Irate customers are the last thing any customer service representative wants. Indeed, handling such issues is never an easy thing. Only a handful of companies have perfected their processes.

But the secret sauce to effective customer service lies in how you keep a situation from getting any worse. 

De-escalating an interaction with an angry client is almost like an art form in itself. All you have to do is to develop and apply the right techniques that address the most important part of generating loyal customers: rapport-building. 

Here are five of them:

Never answer an irate customer with an equally negative attitude. Agitated customers can raise a lot of negative emotions which may tempt you to put the call on hold or even return the favor by yelling back which, as we all know, doesn’t actually do much.

In order to have the best kind of customer service, your reps need to be trained to handle any situation with a calm and neutral tone. This helps keep emotions from running high so your agents can focus more on resolving a problem.

Listening to and understanding what an irate customer has to say is an important factor in de-escalating a bad interaction over the phone. 

Let the customer talk their heart out before offering up a solution. They may even give you insight and new information about the problem you might not have known until now. Also, use this opportunity to file away this information for similar incidents in the future.

Sometimes, an apology is all a customer could be looking for. Then again, saying “sorry, we’ll do better” doesn’t make the problem go away. 

In fact, apologizing profusely can only calm down an angry customer for so long before they realize how little it does to actually solve the problem at hand. 

On that note, it’s often best to offer apologies when the fault needs to be acknowledged and then proceed to resolve the issue at hand. 

Generate more loyal customers for your Business by hiring a customer service virtual assistant today. Click here to get started.

Don’t make the problem any less than it may seem.

Minimizing the problem only serves to make an already irate customer even more furious and gives them the impression that your company does not care about the situation at all. Worse, the customer might feel duped knowing for a fact that you promised to keep their best interests in mind. 

Be empathetic and assure the customer that your business is here to help them. Treat every problem with the same amount of vigor and concern. After all, it’s your brand that’s on the line if you choose to ignore minor issues.

Your customer will want two things at the end of the call: answers and resolutions.

That being said, it is important to fulfill those needs as soon as the call ends. Provide the customer with answers to their problem and guide them with what to do from that point on. One trick here is to anticipate the common issues customers will raise about your service or product. With such foresight, you can draft out call scripts that can effectively address each situation and provide customers with a range of options.

Customer service is a tricky operation for your business to handle alone. You might as well lessen the workload by hiring customer service virtual assistants for your business.

Outsourcing your customer service gives you the advantage of getting experienced CSRs without having to spend time and money on additional training. In other words, you can expect the right customer service virtual assistant service to do a good job of building valuable relationships with your customers.

Hire a team of Experienced Csrs today through OneVirtual Global Business Solutions. Learn more by scheduling a call today!