{"id":1057,"date":"2012-03-30T08:57:57","date_gmt":"2012-03-29T22:57:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pdtraining.com.au\/blog\/?p=1057"},"modified":"2014-05-28T06:20:51","modified_gmt":"2014-05-27T20:20:51","slug":"professional-telephone-skills-course-in-sydney-how-to-deal-with-angry-clients-on-the-phone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pdtraining.com.au\/blog\/professional-development-training\/professional-telephone-skills\/professional-telephone-skills-course-in-sydney-how-to-deal-with-angry-clients-on-the-phone\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Deal with Angry Clients over the Phone: Professional Telephone Skills Course in Sydney"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Professional<\/a>
Handle clients successfully using skills<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You can learn how to deal with angry clients on the phone by developing specific skills.<\/strong><\/p>\n

To gain skills in communicating with clients over the phone, consider using\u00a0Professional Telephone Skills Training Course<\/a> delivered by pdtraining in Sydney and other cities in Australia.<\/p>\n

One method to handle an angry client on the phone, which is taught in the course, is called the HEAT method and it works as follows:<\/p>\n

H \u2013 Hear them out!<\/strong><\/p>\n

When you are dealing with an irate client on the telephone, at first, all they wish to do is to get their issue off their chest. So, you need to sit back and listen without any interruptions or judgements.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t listen carefully, you could potentially escalate the issue.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once your client realises that you are listening and taking an interest, half the reason for ranting and raving is removed and the situation becomes more manageable.<\/p>\n

The purpose of listening first is to assure the caller of your willingness to become involved and to let the caller blow off steam.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, listen to the whole of the caller\u2019s story. \u00a0If you interrupt them you will make the situation worse. \u00a0Take note of any key words and phrases used.<\/p>\n

E \u2013 Empathise<\/strong><\/p>\n

Acknowledge your client\u2019s feelings. A typical mistake made by many service providers faced with angry or difficult callers is to tell them that there is nothing to worry about \u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s really not a problem\u201d or \u201cI know how you feel\u201d<\/p>\n

The result is usually that the caller has to keep being difficult until they feel someone has accepted that there really is a problem.<\/p>\n

At this stage you need to acknowledge that the caller is upset and assure them that you are prepared to do whatever you can to help.<\/p>\n

By showing empathy<\/a> you are giving the very clear message that you are going to be part of the solution; not part of the problem.<\/p>\n

However, showing empathy does not mean you agree with the caller when they hit out at your organisation!<\/p>\n

Listening with empathy requires actively looking for statements that you can agree with. The objective is to be able to bring into the conversation positive \u201cI\u201d statements. These statements show the caller that you are willing to understand their situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI appreciate you feel this way. \u00a0Let\u2019s look at how we can \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

At all times maintain your state of control. You don\u2019t want to start mirroring your upset client as this would fuel the situation further.<\/p>\n

A \u2013 Ask Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even though the first step in the HEAT process is to listen, this may not provide a very clear understanding of the situation. This being the case, the story presented by the caller may not be the easiest to follow.<\/p>\n

This step is therefore a very necessary one. Careful questioning helps to clarify the situation and is yet another way to reassure the caller that you are interested and concerned.<\/p>\n

T \u2013 Take Responsibility and Thank Them<\/strong><\/p>\n

Take Responsibility<\/p>\n

Let them know that you will take responsibility.\u00a0 Assure them you will take control of this situation<\/a> to get it resolved. You do not want to fob them off, so someone has to deal with it.<\/p>\n

Unhappy clients do not like to be passed around, they want to tell their story once and know that it is going to be resolved.<\/p>\n

Thank Them<\/strong><\/p>\n

Always, always, always thank your client. No matter how difficult the call has been. Be thankful that your client felt it was worthwhile for them to phone up to air this issue. It\u2019s too easy for a client to say \u201cforget it, it\u2019s not worth the hassle!\u201d<\/p>\n

We want to make it easy for our client\u2019s to complain because this is giving us the opportunity to improve our service.<\/p>\n

Thanking them reinforces that they did the right thing by phoning to let you know the issue.<\/p>\n

Related Article…<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Pdtraining <\/b><\/a><\/span>delivers 1000\u2019s of professional development courses each year in Brisbane, Sydney, Parramatta, Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra and Perth, so you can be assured your training will be delivered by a qualified and experienced trainer.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

All public\u00a0Professional Telephone Skills Training<\/a><\/b>\u00a0courses include am\/pm tea, lunch, printed courseware and a certificate of completion.\u00a0 Customised courses are available upon request so please contact pdtraining on\u00a01300 121 400 to learn more.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You can learn how to deal with angry clients on the phone by developing specific skills. To gain skills in communicating with clients over the phone, consider using\u00a0Professional Telephone Skills Training Course delivered by pdtraining in Sydney and other cities in Australia. One method to handle an angry client on the phone, which is taught […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[290,13],"tags":[393,392,1458,1461,1459,1460,1462,351],"views":96,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdtraining.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdtraining.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdtraining.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdtraining.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdtraining.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1057"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/pdtraining.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3659,"href":"https:\/\/pdtraining.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057\/revisions\/3659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdtraining.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdtraining.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdtraining.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}