June 25, 2024 • 46 mins
Megan Nelson from the Buzzsprout Podcaster Success Team joins us to discuss the art of working with angry customers without losing your cool. In this episode, we give you actionable strategies that will not only help you handle tough situations with grace, but also elevate your customer support experience to new heights!
Learn how to maintain calm, set boundaries, and resolve issues with empathy and professionalism!
We want to hear from you! Share your support stories and questions with us at happytohelp@buzzsprout.com!
To learn more about Buzzsprout visit Buzzsprout.com.
Thanks for listening!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Priscilla (00:00):
Welcome to Happy to Help.
A podcast about customersupport from the people at
Buzzsprout.
I'm your host, priscilla Brooke.
Today we're focusing on aspecific customer profile the
angry customer.
We'll go through some tips youcan use to effectively work with
angry customers so you can turna negative experience into an
excellent one.
Thanks for joining us.
Let's get into it.
As always, we are joined by ourproducer, jordan hey Jordan,
(00:27):
hey there.
And today is already a greatepisode because we are joined by
Megan Nelson.
Megan is a member of theBuzzsprout Podcaster Success
Team.
She joined us in 2020, rightduring, like the beginning of
the pandemic is when she started.
I think her first day was April1st 2020.
So we were like deep into thethroes of being stuck at home.
(00:50):
She has experience in publicrelations and social media and
she did some teaching before shekind of entered the podcasting
support world, and so it's beenreally fun.
She's been on the team forabout four years now and she
provides excellent support toour podcasters, but in addition
to that she also writes theweekly newsletter for Buzzsprout
(01:11):
and does some work with ourmarketing team on marketing
initiatives, and so it's reallyfun.
I'm excited to have Megan here.
I think she's going to havesome really good insight into
working with angry customers.
Megan, I'm curious what is yourfavorite thing about working in
support?
Megan (01:26):
Well, thanks for having me.
I can't believe I've alreadybeen in support for four years.
It's crazy.
It's so fast Probably myfavorite thing about being here
for the last four years.
I love getting to helppodcasters all day.
I think it's really cool thatwe get to spend all day
answering questions, teachingdifferent things, and that, like
instant gratification piece isso cool to me how we can help
someone and five minutes laterit's like they're back on their
(01:48):
podcasting journey.
Priscilla (01:49):
Yeah, I think that's like such a good thing to
remember when you're working insupport is the instant
gratification Like you'reworking with someone on
something difficult, or even ifit's not that difficult and that
you can get it resolved, likeright away, and move on to the
next thing.
If you're like the kind ofperson who likes to check off
things on a to-do list, ohthat's me, which is so me too,
then support can be like reallysatisfying.
(02:12):
In that way You're like great,tied that one with a bow.
Moving on to the next one, Ilove that.
So I'm glad we kind of werestarting on this like positive
note, because today we're goingto talk about angry customers,
which you know is something Ithink that everyone who works in
the help those kind ofcustomers, while also kind of
(02:45):
protecting our own boundaries,our own peace, our own calm,
because it's really easy to getcaught up in the frustration on
both sides if you're workingwith an angry customer.
So that's what we're going totalk about today, and I'm really
excited that Megan is here tojoin us.
The first thing I kind of wantto talk through is why are angry
customers angry?
So when you're working insupport, there are going to be
(03:08):
times when someone writes in andthey're frustrated for a
variety of different reasons,and I think it's important,
before you start to get to aplace where you're trying to
solve problems or even likeunderstanding strategies for
responding to someone, I thinkit's important to know why
they're angry in the first place, and so I jotted down a couple
things on my end about thingsthat I've seen over the years,
(03:28):
about why people are frustratedand why they write in.
The biggest one, I feel like,is that a customer writes in
because they've had a badexperience with your product, or
maybe if you offer a service.
I feel like that's the mostcommon.
Megan (03:56):
They've run into a roadblock and they ride in and
they're frustrated becausethey've experienced something
tough in that moment, like ourgut reaction.
But I think, as support people,we always want people to see us
as humans too and not just likesomeone sitting behind a
computer.
We're not just a robot, and soI always try to like keep that
mindset in reverse, like, okay,they're human too.
What happened to make them likethis?
Priscilla (04:16):
Right, and so understanding, like the why of
what's frustrating them is, likeI feel like that first step.
I also feel like sometimes wewill get customers who reach out
who are just frustrated becausethey're expecting to have a bad
experience.
You know, like maybe theydidn't have a big issue with the
product or a bad experiencewith the product, but maybe they
(04:40):
just have a random question.
That's pretty run of the mill,but they're like I have to reach
out to support now and so I'mcoming in hot and I'm frustrated
right off the bat.
I think that is another goodthing to be aware of if you're
working with someone who'sfrustrated because the product
has made them frustrated, or ifthey're just frustrated because
they're assuming that thesupport is going to be mediocre
(05:01):
or painful and so they're comingin ready for that.
