How to deal with difficult customers

Akshaya SrikanthContent Writer

Oct 26, 202212 MINS READ

If you’re in a customer-facing role, you’re more likely to interact with difficult customers who may be angry, demanding, aggressive, and sometimes even abusive. Learning how to deal with difficult customers and win people over with quality customer support creates a positive brand perception while also contributing to your career growth.

Your customers could have had a bad day, and a small bug might be enough to throw them over the edge. While these difficult customers might not be easy to deal with, it’s your job to ensure that even your most problematic customers have a positive customer experience. One misstep along the way can cause churn or negative reviews on social media, which means lost business.

Before you figure out how to deal with a difficult customer, it helps to know the type of customer you’re dealing with. Contrary to popular belief, not all difficult customers are the same. Understanding what type of challenge you’re facing with a specific customer—based on their behavior— will help you find the right strategy to employ and thereby improve customer satisfaction.

4 types of difficult customers and examples of how to deal with them

1. The demanding customer

They send an email and expect a response within the next 2 minutes. They take to Twitter to vent over a 2-min ‘delay’ in your support mail and they’ve already overloaded your bot workflows with too many questions.

Enter the demanding or impatient customer—who feels entitled to have answers in seconds and demands your entire attention. The best way to tackle this type of customer is to firmly but politely set expectations on response times and updates.

Calmly explain the company’s support SLA policies and point them to relevant documentation if they’re unaware of your response SLAs or business hours. Even the most experienced support agent will experience demanding customers that tend to quickly escalate issues – in this case, a transparent communication history helps to convey that the fault is not at your end.

Example response:

Being assertive about your company policies and conveying the same to your customers will help handle demanding customers.

2. The complaining customer

Customer complaints are given at any help desk. But we’re talking about regular complainers who whine about the slightest change. They can get difficult to work with, especially because you see them far too often on your tickets, and you feel drained knowing nothing can satisfy them.

So how do you deal with these constant complainers? First, realize that nothing will keep them happy for a long time, and you’re not the reason for their dissatisfaction. Respond to their queries with the right information, and if it really starts to get to you, check if the request can be reassigned to a different agent who hasn’t worked with the customer before.

Related resource: How to handle complaining customers

3. The frustrated customer:

These customers might’ve faced long wait times for support or found an unexpected bug in their frequently-used product. Their frustration might stem from poor customer service or bad product quality.

Example scenario:

Alex, a customer, wants to contact your business to know the status of their order. They reach out to you via live chat and phone only to face a dead-end in getting the requested information. Alex is clearly frustrated and sends a rude email to your support team.

This is a clear miss on your part. To deal with the difficult situation here, you first need to own and apologize for the delay in communication. Here’s how you can respond.

Remember not to stop with a generic apology but to state the exact reason that caused the frustration in the first place. Finishing with a make-up offer will make your customer feel validated for their frustration.

4. The indecisive customer

You get a number of questions on the product quality, price, pros, cons, etc. Of course, you can answer each question, what’s difficult about that? However, if this keeps happening, you might find yourself depleted of time and energy after your back-and-forth conversations with an indecisive or confused customer.

Though dealing with these types of customers is easier than the rest, you may run the chance of losing such customers if you’re not able to convince them well enough. Get a clear picture of your customer’s needs and use close-ended questions—once for which only a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ can be an answer. This will help you steer conversations better when handling confused customers.

Now that you know the common types of difficult customers, here are nine tips that will make these challenging conversations a little easier and help you exhibit great customer service.

9 effective tips to deal with difficult customers

1. Face the situation head-on

Difficult and angry customers are not easy to face. You might be afraid, but facing that fear and facing these difficult situations is vital for your company and your own professional growth. Conflict resolution is an important customer service skill that every agent needs to have.

Customer relationships forged after a difficult conversation are stronger than the ones forged out of a nice one, reinforcing customer loyalty.

Take a deep breath, face difficult customers head-on, and do your best at service recovery. If it doesn’t work, that’s okay too. Because your most frustrated customers are also your best source of learning, so, don’t shy away from angry or unhappy customers unless absolutely necessary.

The first thing to do in a tense situation is to stay calm, patient, and focused. If you’re handling a challenging situation in person, maintain positive body language and eye contact with the customer to convey genuine empathy and good intent.

2. Show them you understand

Nothing can defuse a frustrating experience better than displaying empathy. Most customers want to be heard, and lending an ear along the way can help the customer calm down.

Put yourself in the customer’s shoes, and really listen to what they are saying. You can even request for a phone call, or a video call that will allow for screen sharing as well. While switching channels when interacting with customers is generally not advised, it might be worthwhile in the case of a difficult customer. Phone calls allow for active listening, that is, listening to understand the underlying emotions and what’s being communicated. This way, you get a holistic view of your customer’s problem that’s required to offer the right solution.

You make customers feel heard and more at ease by saying ‘yes’, ‘mmm hmm’, ‘I agree’, or ‘I understand’ while speaking to help the customer feel that their anger is warranted, and this validation can help them calm down.

Note that the most difficult of all conversations you could have, would be with customers who are right. When you know that the customer is justified in their anger, the best thing to do would be to agree with them and accept that the mistake was on your side. Win the trust that was lost by saying things like “You’re right” or “I am going to fix this for you”.

Show them that you are their advocate within the company.

Show customers that you are on their side and that you are their advocate within the company Click To Tweet

Related resource: A guide to empathy in customer service

3. Apologize—if needed

When a customer flies off the handle for a seemingly manageable problem, then their anger is probably not about the problem.

