The Complete Guide to Handling Challenging Customers

If you work at a contact center, you’ve probably encountered angry and frustrated customers from time to time.

These customers are even more challenging when they start taking their frustrations out on you. But don’t worry – take this opportunity to transform their negative experience into a positive one! 

Continue reading to learn what a challenging customer is, why they might be challenging, and some effective strategies for handling them.

What is a challenging customer?

A challenging customer is someone who poses some difficulty or problem for you or your organization. They may have different needs, expectations, preferences, or behaviors than your typical or ideal customer. They may also be unhappy or dissatisfied with your product or service and may express their feelings in negative or unconstructive ways. 

A challenging customer can be a source of stress, frustration, or conflict for you or your colleagues, but they can also be an opportunity to improve your customer service skills, enhance your reputation, and increase customer loyalty.

Understanding challenging customers

Before you can deal with challenging customers, you need to identify what kind of challenge they pose. Different types of customers require different approaches and strategies to handle them effectively.

Some common types of challenging customers include:

• Angry: These customers are upset or dissatisfied with your product or service and may express their feelings in a loud or aggressive way.
• Demanding: These customers have high expectations and may make unreasonable requests or complaints. They may also be impatient or rude with you or your colleagues.
• Uncommunicative: These customers are reluctant or unwilling to share information or feedback with you. They may be shy, distrustful, or indifferent. They may also give vague or short answers.
• Know-it-all: These customers think they know more than you or your colleagues and may challenge your expertise or authority. They may also interrupt you, ignore your advice, or contradict you.
• Indecisive: These customers are unsure about what they want or need and may ask many questions or change their minds frequently. They may also delay making any decisions or purchases.

Understanding the psychology behind challenging customer behaviors can help you deal with them more effectively.

Here are some possible reasons why customers may act in challenging ways:

• Anger: Customers may feel angry when they perceive that they have been treated unfairly, disrespectfully, or dishonestly by your company. They may also feel frustrated when their needs or expectations are not met or when they encounter a problem that they cannot solve. Even something as simple as waiting in queue longer than expected can cause a customer to be angry before they even reach an agent. Sometimes, customers might be having a bad day that’s unrelated to the company and taking out their anger over something else on an agent.
• Fear: Customers may feel fearful when they face uncertainty, risk, or loss. They may also feel anxious when they lack information, control, or trust in your company. Fear can make customers behave in a more defensive or hostile way.
• Confusion: Customers may feel confused when they are overwhelmed by too much or too complex information, or when they encounter conflicting or inconsistent messages from your company. They may also feel uncertain when they have to make a difficult or unfamiliar decision or when they do not understand how your product or service works.
• Mixed Emotions: Unfortunately, negative emotions tend to lead to other negative emotions. This means that customers may be facing a combination of negative feelings when they speak to an agent. For example, confusion over an issue may lead the customer to become frustrated when they can’t figure it out, which may then escalate to anger.

Best practices for dealing with challenging customers

Here are some best practices for dealing with challenging customers who may feel fear, confusion, or other negative emotions when interacting with your company. By following these tips, you can help calm them down, build rapport, and resolve their issues effectively.

Engage in active listening

Don't be too quick to present a solution right away. Instead, let them speak while listening carefully to avoid missing out on essential details. Since you can't physically demonstrate your attention, you should respond with "OK," "I see," or "Alright" to signal that you are listening to their concerns. You can also gain a deeper understanding by asking them questions to clarify their issue or concern before offering a solution.

Remember the details

While listening, note important details to ensure they are not overlooked. You can enter this key information into a tool like a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform or a ticketing platform so you or another agent can refer to these details later. Artificial intelligence (AI) can be especially helpful here by automatically transcribing and summarizing conversations in real time, saving you from having to take notes manually. By recording the information, you ensure customers won’t need to repeat themselves if they call back or are transferred to another agent, preventing future frustration.