They're kind of bracing forthat experience.
Megan (05:07):
Yeah, I think, unfortunately, the support
industry gets a bad reputationfor, you know, going to be a
negative experience or this isgoing to be a headache, or it's
going to take some time, and youcan definitely tell the people
who write in bracing themselvesfor those situations.
But that's also a uniqueopportunity.
I think that you get to be likeoh, just you wait, this is
about to be better.
Priscilla (05:24):
Yeah, exactly, I liked what you said about the
human side of it.
I think, as we're getting readyto talk through this, one thing
that I think of is like thetimes that I have been the angry
customer, you know, like I meanI can think not a ton, but I
can think of times where I'vebeen so frustrated working with
a support team, and sometimesit's because the service I'm
(05:46):
getting from the team is bad.
Sometimes it's because theproduct didn't work the way it
was supposed to.
Sometimes it's because you'rejust not getting any responses
at all and that's frustrating.
But I can think of those timesand I'm like, oh, I did not.
That was not my peak Priscillamoment.
That was a pretty bad momentfor me, not one that I'm proud
of.
And even while understandingthat and recognizing that, oh,
(06:09):
that wasn't a great moment forme, I also can recognize why I
was frustrated.
So it's not like I shouldn'thave been frustrated.
That's still legit and valid,but maybe the way that came
across wasn't the right way.
And so I think you saying youknow they're humans and we're
humans, I think that's reallyimportant as you're working with
(06:30):
anyone, to kind of keep that aslike your most top of mind kind
of information that you keep inyour head that, ok, we are just
people working together and Imean that's kind of how we
approach all of our supportanyway.
But I think with angry customers, it's really important to keep
that top of mind.
Both of these types ofcustomers can be won over right
(06:50):
with remarkable support, but Ithink the techniques that you'll
use for each one are slightlydifferent, and so I kind of
jotted down some techniques.
So the person who's kind ofangry with the product or angry
with the service, I think it'simportant to apologize.
If it's our fault, like if it'ssomething that it really was,
like the product malfunctioned,then apologizing for that
specifically is really important.
If it wasn't something that theproduct did wrong and it wasn't
(07:14):
our fault, or maybe it's theproduct didn't work the way they
expected it to work, but itwasn't actually that the product
was wrong, it's just that theydidn't understand it, right.
Does that make sense?
Yeah was wrong.
It's just that they didn'tunderstand it, right.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, then like empathizingwith them, even though we're not
necessarily apologizing for it,but we're going to empathize
with them because their realityis still their reality and it
still caused frustration.
Megan (07:34):
Yeah, I think a lot of times angry customers like a
great way to start diffusingeither way is just to recognize
the anger, because that'ssomething that they want to see
recognized, because it'ssomething that came up for them.
So the faster I think you canrecognize that, either through
an apology or throughempathizing with them, makes
them feel seen and like you'reon their team going to say that
(08:03):
you know really well.
Priscilla (08:04):
But obviously you can still be mad at people you know
well, but it's harder to berude and angry to people when
you know that it's like anotherperson who's like actively
trying to help you.
And so like establishing thatearly on and like humanizing the
conversation right off the batI think is going to hopefully
start you off on the right footwhen it comes to like turning
that situation around.
Megan (08:22):
Yeah, which can be difficult when you're on email
support because you don't havethat voice connection or you
don't see someone right in frontof you.
But it's also important to makesure you're trying to establish
that through your words as well, so people understand that it's
on the other side of thecomputer.
There actually is a personthere.
Priscilla (08:37):
Right.
And that goes back to the toneconversation we had a couple of
weeks ago about how importanthow you write is and the tone
you write in, especially whenyou're working with someone
who's frustrated because theyare not going to have a ton of
margin for your tone beingslightly off.
You know what I mean.
They're really close to theedge there, and so you want to
(08:58):
make sure you're veryintentional about how you're
writing back to them.
One thing I had on here forthose kind of customers that are
frustrated because they had anissue with the product was to
confirm details.
I think sometimes when you'rewriting in and you're frustrated
, it can be easy to focus on thefrustration right off the bat
(09:18):
and miss the like facts that areunderneath, and so confirming
those details and making surethat everyone's on the same page
before you start to like solvethe problem and address the
frustration I think having thatbasis and understanding of the
facts is really important, andso for those people that have
run into an issue, it's reallyimportant as a support
specialist to know what issueexactly they run into and what
(09:42):
steps they use to get there andkind of understanding those
facts right as like a base level.
Jordan (09:47):
So by saying like confirming the details, do you
mean that it helps to write backand be like okay, so you're
saying that you took this stepand then you ran into this and
then you tried this and you raninto this.
Is that what you're talkingabout?
When you're talking about, likeconfirming details?
Are you talking about likefollowing up and asking just to
make sure, like did you checkyour password and check this and
(10:09):
check?
Priscilla (10:09):
that that's a good clarification.
I mean the first thing, makingsure that you understand the
steps they took, understandingtheir reality.
