How to Deal with Angry Customers? 10 Amazing Tips to Follow

When you start a business, the early phases of the dropshipping store are amazing. You receive a few orders, you fulfill them on time, and the customer appreciates you.

However, the hard reality of a dropshipping business, or any business for that matter, is that people make mistakes. Sometimes, we end up making mistakes, which makes customers angry. It is also possible that you are just talking to a hard-to-please customer, but these cases are very rare.

So, how do we handle the situation when we need to deal with an angry customer? What is the solution? Let’s find out!

1. Listen!

The first step to resolving any issue professionally and personally is to listen to the customer. In place of passive listening, where you are just thinking something at the back of your mind and not understanding the customer’s emotions, actively listen to the problem. Try to judge their tone, understand what went wrong, and know how the customer is personally absorbing the negative energy related to the event.

The idea behind listening is to understand the emotions behind the situation. Based on this, evaluate your response and retain your customer. You will naturally have more empathy and a soothing tone.

You will be amazed to know that when we are able to understand the impact of the situation, we automatically connect better.

2. Sincerely Apologize

To make mistake is only human! There’s no doubt about that. If it is human to make mistakes, then you shouldn’t be worried about apologizing. When things go wrong and someone’s order is stuck because of a mistake made by your dropshipping store, you should apologize.

We can all say sorry for the inconvenience caused, but customers may have heard this so many times, it has stopped making any sense.

Hence, apologize as you would to a friend. “I’m sorry that we delayed your order. It was not our intention to hamper your plans. Please be assured that we will do anything to rectify this mistake. Help us understand how we can help you.”

That sounds more personal, and much more soothing to listen to. Sharing a sincere apology will allow your customer to instantly calm down and communicate with you.

3. Empathize

It is important to empathize with an angry customer. While this doesn’t mean you need to agree with what customer is saying, you just need to understand their feelings.

How does the customer feel about the delayed order? Then ask yourself, can you relate to the situation? Have you ever been in the same position? If so, then you will automatically have empathy and you will find a solution for the customer.

The idea here is to have compassion towards people and talk to them nicely to understand the issue and resolve the problem. This will help you avoid making the customer angrier.

4. Maintain Your Brand’s Tone

When we are responsible for a brand, we need to maintain the brand's tone of voice. While handling an angry customer, it is easy to adopt the same tone as the customer's. Especially when you are talking on a message board or email. This way, you don’t realize how your tone has gone bad and it may affect your relationship with your customer.

To avoid this, establish some standard guidelines for the language you use.For example, use soothing words like "we understand," "you must be devastated," and "I am sorry for what happened."

Having guidelines for written communication will help you productively handle a situation. You will maintain the brand’s voice, avoid misbehaving with the customer, and ensure a valuable outcome.

If you are on call with the customer, you can simply stay calm. Therefore, it is best to know that the customer is experiencing some issues that were probably created by your dropshipping business.

5. Use Positive Language

When you are talking to a difficult customer of your business, you need to use positive language. This is the best tip offered by support teams. If you are using positive language and understanding words, your customer is more likely to calm down and talk about the situation.

Here are some tips for doing the same: You should try not to talk in a tone that gives bad vibes. For this, check the empathy pointer above.

• Don’t ever say things that make the customer feel you are not ready to support them. For example, but this is not our problem or for your information (FYI).
• Use affirmation words like "absolutely," "definitely," "yes," etc.

Some foreign language phrases are naturally rude and offensive. If you tend to use these knowingly in your communication, you are more likely to upset the customer.

6. Repeat

After fully listening to the problem stated by an angry customer, repeat it clearly. When you state the details, you are able to cover anything, and it makes the customer realize whether they are being reasonable or not.

For example, in place of saying "I understand you have faced some issues with our service. Do you need a refund?", say "So that I am sure, let me repeat the problem. You ordered a product that you expected earlier, but the shipment is moving according to the promised delivery date, which prevented you from using the product at the desired time. "

This is polite enough, but it will still make the customer realize that they are being unreasonable.

7. Provide a Solution

It is a possibility that the problem came up because you made a mistake. That’s not an unlikely event. When this mistake happens, you should understand the customers’ frustration and offer them a quick solution.

This can be:

• Do you need a refund?
• Do you want me to process a refund while you can still keep the product when it arrives?
• Do you want me to process a 50% refund and you can still keep the product?
• Here’s some store credit to improve your shopping experience with us the next time.
• Since we made a mistake, here’s a discount coupon as a token of thanks.

8. Offer a Coupon

We have already discussed above that you can offer a coupon.

The reason for this separate heading is that you can manage the situation many times by offering a coupon.

• The customer is angry because the shipment is delayed, and you can offer a coupon.
• The customer is angry because you shipped the wrong product, then you can offer a coupon.
• The customer is angry because the product is broken, so you can offer a coupon.
• The customer is angry because the item went out of stock, and you can offer a coupon.

Sometimes, you may need to offer a coupon to a customer who is responsible for the mistake but you want to retain them. When people bring you business, you may want to cater to their unreasonable demands to keep your loyal customer.

9. Release the Fear

One thing that we have learned over the years is that we need to release fear when talking to customers. This is absolutely not saying that you should not keep customers first. The customer is always right is still true here. However, losing the fear will help you think logically.

If you always think that you need to retain this customer, you may end up making some mistakes on a strategic level that may sting later.

Therefore, lose the fear and talk to the customer with confidence. If you are wrong, apologize and offer perks. If not, don't panic and try to find a solution.

10. Keep Calm

One thing that we have said throughout this discussion is to keep your calm. The reason we are repeating this is that if you misbehave with the customer, the domino effect is just too big to subside.

For example, you have been rude to a customer by email. This customer took screenshots and posted them online, which brings hate to your business.

Hence, never forget that even in bad situations, you need to stay calm and stick to your business’s tone of voice.

Summary

Dealing with an angry person is difficult in real life too. Personally, we are equipped to react in the same manner, which tends to offer us some relief emotionally. However, when we are dealing with people who bring us business, retaliating in the same tone and manner always brings us hate. Even when the customer is extremely disrespectful, you may end up in a negative position.

Therefore, know the importance of dealing with angry customers correctly and read the above tips to know how your dropshipping business can handle the situation respectfully.