Express empathy

Try to empathize with the customer’s situation and put yourself in their shoes. Simple statements like, "I can see why this can be frustrating. Let's see how we can make things right" or "I understand where you’re coming from. Let me take care of this for you" can relieve their frustrations. By expressing empathy, you can demonstrate that you understand what has upset them and that you will take care of the issue.

Explain things clearly

If a customer is frustrated because they're confused, then addressing that confusion is an important step towards a satisfactory resolution. Explain anything they don’t understand, such as why they’re experiencing an issue, their options for addressing the issue, relevant product information, or company policies. Remember that information that seems straightforward to you as an expert may be confusing for someone who doesn’t have the same background knowledge as you. If you’re not sure if the customer understands something or needs further explanation, ask them and see if they have any other questions.

Find a solution

The goal of the conversation is to offer a solution to the problem. Once you have listened to the customer’s concerns, take the necessary steps to resolve their issues. 

Sometimes, it may not be possible to solve their problems right away. In that case, be sure to communicate the steps you will take to resolve it. You can also provide a timeline so that your customer knows what to expect and when things will be completed. Establishing a timeline provides direction and outlines the steps going forward.

Leverage the resources available to you

You don’t want to make a difficult situation worse by taking a long time to resolve the issue or sounding unsure about the answers you provide. That’s why it’s important to take advantage of all the resources available to you to make your interactions go as smoothly as possible. 

For example, sentiment analysis features may detect a customer’s increasing frustration before you do, helping you to react sooner. Automatic AI-generated call summaries ensure you don’t leave the customer waiting for you to finish writing down the details of what they’ve just said before you provide a solution. Screen pops to CRM systems or knowledge bases give you instant access to relevant information like caller history or product details so you don’t need to spend time manually looking them up. These and other tools help create smooth experiences for both customers and agents, so use them if you have them.

Take time to reflect

To continue improving, one must reflect. Take advantage of call recordings to gain valuable insights by playing back previous interactions. These insights may help you uncover what worked well and what could be done differently in the future. You can then analyze each conversation and determine ways to improve when similar instances happen in the future. 

Keep in mind that some interactions may not go as planned, but as long as you find ways to improve, providing excellent customer service is within your reach!

What not to do

It can be difficult to do your job to the best of your ability in unpleasant circumstances, and it’s easy to make a mistake in those high-stress situations. But being prepared and aware of things to watch out for can help. Keep the following list in mind to avoid taking situations from bad to worse when dealing with challenging customers.

Don’t take the situation personally

When a customer yells at you or vents, it can be difficult not to take it personally. But try to remember, that they’re frustrated and upset at the situation, not you. Therefore, strive to resolve the problem instead. A more productive approach is to direct the conversation back to the main issue and explore possible solutions.

Don’t let your emotions get the best of you

When a customer is being angry or rude, it can be difficult not to respond the same way. But getting angry or responding rudely won’t solve the problem. It will just make the situation worse and may have a negative impact on you professionally. For example, you might receive negative performance reviews or be disqualified from opportunities for promotion.

Don’t reduce your level of support

If a customer is challenging to deal with, it might be tempting to deviate from your usual service level in accordance with what you might think they deserve. For example, you might be tempted to hold back rather than offering a discount or promotion that you give to most callers; you might decide to take just a little extra time processing a form while the customer is on hold rather than rushing back to speak to someone who’s been giving you a bad attitude. 

While these choices might seem satisfying in the moment, it will be more satisfying in the long run to know that you were able to rise above the situation and maintain your professionalism under less-than-ideal circumstances.

One of the most challenging aspects of customer service is handling angry or difficult customers. However, if you handle these situations professionally and productively, you can turn their negative experience into a positive one. As a result, your customers will be more satisfied and happier, resulting in a greater customer experience.

Want to learn more about how to deal with challenging situations that agents face? Check out our Guide to Preventing Agent Burnout in Call Centers.