Jordan (10:18):
And it's like repeating back to them what they've said
and it kind of confirms to themat the same time that you are
hearing them, you are listeningto what they're saying Exactly
and they're yes, it's likeactive listening but it's funny
to talk about it as activelistening when you're on email
support.
Priscilla (10:36):
But it's kind of like that active listening.
They've told you what issuethey've run into and now you're
going to return it to them, kindof as a way to show your work,
that you know exactly what theproblem is and you understand
and you're on the same page andso then you can move forward
with solving the problem forthem.
Megan (10:53):
I think that's such like an important piece to remember,
especially for angry customers,because I think sometimes
someone can write in reallyangry and sometimes they're
using language you're not usedto or something kind of catches
you off guard and your firstinstinct as someone who just
wants to help is to like I haveto make the situation better
right now, and sometimes thatcauses you to jump to
conclusions on this must bewhat's happening because they're
(11:15):
so angry about this.
But if you take the time tostep back and repeat back to
them the steps they're doing, italso helps you as the support
specialist not miss anything andnot make any assumptions or go
straight to like diffusingwhat's going on.
Priscilla (11:28):
Because the only thing that's more frustrating
about having an issue with aproduct and then reaching out to
a support team is when thesupport team doesn't understand
what the issue is.
Megan (11:37):
Or solves the wrong issue for you because they made an
assumption that can spiral itway worse than the one email
that came in.
Priscilla (11:43):
Yeah, so getting that foundation is so important One
thing that we that's prettyunique to Buzzsprout but people
will write in and they'll say Ican't download my episodes.
And in Buzzsprout, typicallyyou're uploading episodes,
you're not downloading them.
And so sometimes people willwrite in and they'll be
frustrated and say my episode'snot downloading.
And it's important for us, as asupport specialist who's trying
(12:06):
to diffuse a situation, toclarify that what they're trying
to do is uploading, because ifwe were to just take downloading
at face value, we'd be like,well, yeah, you're not supposed
to download, but that's going tomake someone more frustrated.
So, kind of like looking forthose facts, finding that
clarifying do you mean thatyou're uploading the episode?
If so, here's where that couldhave gone wrong or however it is
(12:27):
.
But yeah, I think that's reallyimportant to set those facts so
that you're on the right path,going forward and not making
assumptions that could justcause more frustration.
Megan (12:35):
Yeah, especially if you're in an industry like
podcasting that has veryspecific terminology and that's
very easy to get mixed up.
Priscilla (12:42):
Oh yeah, for sure, and I kind of alluded to it
earlier.
But I think angry customersthey're not going to have the
tolerance for kind of fluff.
So one thing we do a lot withsupport is we're very casual and
we're friendly and we're funand we use GIFs and we use
emojis.
And if someone writes in andthey're angry about something
and you send them a GIF backthat's like tonally so different
(13:03):
than their frustration in theiremail and you send them like a
high-fiving, like we can do thisGIF, that's probably not going
to be easing the situation.
So you kind of have to read thetone a little bit and make sure
that you're handling somethingwith the same sense of care that
they are, so that you're notdevaluing, maybe, the issue that
they're running into.
You want to make sure your toneis kind of matching them a
(13:24):
little bit so that they feellike they're being taken care of
by someone who really caresabout the issue that they're
going through.
Megan (13:29):
Taking it seriously.
Yeah, taking it seriously.
Priscilla (13:31):
You said it in three words.
So I think with people who areangry in general so not people
that have run into an issue withthe product, but someone who's
just writing in because theyhave an expectation that sports
going to be bad and so they'rejust right off the bat, they're
coming in hot I think with thosepeople it's likely that they've
(13:51):
already decided how theinteraction is going to go and
so we kind of have this funopportunity to prove them wrong,
if that makes sense, and soit's a little bit.
I mean, I kind of see those alittle bit more fun when people
write in and they're like ohgreat, this happened again.
Now I can't do this or I'mfrustrated and I have to reach
out to support, and it's notbecause of something like that's
(14:12):
product related, but it's justnow I got to do this and you
guys are going to be bad.
It's more fun, kind of, to belike oh, let me show you it's
actually not going to be bad,this is going to be great and
you're going to have a fun time.
So I feel like with those peopleI always try to get to the root
of what's frustrating themfirst.
So it's the same thing withkind of like figuring out where
the issue was with the product.
I want to get to the root ofwhere the frustration lies and
(14:34):
if it's that, they assume thatit's going to be bad support
because it phone support,starting right there and
addressing that right up frontand saying, hey, we actually
have really great email supportand let me show you like, let me
work with you and show you thatit's going to be really good.
Megan (14:47):
Yeah, and a great tip for that which I try to do is when
I can tell somebody is writingin and they think this is going
to be a bad experience, I try totake as much personalization
from their email as possible.
So, like, as always, make sureyou're including their name, but
sometimes even like repeatingsome of the phrases that they
have said in their email back tothem as a part of your answer,
or if they have something funnyin their signature.
