

Try to take a walk in their shoes and prepare yourself to listen to their side of the story. ” – explains Frank Green, an HR manager at Aussie Writings. When you try to be more careful with your words, the other person will notice and automatically try to do the same. “ If your client keeps complaining and cringing when you speak or is constantly confronting you in writing, try to mirror their terms or discreetly adjust yours to get somewhere in the middle. So even though you might feel belittled or misunderstood, know that 9 times out of 10 wasn’t the customer’s intention. As they say, impact doesn’t always mean intent. Instead of acting on instinct, take a moment to acknowledge the assumptions of the other person. Responding with our initial gut reaction without thinking or listening, usually isn’t the best route to take. But this is the workplace we’re talking about. I don’t know about you, but if someone is yelling, impatient, condescending, or even unintentionally short with their words, my first instinct is to interject with a piece of my mind.

Or at least avoiding angry tweets and reviews. With a little help from these tried and true conflict resolution techniques, you’ll be on your way to creating a win-win for both parties. The way you and your customer support team handle a situation can mean the difference between whether that customer remains a customer. The point is, whether a customer is coming upset because you’re out of stock of the item they want, they want to request a feature that’s not available, they’re just generally unhappy with your product or service.

This number isn’t drastically high, but no one wants to lose clients. But, statistics show that, even though only 4% of clients complain to you, up to 80% of those dissatisfied clients will tell approximately 10 people about it. Especially nowadays when it only takes a few clicks of a mouse to publicly shame a business.
#HAVING CRUCIAL CONVERSATIONS TRAINING HOW TO#
Regardless, knowing how to respond and passing that knowledge down to your team so that they can navigate the choppy waters is necessary if you want to keep your business afloat. Often these scenarios are the result of miscommunication and misaligned expectations. Angry, difficult, and dissatisfied customers aren’t necessarily a reflection of how well your business is run (because people are, well, people). People have bad days, get confused, and things go wrong. In customer service, you’re bound to come across a difficult situation or two. But tough customer conversations can be just that – tough. Tough conversations are a part of life and in business, it’s no different.
