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So you are running a small business, a retail store and you find yourself in a situation, where your customer is really mad at you because he claims your product/service ruined his day. And you realize that this is your day in hot waters. 

In such situation achieving Customer satisfaction is tough , sometimes things get a lot more tense and you don’t know how to deal with all that happening at that moment. Don't worry I am going to share some insights on how to deal with “Angry Customers” effectively, so let’s get to it. 

Step One: Begin with emotional alignment

If you can’t connect with your “angry customer” on emotional level, things will never work out for you. You have to get into his shoes, understand his emotional position in that situation, once you get that right.

Congratulations you have done the half job, emotional bonding, showing empathy to your customer is vital because that’s where you start convincing them, that’s what makes them take decision regarding your product/service.

Read "A Strategy To Create/Develop Emotional Aspect Of Your Product " for more.

Step Two: Take it to situational satisfaction (cause of anger)

Once you connect with him, by being empathetic,  listening to him, then try to understand what it was that has hurt him emotionally regarding your product/service.  It’s time to solve the situation on the basis of that understanding and this is the best way rather the only way. 

Signs of Satisfaction or Things Getting Normal

Okay now since you are doing that, you may be thinking what are the signs that would suggest you are going in the right direction (customer satisfaction). Well there are few signs to look for and these signs or clues are by no means the total clues but rather major clues.

• Inquires More

In this whole process if he/she inquires more regarding the situation (product/service you offer) in relatively pleasant way, that means you are going in the right direction as he/she wants to listen to you, to hear from you because you resonate with him/her at the same level regarding the situation.

• Act Apologetic

After explaining the situation or during at certain instant he/she starts acting apologetic towards you. That means you have made him/her realize the whole misunderstanding that caused this whole situation.

• Shows Agreement

When he/she agrees with your reasoning, points or position regarding the situation.

• More Value

When he/she leaves more value compared to previous interaction. The “value” here means the non monetary value in terms of contact information, likes & dislikes with regard to a specific product, brand etc, personal experience which he/she believe was great or worse regarding a brand/product/service so on and so forth.

This is the value that you should be looking for besides proceeds. Rather it’s the vital value in building relationships with your customers and expanding your business.

• Stay Around for Long

When the “angry customer” stays around with you for long then was expected in the beginning of the engagement. That means things got cool, situation steadily moving to normal, well be sure you are on the right track. And if he/she stay there with you and things are getting hotter then you are in for a lot more trouble ;p.

That’s it, after all that drama you must be pretty stressed out and  so you need to give yourself some good time to get yourself back to normal and the best way is to talk with someone who you find really pleasant or admire the most or just get a cup of coffee, a small snack, something you like.

Your turn now, share what you do and how you do when you find yourself in similar situation, be my guest in comments :).

You may also like to read Customer Acquisition & Retention: Using Pride/Self Esteem

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