Angry People

Seth Godin has written an interesting post about how angry people are different. In it he reminds us that dealing with an angry person is not the same as someone who is not angry. While this may seem fairly obvious I’m sure we can all think back to times when we are speaking with someone at a call centre who, through no fault of their own, can provide you with only a scripted response to your complaint about their shitty product or service.

While strategies for dealing with angry people are useful for everyone to know, if you want to provide the best customer service and see these people as opportunities, you have best make sure your staff are trained. This ignores the fact that they might have a genuine grievance or be particularly attached to their anger. Some people just want to be angry, and these are the ones that should be ignored.

As for the rest, think leading and pacing. The examples Seth quotes, such as:

“You cancelled my flight!” is angry, thus…
“That’s our policy sir, read the ticket,” is obviously a lousy marketing ploy.

Delivered in a calm and controlled voice only exacerbate the situation to for most people. What would be better is a reply matched in volume and tone:

“We cancelled your flight! That’s terrible, goddammit!” followed by slightly slower and quieter “I bet you really want to get treated like a valued customer?”

“Damn right I do” says customer, a little taken back by shouting employee who seems angry but just agreed with him.

“Well just take a seat here and give us a chance to make it up to you.” Hints at a freebie. Now customer is getting attention and maybe what they want.

If you can lead them to a point where they are calm enough to tell you what the real problem is, and offer them something for their trouble, you may be able to turn them from someone who was going to badmouth your business to all their mates (maybe the whole internet) to someone who becomes an advocate of the great service they got.

The opportunity here is not just to create an advocate but to find out what caused them to become angry in the first place - is it something you can do something about, even if it’s not your fault. If people come to you angry and go away feeling good you’re going to get a lot of attention!

The essence of the original post really comes down to this - know how to recognise angry people and have strategies ready to deal with them.