Replying back to them with thatcan also really help too,
(15:10):
because it makes them be like,oh my gosh, they really read
through my email and they careabout this and they're
responding, and it's not justlike some quick answer they're
trying to send off to me.
Jordan (15:18):
Yeah.
Priscilla (15:23):
I think that can go a long way with somebody who's
not expecting it yeah, it likeinserts the personality into it
and with those kind offrustrated customers who are
expecting a bad experience,giving them that personality can
be so beneficial and it really,like can turn the whole thing
on its head.
I know that you've had thishappen, megan.
I've had it happen where peoplewrite in.
One of the things that is likemy pet peeve in support is when
(15:44):
people say what gives, likethey'll ask a question and then
they'll say what gives, and itjust always kind of like grinds
my gears a little.
I'm like oh, what gives?
Oh, let me explain.
But those people I'm alwayslike, let me flip this around
for you.
Let me show you that I am notjust like a robot on this other
side, but I'm a real person.
I'm going to help you.
I'm going to like show you thatI know who you are, kind of a
(16:06):
thing.
I'm going to read that thing inyour signature.
Jordan (16:08):
I give, I give I give what gives.
I give, I give a lot.
Priscilla (16:14):
I give a lot of care and understanding to you as a
podcaster.
Megan (16:17):
I also think, like the speed of the response time with
those podcasters is key.
Obviously you never want to belike rushing your response, like
you don't want time to be atthe sake of quality, but if you
can give them a very qualityresponse in a few minutes or in
an hour or whatever is standardfor your company's response time
, I think that makes a reallybig difference too.
(16:38):
I think it can totally turn iton its head when they get a
thought out email back fiveminutes later.
Priscilla (16:46):
Yeah Well, I don't know about you guys, but when
I'm frustrated, just in like myregular life, the more I sit
alone in my thoughts, the morefrustrated I get.
And so it's like you said youdon't want to leave someone
sitting for two hours becausethey're just going to grow and
get more frustrated and maybethey start emailing you multiple
times.
We have that too, where peoplewill say I've been sitting for
45 minutes, you haven'tresponded.
So kind of prioritizing that alittle bit and getting back to
(17:07):
them quickly with good qualityresponses is good, and I think
the flip side of that is makingsure your responses are quality,
because if you're respondingquickly and they're one sentence
, quick blurbs, that's not gonnacommunicate to your customer
that you're really invested inthe situation and they aren't
going to feel cared for in thatway.
(17:29):
So I think there's a goodbalance there of being quick and
also being thorough.
Megan (17:33):
Yeah, you want to make sure you're still the expert in
the space.
Priscilla (17:35):
Yeah, I think the point is kind of what we talked
about earlier, that people comeinto support situations
sometimes with bad expectationsof that support experience and
the reason they have thoseexpectations is because they
have had bad support experiencesin the past and so it's not
that they're just coming inbecause they expect us to be bad
for no reason.
(17:56):
They've probably had situationswhere they've been treated not
great, and so you know we alsowant to be aware of that.
You know that's not who we areand we're going to give you a
really good experience.
But I also recognize that thisis not what you're expecting,
this is not what you've had inthe past, and so hopefully by
the end of that conversationthat's changed their opinion of
(18:16):
support a little bit.
But we kind of want to begentle to that, that it is
because they've had a badexperience in the past, not just
because they expect it to beterrible for no reason.
Megan (18:24):
Yeah, and it can take a few interactions too.
I think to be prepared for thatas a support specialist as well
.
I know there are companies I'veemailed into and had great
experiences with, and the firstone I'm always skeptical, like
did I just get a good supportperson, or is this how you run
your team?
Jordan (18:37):
Yeah.
Megan (18:37):
And then after a few interactions I'm like oh no, I
can definitely count on them IfI email them.
I know I'm going to getsomething back.
So I think, also being awarethat it could take some time to
build that relationship.
Priscilla (18:46):
Yeah for sure, and I don't want people to hear this
and think, ok, so you're tellingme, as a support specialist, I
should just be a punching bagand people can be rude and mean
to me and angry with me and I'mjust going to roll over and take
it because I'm a supportspecialist, like.
(19:06):
I don't want that to be thetakeaway here, and so I also
want to talk a little bit aboutstrategies that we use Megan and
I and the rest of theBuzzsprout support team use to
kind of navigate angry customersin a way that allows us to
still protect our calm andprotect our peace in support and
just protect ourselves and nothave someone just yelling at you
for no reason when you can'tget through that.
Megan (19:26):
Yeah, and the reality is is there's so many calm,
wonderful, not angry customersfor the one angry customer, and
if you let the one angrycustomer get to you, it can
impact your responses to all theother customers you deal with
while you're processing what'sgoing on, and so it's really
important to make sure, like yousaid, like that you're
protecting your piece, that youdon't have to roll over and be a
(19:47):
punching bag for them, becauseyou also not only just for
yourself you have to be able togive to these other people
writing in to support and youwant to make sure that they are
getting the same remarkablesupport as the angry customer.
