Today we welcome back Sublime with Rome to the Steel Raccoon Spotify Playlist. “Black Out” touches on the challenges of mental health and a fitting addition during National Suicide Prevention Week. The chorus speaks to running from your problems only leads you to greater despair. The Ups and Downs of Life can feel unbearable to some. It’s a nice remainder that you never know what someone is going through in life.

When I watch videos of Customers acting fools in public and being abusive I feel extreme empathy. Imagine being that upset in life that minor inconvenience can trigger such rage and hate. This happens on the telephone too. In my own personal experience I have had a customer yell at me nonstop for nearly 90 minutes. I have heard pure anger on the phone more times than I can count. I’ve even swore I have spoken to ancient demons from a land afar.

How do you handle a customer like this? It’s very difficult to be honest. You just cannot engage with this level of rage because the customer will see it as an attack, even if it’s a request to help. Asking them to calm down is never going to be successful either. Think of a boxing match when the opponent just dodges all attacks and the aggressive fighter tires out. Thats your first goal for them to realize for themselves that they are being over the top.

You must remain calm but not in a sarcastic way. You are setting the tone on how you are going to combat the situation, with grace and patience.

Once you regain control of the conversation you can make a blanket statement that you know that the caller is expecting results today and you will work to understand their position by helping wherever possible. This is going to make the customer feel bad about how they treated you and the aggressive tone will decrease to a customer that just wants the situation fixed.

Being able to resolve and navigate these incidents is a talent, I will tell you that much. How do you think your current solution would handle such an aggravated customer?