to defend ourselves in caps-lock back to the customer, we realise that we are slaves to their feedback, and that the petty he-said-she-said’s will not help us when trying to get a negative feedback removed. So how can we remain poised and calm in the clear injustice of a customer’s accusations? Here are a few pointers for how to deal with, and hopefully even change a customer’s angry mind:

1)      Even though a customer may not always be necessarily ‘right’ in a situation, try see the situation from their point of view.

2)      Talk the situation out with a co-worker to see if they may have insights, instead of keeping the anger bottled inside.

3)      If the customer is being particularly abusive or offensive remember that you do not have to deal with it, and that blocking a customer can sometimes be the best option. If the customer shows warning signs of hot-headedness, blocking them may be the best option as it will be better to block the customer than the customer leaving negative feedback after.

4)      Always remain polite and sensitive in your messages- you don’t want anything to be held against you.

5)      Always listen to both the positive and the negative feedbacks. If there is a pattern of complaints that customers are leaving, this may point towards something that you may want to look into and improve so that future customers don’t have the same experience.