Call centre workers have to deal with angry people every day, with complaints about the company or a product. How do you keep calm and not let disparaging remarks affect you?
“Even though anger drains us, we have to keep in mind that the customer is not against us but against the situation or the company,” says Marielle, supervisor of a call centre in the cell phone sector. “You have to learn to detach yourself!”
Detaching oneself is probably easier said than done, when the customer is already furious before the call begins, whether he takes on an offensive tone or worse… insults you.
Are there tips or strategies to defuse a customer’s anger? “It’s rather the customer service agent’s personality that makes the difference,” Marielle believes. “Having an energetic and jovial voice, for example. The energy released during the call greatly affects the customer’s mood!”
Setting limits
Francis Prézeau, president of the Signature Canada training centre, identifies the ability to listen as an essential quality for a customer service representative. “You have to know how to read between the words and decode the customer’s tone,” he says. “Not all customers are calling to get compensation, some just want to have the sense of being heard and understood.”
When the tone rises, Francis Prézeau suggests letting the customer ventilate, while make your presence felt with the occasional “mm hmm” and “uh huh”.
In case of insults, however, it is sometimes necessary to set limits. The president suggests a simple sentence to bring the customer to order: “If you make such comments, I will not be able to help you settle your problem, sir…”
Putting yourself in the right mindset
To have a good day, despite the negative energy directed at us, the president of Signature Canada believes that the right attitude must be adopted from the beginning: “If you start the day in the right frame of mind, being motivated by the challenge of settling customers’ problems, they feel it and react positively.”
Marielle agrees, “As a supervisor, most of my calls begin very badly… but thanks to my energy, the customer almost always ends up being very satisfied!”