Maybe the customer has had a series of issues with your product or service. Maybe they recommended your product or service to their friends and colleagues and they feel let down. Maybe it is not related to you or your product. They might be having a personal problem that they are taking out on someone else.

But your job is to make sure you do everything you can to make them happy. So go ahead and apologize. Even when it is not your (or your company’s) fault, you could say something like “I am sorry you are facing a hard time”. As Lo Marino from Boomerang said, nearly every customer calms down when you shoulder some of the blame.

But make sure you do not apologize too much and sound insincere in the process.

Related resources: How to apologize to customers

4. Be solution-oriented

Even if the fault is on their side, the highest priority is to keep the customer happy. Bring your problem-solving skills to the forefront and tell the customer that resolving the problem at hand is way more important than assigning blame.

Ultimately, you need to ensure that an upset customer leaves with a happy experience. Ending on a bitter note could cost you a loyal customer**—or even potential customers—**when the negative experience is shared on social media.

Depending on the case, here are a few things you can do to make things right:

– Reach a middle ground: Try to offer a solution that aligns with customer expectations but doesn’t compromise company policies. For instance, if the customer wants a feature from a higher plan, you can offer to enable it for a month, post which the customer can upgrade if they want to. Another example would be bearing the shipping cost when a product has been unavailable for a long time and the customer has been pressing to buy it. Asking the right questions and getting the complete picture can help you suggest the best solution.

– Follow-up: Some issues that require you to collaborate with your team members or other teams can take more time to solve. Keep the customer updated and follow up once you’ve arrived at a solution. Even otherwise, following up and checking on a customer a week or two after a frustrating experience shows that you truly care about them.

– Offer a token of apology: As a last resort, share store credits, a coupon, or a discount to compensate for the inconvenience caused. In cases where the customers’ asks are unmeetable, this could be the only way to set things right.

5. Escalate whenever necessary

Escalation is usually seen as a negative thing. The phrase “I want to speak to your manager” universally means that the customer support agent is doomed. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

You can use escalation as a way to help the customer quickly. If the customer is not responding to your attempts to help them and is fixated on talking to your manager, just go ahead and escalate. It just helps because the customer will feel like they are being taken more seriously.

Contrary to what the customer might think, escalation is not always a failure on your part. It means you care enough to see that the problem is solved even when you are not the one solving it.

But if you are the best person available to help that customer quickly, immediately establish that you are qualified to solve the problem. Give them examples of how you helped others who were facing the same issues and gain their trust.

6. Set boundaries

Some customers tend to cross the line. They might be racist, sexist, or abusive for no reason. You should not take this lying down. Not only is it not right for you to be treated that way, but it will also encourage them as they will feel rewarded for their behavior.

Instead, simply let them know that you will not respond to any further inquiries until they change how they talk to you. This way, they have to become less abusive or threatening to get help.

You don't have to take everything lying down. Do not engage with abusive customers until they change their tone. Click To Tweet

However, if this is not a one-off incident**—**if the customer has tried to bully you or your colleagues before, it’s important that you escalate it to your management. They can make a decision to sever ties with the customer if they find out that one wrong customer is affecting many employees.

Related resource: How to respond to angry customers

7. Share your company policies

Having your terms of service or terms and conditions down in writing in simple terms that customers can understand could be a great way to deal with conflicts.

Pointing difficult customers to your company’s or customer service team’s policies helps prove that you’re being fair and just with your service and also is an effective way to curb conversations from developing further.

You can also rest easy since everything is written in print, and you’ve done your bit to help them. But you need to ensure that you don’t sound blunt while sharing this document with your customers. Be apologetic and say that you could have helped the customer if it were to you, but your company’s policies don’t allow for it.

8. Train yourself to stay calm and not take it personally

Be prepared to deal with demanding customers by training yourself in anger management, stress management, and negotiation skills.

If you are new to support or any customer-facing role, know that you will inevitably have to deal with difficult customers at some point. Learning to stay calm and professional while dealing with difficult customers is a skill you’ll learn eventually.

So, in addition to the generic skills mentioned, find the areas of improvement unique to you. Different people react differently to stressful situations. Some might get agitated, some might cry, some might close off and become completely unreactive. It helps to think about what your reaction would be so you don’t take yourself by surprise.

Last but not the least, customers are not the only ones allowed to be frustrated.

You could be going round and round on an issue with a customer without any sign of a solution. If you realize that the problem is getting on your nerves, excuse yourself from the case instead of faking niceness. Explain to your customer that you are giving this issue to your manager or someone else because you want what’s best for them.

9. Let context guide your customer interactions

Some customers might have a reputation for being demanding, with a record of asking for more or expressing unhappiness.

Take a quick glance at past customer interactions when a customer starts showing signs of being difficult. Your first clue is when the customer just does not budge and keeps pushing you on something.

A good customer service software will capture customer conversations in a single thread, enabling you to view the customer’s history in a single glance. Here’s an example of what this looks like in Freshdesk:

Or, you can also search for the customer’s name and find all the interactions they’ve had with your team in one go.

Doing this will help you know what you’re getting into, so you can be better prepared to tackle them. You can even keep the right resources handy or keep your manager informed of something that might come your way.

Analyzing customer personalities to understand their needs and traits is vital in handling different types of customers. When a customer does not seem like they will cease to be angry or impatient, then you need to realize that the conversation could get tricky.

Follow these tips to handle difficult customers every day and turn every hard conversation into a chance to learn.

What are the methods you use to deal with difficult customers? Let us know in the comments section.

Updated on 27th October, 2022

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