Priscilla (19:58):
Yeah, I think that's really important and you know,
if you're leading a support team, I think it's really important
to have these kind of strategiesoutlined for your team so that
your team feels equipped tohandle these situations and they
know what tools they haveavailable to them to move
through this situation.
Because if you aren't given anytools to work with an angry
(20:21):
customer, then, depending on theperson who's working with them,
it can be really difficult andit can be it can cause people to
burn out really easily if youdon't have good tools in place.
I wanted to talk through someof our tips we have.
So we have kind of a documentthat outlines some of our like
strategies and support, and so Ipulled some of those that kind
(20:41):
of relate specifically to angrycustomers and I wanted to talk
through those a little bit.
So the first one goes back toone of our earliest episodes
where we were talking aboutempathy with Brian and he
mentioned the idea that everyonehas a story.
That's a really important thingto remember when we're working
with frustrated or angry or meanpeople in support is that
(21:03):
there's something going on ontheir end that we don't know
about, and so when you'reworking with anyone who's
frustrated or not.
Remembering that and keepinglike you said, Megan, at the
beginning, the human aspect ofit.
Keeping that top of mind isreally important to set the tone
for the entire back and forthand it allows it to keep it calm
, or at least it gives it theability to stay calm.
(21:25):
It's possible that theconversation won't stay calm if
they get more frustrated overtime because you can't fully
control how someone's going torespond to you, but at least
keeping that for us as thesupport specialist, top of mind
is a good way to start off thatwhole interaction.
Megan (21:41):
Yeah, it helps to set the framework for where you want it
to go.
Priscilla (21:44):
Yeah, exactly, and you said it earlier, megan.
You said use the customer'sname, and I had that written
down here too as like a strategy, a way to like make sure that
we're communicating to them thatwe're human.
It's kind of like leveling withthem, like I'm going to use
your name.
Sometimes I'll use it at theend of an email to like remind
them like hey, I still know,your name is Cynthia.
(22:05):
You know, like I'll say hi toCynthia in the beginning and
then I'll say if there'sanything else I can do to help,
please let me know Cynthia, orsomething, so that the person
knows that at the end of theemail that I still know who they
are, I still know who I'mtalking to, and we recommend to
never respond angry.
I think that's prettyself-explanatory.
But you know, when you'reworking with customers all day
(22:27):
and you're emailing them overand over and over and over, it
can be hard sometimes to stopyourself if you start to get
frustrated.
But it's really important ifsomeone is written in to you and
they're angry and you findyourself also matching that
anger or even like feeling itinternally and going okay, I got
to suppress this and write ahappy, empathetic email, but
(22:48):
inside I'm frustrated and I'mstarting to get mad with them.
Just stop typing.
I feel like I have learned.
I've gone back and read emailswhen I was frustrated and I was
writing in an empathetic way,and I can tell that I was not as
empathetic as I could have been, like I can.
I can feel the frustrationcoming through, even if I feel
like I'm masking it really wellin my writing.
(23:09):
The reality is you're probablynot, and so one of our top
things is if you're frustrated,if you find yourself getting
frustrated, take a break.
Stop responding.
It's totally OK to let it sitresponding.
Megan (23:23):
It's totally okay to let it sit.
I think that's like a reallyfreeing thing if you lead a
support team to instill in yourteam as well.
I remember when I was firststarting on the team.
You know we're in the height ofCOVID.
We're getting a ton of emails aday, everyone's starting a
podcast and that was a verychallenging time for a lot of
people.
So we did see maybe I don'twant to say more angry customers
during that time, butdefinitely there was more
emotion being put into some ofthe emails that were coming
(23:44):
through and it was so freeingfor me to have Priscilla say
like hey, you can wait a minuteto respond to that person.
Like go answer this other oneand come back to it, just to
kind of clear your mind for asecond and to make sure you're
not responding from an angryplace, Even if you think you're
not.
Sometimes putting a little likeactual time distance between
you and the email is superhelpful for everyone's mental
(24:05):
state, Like it helps you cooloff a little bit.
Sometimes it helps the personwriting in have a second to be
like oh wait, maybe I shouldn'thave gotten so worked up about
that or maybe I said that in away that didn't come across well
in email, and so I think havingthat start at the top and come
down is super freeing for theteam and can really help to set
a calm culture.
Priscilla (24:25):
Yeah, and I think earlier we said we don't want to
make customers wait too longwhen they're frustrated.
I do think there's a balancethere.
You don't want to make them sitfor an hour, but if you're
responding from a place offrustration, that's not going to
be beneficial to anyone.
Place of frustration, that'snot going to be beneficial to
anyone.
And so taking five minutes,stepping away from your desk,
(24:46):
changing the track, you know,changing your mind to something
else and then coming back to it,allows your kind of patience
reserve to build up a little bit.
