Customer Service Conflict Management Strategies

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Table of Contents

Asking questions
Being supportive
Summarizing
Giving feedback
Being neutral
Reference List

Conflicts are unavoidable. No matter how high the quality of services in a specific company might be, there will always be people who will find some faults; likewise, a company cannot maintain a constantly perfect performance level – once, in a while, there will necessarily be a problem to deal with. Therefore, conflicts are bound to appear. However, there is a huge difference between solving a problem in a peaceful atmosphere and dealing with an issue while an angry customer is burning with indignation and revenge. To handle the so-called “angry customer” and remain calm and composed, one has to use the appropriate behavioral tactics; otherwise, the support employee is going to have a nervous breakdown.

Solving such conflicts starts with specifying the goals of the customer. According to what Wrench (2013) says, the goal that every customer pursues in his argument is to make sure that (s)he is heard. To be more exact, Wrench says that “angry customers need to be acknowledged and reassured that they are heard and will be attended to” (Wrench, 2013, n. p.).

Researches say that the first step in all strategies of handling angry customers is specifying what kind of person the support is dealing with and, therefore, realizing how far the client is going to push the conflict. The key difficulty is, therefore, to find out what type of customer the support is dealing with and, thus, to choose the appropriate strategy to calm him/her down. Therefore, five major strategies in conflict solving can be defied.

Asking questions

By specifying the details of the problem, the support staff shows that the customer’s demands are understood and that the issue is being investigated (Godwin, 2008). Thus, the customer becomes ready for a constructive talk. However, the questions must refer strictly to the problem, e.g.:

Wrong	Correct
Customer: “My Internet connection is down.” Support: “What computer brand do you use?”	Customer: “My Internet connection is down.” Support: “Did you try pinging the Internet connection?”

Being supportive

A customer wants to see the support is concerned with his/her problems. Therefore, talking to the client in a this-is-another-person-with-a-typical-problem manner shows the lack of support’s competence (Cloke & Goldsmith, 2011). By being supportive, an employee makes the customer feel special, which comforts the latter and leads to a productive conversation.

Summarizing

Reiterating what the client says makes him/her feel that his pledge has been heard. As a result, the customer calms down and is ready to discuss the problem in a much more comfortable atmosphere (Pynchon, 2012).

Giving feedback

By updating the client on the progress, the support makes it clear that the problem is being dealt with. As a result, the customer turns more patient (Evenson, 2007).

Being neutral

Inexperienced support staff often resorts to using their sense of humor. However, a client typically wants to be taken seriously with his problem. Therefore, most innocent jokes are taken with either irritation or indignation (Demkin, 2008). Therefore, picking a neutral tone is a very reasonable tactic.

That being said, it is clear that dealing with an angry customer is relatively easy. By analyzing the behavior of the customer and figuring out what (s)he pursues by starting an argument, one can easily come to terms with even the most stubborn clientele.

Reference List

Cloke, K & Goldsmith, J 2011, Resolving conflicts at work: eight strategies for everyone on the job, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA.

Demkin, J A, 2008, The architect’s handbook of professional practice, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ.

Evenson, R 2007, Award-winning customer service: 101 ways to guarantee great performance, AMACOM, New York, NY.

Godwin, A 2008, How to solve your people problems, NavPress Publishing Group, Brentwood, TN.

Pynchon, V 2012, Success as a mediator for dummies, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ.

Wrench, J S 2013, Workplace communication for the 21^st century: tools and strategies, ABC-CLIO, Santa-Barbara, CA.

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