Posted by Luke in Once I was working with a secretary whose husband died suddenly. They were very much in love and it was heart breaking to see a person who was so happy fall apart in a great time of stress and difficulty. She would often come up to me and begin to talk about how she was feeling. In the beginning I thought I could console her and help her understand what she was going through… of course I couldn’t. So after a while I learned that I should just listen and not say anything. Words are your greatest enemy in situations like these.
Let’s bring it back home to business for a moment. Say you have just made a terrible mistake and a customer is upset. What can you say to make them feel better? If the person is gracious then they will hopefully take it in their stride. More often than not however, they will give you an almighty blast! So what do you say? Whatever comes to mind that won’t get you into more trouble? I prefer in times like that to get agitated people to repeat whatever it is they are mad about and make a list of solutions. Here it is in list form:
- Ask the customer to repeat everything so you can take it down
- Apologise in the first instance and at the end of the transaction
- Move towards a solution – don’t say a word… give them answers!
- In appropriate circumstances (like the opening paragraph) just listen.
As you do this you are taking the heat of the customer and making it look like you are creating a solution. Don’t argue! Just agree. So what do we say when there is nothing to say? We say nothing!
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