And even if that's just fiveminutes, it can still be really
beneficial.
And that kind of leads into thenext one, which is take a break
.
During right, when Megan startedreally in the pandemic, things
got a little bit crazy atBuzzsprout support because we
had, you know, megan was a newhire, she had just joined the
(25:08):
team, podcasting was booming andBuzzsprout was getting a lot
more new podcasters that neededhelp, and so we were, you know,
stretched a little thin at thatpoint, and so we ran into
situations where we had beenlike working without moving for
a long time.
So when you're working withsomeone and you haven't taken a
break in a while and they'regetting frustrated with you, it
(25:30):
can be really hard to continueworking with that person.
So it kind of goes hand in handwith the don't respond angry.
But it's almost just like takea break, walk away, go outside,
see some sunshine, remindyourself that there are things
outside of just what's happeningin your computer, because
that's going to give you so muchmore to pull from when you come
back and you start working withpodcasters again or with
(25:51):
customers again.
So take a break is another toolthat we have in our tool belt
when we're working withfrustrated customers.
Megan (25:57):
Making a cup of coffee can save a lot.
Priscilla (26:00):
Yeah, it can Take a minute.
Go make a latte, come back,you'll be happier and then
you'll give people bettersupport.
For sure it's miraculous.
Okay, one of my favorite thingsthat we do is that we will pull
each other in.
We'll call for backup.
I love this technique for acouple reasons because it allows
us, as a team, to lean on eachother, and it also shows other
(26:21):
people as a team to lean on eachother, and it also shows other
people on your team that youhave their back.
And so if someone's getting toofrustrated with you and you're
like, you know, I just feel likethis person is going to need a
different voice, because at thispoint they're frustrated with
me Like maybe it's me, maybe I'mworking with someone, priscilla
and they are starting to getfrustrated with me and I go.
(26:42):
You know, I really think theyneed a different voice, like
there's something about methat's adding frustration.
I'm going to pull in Megan andhave her take over, and Megan
has renewed full tank ofpatience with this person, and
so she's going to come in.
They're going to hear a newvoice, and maybe the response
from them then is oh, megan's somuch better than Priscilla is,
and them than is.
Oh, megan's so much better thanPriscilla is, and that's you
know.
(27:02):
If that's how they take it,that's okay.
But the goal is to make surethat they're getting the best
responses, and if my voice is nolonger doing that, then having
the ability and the freedom topull in someone else to provide
a different voice for them, Ithink can be really beneficial.
Megan (27:17):
And it doesn't have to be a clunky transition either.
Like in your email, you canjust quickly say like I'm Megan
and I work with Priscilla, shewanted me to take a look at this
for you, and that makes themfeel like, oh, I'm getting extra
care, extra attention.
They're really thinking aboutthis from their side and it is.
You have two people now who aretalking about your situation,
trying to make it as best aspossible.
Priscilla (27:54):
So it doesn't have to be an awkward transition.
It can be a quick handoff andit can really make a big
difference for some people tojust feel like a look at this
and to give new insight or toget a new perspective or
something like that, and itcommunicates to the person that
they're getting VIP treatmentbecause they're getting a second
person, and so, yeah, I thinkthat's a really good thing to
point out.
That doesn't have to be likeevery time you're pulling in
(28:16):
your manager.
It doesn't have to always beescalated up.
It can be a lateral voicechange to always be escalated up
.
It can be a lateral voicechange.
Okay, another tool that we useis assuming positive intent.
So a couple weeks ago we weretalking about how, with
communication, so much of it isbody language, so much of it is
not the words you're saying, andso when you're working in email
(28:39):
, you're losing so much of kindof that communication because
all you're doing is email andwritten word, and so with that
it's sometimes you will bemisunderstood by your customers.
But sometimes you willmisunderstand your customers
Right, because they're only ableto communicate via email as
well, and so one of the thingsthat we will do is we'll just
(29:01):
assume positive intent.
Well, and so one of the thingsthat we will do is we'll just
assume positive intent.
So sometimes someone will sendan email that you are like I'm
pretty sure they mean this to berude and sarcastic, but I'm
going to assume that they'rebeing positive and that they're
intending this to be helpful andthat's how I'm going to take it
.
I'm going to take it in thatway, even if I'm pretty sure
they're trying to be rude andsnarky, I'm going to assume
positive intent.
(29:22):
I'm going to be kind back andassume that they're being
positive.
And you know, I think that thatcan be hard.
I know for me it can be hard,because if someone's snarky with
me, I want to be snarky, butit's so important to assume that
they're being positive thatthey're not being snarky.
So when they say what gives andin my like person I'm like oh,
(29:45):
what gives?
You're coming in hot insteadresponding and saying like, hey,
let me explain this to you.
And not taking that like whatgives at face, like taking it as
a positive what gives, allowsme to kind of have a kinder
response if we assume positiveintent.
One of my favorite ways thisshows up, or has shown up in
non-support terms is have youguys seen the movie Everything
(30:10):
Everywhere All at Once?
Yes, I have not.
Okay, I love this movie.
It's fantastic.
If you haven't seen it, go seeit.
It's so good.
Michelle Yeoh is amazing.
Jordan (30:20):
There are some moments like I wouldn't take kids to see
it, but it is so good.
Michelle Yeoh is amazing.
Priscilla (30:23):
There are some moments like I wouldn't take
kids to see it, but it is sogood.
Thank you, jordan, that's agood thing to say no children.
It's not a kids movie but it'sso good.
But there's one part in themovie where you kind of have a
husband and a wife and the wifeis very combative, she fights a
lot, she's, you know, veryphysical with the fighting and
the husband is more meek andquiet and kind and they're
(30:44):
having this conversation whereshe's kind of frustrated with
him because he's not standing upand fighting back and he's
talking about how his kindnessis strategic and necessary is
what he says.
He says I know you think thatI'm weak, but actually my
kindness is strategic andnecessary.
It's how I fight.
I'm weak but actually mykindness is strategic and
necessary.
It's how I fight.
I remember watching it in thetheater and thinking that is so
(31:06):
good for support to think about.
We're not being kind becausewe're pushovers.
We're not going to read yourrude email and be kind back
because we're idiots and wedon't realize you're being rude.
We're assuming positive intentbecause that is a strategy that
we're going to use to help youunderstand that we're on your
team.
It's the way that we'refighting.
Our kindness is strategic andnecessary and I just love
(31:29):
thinking about that in thecontext of support and being
kind, because sometimes it canfeel, if you're being kind, like
you're just being a punchingbag for an angry, rude person.
But if you think about it less,like I'm just taking it in
because that's what I'm paid todo to be punched by this
customer.
But instead, if you look at itlike I am trying to get you on
(31:51):
my side, I am trying to prove toyou that this is going to be a
good experience.
My kindness to you is strategicand necessary.
It's not me rolling over andletting you kick me in the face.
So, yeah, I love that movie.
You should definitely see it,and that part of it always gets
me.
Megan (32:08):
Customer support homework .
Jordan (32:09):
I was going to say now I have to watch it again because
just you saying that line I gotlike the goosebumps and like the
weepy eyes again and I was like, oh, that was so good His whole
monologue when he talks through.
Priscilla (32:20):
that is so good.
I cannot watch it withoutcrying and I just love it.
Jordan (32:24):
I just love it so much.
Priscilla (32:25):
Yep, it really is crying and I just love it.
I just love it so much.
Yep, it really is Okay.
So the next thing is notgetting defensive.
I think sometimes, depending onhow long you've been with a
product or maybe how much of ahand you've had in building a
product, it can be really easyto get defensive when someone
has an issue with that product,and so it's really important to
not let someone's frustrationmake you defensive.
(32:48):
It's not worth taking itpersonally, if that makes sense.
Megan (32:52):
I think a good way to think about it is sometimes it's
just not as deep as people wantit to be Like it can be helpful
to have a computer or a phonein between you in these moments
when you're like, don't getdefensive, because you can kind
of take a step back and be likeOK, Like don't get defensive,
because you can kind of take astep back and be like OK, like
this is just an email that iscoming through the computer or
this is just another person onthe other side of the phone.
I can take a breath.
(33:13):
Like you said, it doesn't haveto be like a personal attack on
me.
Yeah, this is just anotherissue of the day Like really
keeping the angry comments orangry email, like keeping them
in their place, like knowingwhere they fall on your priority
list of the day.
Priscilla (33:28):
Yeah, and that kind of like goes back to like
stepping outside and you know,looking at the sky and realizing
there are bigger things thanthis one support, interaction
and you still want to make surethat you're handling that with
care, but you don't want to getto you in that personal way.
So yeah, cause you can burn outthat way you can.
Megan (33:44):
You know that's when you start to see like, yeah, because
you can burn out that way youcan.
You know that's when you startto see like, oh, you get really
anxious before answering emailsor you leave work feeling really
upset.
I think the beauty of customersupport is that it's not life or
death situations you're dealingwith most.
(34:04):
Respond with empathy, respondto human to human, but it
doesn't have to be such thisimmediate like oh my gosh, it
has to happen right now and I'mnot in the place to deal with
this and this is hurting myfeelings, or it can really cause
you to spiral.
Priscilla (34:16):
Yeah, and I think it is important to remember that in
most industries it's not lifeor death.
In some cases it is moreserious.
Megan (34:24):
Absolutely.
Priscilla (34:24):
So you do want to make sure that you're handling
it with the level of care thatit deserves, but you can handle
it with care without taking itpersonally at the same time, and
so you can still segment thatout and say this is really
important and this is.
Maybe it is life or death,maybe it is something like if
you do insurance support for aninsurance company, like it might
be something that's much moreserious, but it still doesn't
(34:47):
need to be personal to you.
It doesn't need to be apersonal attack and you don't
have to take it that way.
So I think it's just reallyimportant to keep that in mind
when you're working with someonewho's frustrated and it goes
back to like remembering theyhave a story, there are other
things that are causing them tobe frustrated, and then I think
it's really important, asleading a support team we kind
of talked about this at thebeginning of our talking about
(35:10):
strategies but making sure thatyour team knows where that line
is, where the line is that theycan take it, and then making
sure there is a line where theydon't have to take it anymore,
if that makes sense, so we canbe respectful and kind and
assume positive intent and allof these strategies, but there
(35:30):
is a point where the customercan get too mean or rude or
pointed or personal and you wantto make sure your team has a
way to step out of thatsituation to protect themselves.
Does that make sense?
And knowing where that line isfor your whole team can be
really, really necessary if youwant to have people on your team
(35:52):
for longer periods of time orelse, like you were saying,
they're going to burn out ifthey're constantly having to
work with people that arecalling them names and berating
them, and so I do think there isa line that you can set, that
you can bring up with thecustomer and say, hey, we're
actually real people here andwe're here to help you, and if
this is how you're going tospeak to us, we might not be
(36:12):
able to continue thisconversation because it's
getting to a point now whereyou're unnecessarily rude.
I think that's really important, to be really clear with your
team where that line is, so theyhave the freedom to come to you
as the leader and say I can'twork with this person anymore
and they don't feel any kind ofshame around passing that off to
a manager.
Megan (36:33):
Yeah, because I mean as many tips as we give out, and
these are all awesome tips.
There are times where it justdoesn't work, where you can try
every tip.
You can provide remarkablesupport.
You can take a break, you cancall for backup, you can assume
positive intent and still get toa place where it's not
beneficial, and you do need topass it off to someone and have
those lines be communicated in aattacking way at someone on our
(37:08):
team.
Priscilla (37:09):
I think it's pretty clear to everyone on the team
that at that point they can callin Priscilla and say, hey, I
need you to take this from here.
This person has gotten rude andthey're using, you know,
profanity directed at me.
And then I will come in like amama bear and be like hey, this
is not how you treat the peopleon my team.
We're here for you, like we'reall happy to help you with this.
That's what we're here to do.
We can't do it.
If you're going to be rude andmean to us, you don't have to do
(37:31):
that in order to get goodsupport.
So we actually have liketerminology around that that we
use with frustrated customersonce they cross that line to
make it really clear that ifyou're going to reach out to us
in the future, please treat uswith respect.
We're real people and we'realways going to treat you with
respect.
Treat us with respect.
We're real people and we'realways going to treat you with
respect and there's no need tolose that.
Megan (37:51):
It's so beneficial to have that terminology written
out before you have to deal withthe customer as well.
Because if you're trying to dothat in the heat of the moment,
even if you are ahead of a teamcoming in and taking it over for
somebody on your team, there'sstill emotion that goes into it,
because you're defensive of theperson on your team or you feel
you know this has escalated toa point where you feel like
you're invested in it more thanmaybe you'd want to be, or it
(38:13):
just is so helpful to have thatterminology written out ahead of
time so you can add it in andjust be as like to the point as
possible.
Priscilla (38:20):
Yeah, and so you're writing it originally at a place
where you're not emotionallydriven and then you might use it
in a place where, emotionally,you know you're frustrated.
But you can use this wordingthat you've already written out
in a calm experience, a calmtime, to do that.
Megan (38:33):
Takes the emotion out of it, for sure.
Priscilla (38:35):
I want to kind of end on a reminder that these kind
of frustrated and angrycustomers give us the really
awesome opportunity to fliptheir experiences over and give
them a remarkable experience.
I know there have been timeswhere I have been frustrated and
have reached out to a supportteam and have had a really good
(38:57):
interaction, and when thathappens, my loyalty is so much
stronger, and so we're talkingthrough these strategies.
I think it can be hard, it canbe against our nature sometimes
to be like, oh, I'm going.
I think it can be hard, it canbe against our nature sometimes
to be like, oh, I'm going toassume positive intent every
time.
It can be difficult, but thepayoff for that is huge.
If you can take someone who'sfrustrated and turn their
(39:19):
situation around and give them areally good experience, you're
gaining a customer probably forlife.
The loyalty there is huge, orcan has the potential to be huge
, and so it's important toreally work through this with
intention and not see it as, oh,this is going to be frustrating
, I got to move this person outof the inbox just to move them
(39:41):
on, but to really take it askind of like a mission of okay,
I want to change this person'sopinion about support.
I want this person to know thisperson's opinion about support.
I want this person to know thatI'm on their side.
I want to make this person'sday better because clearly it's
been a rough day, if this is howthey're reaching out to me, and
so I just want to make surethat anyone listening to this
who might be thinking like, ohgosh, and now I have to you know
(40:02):
, I'm gonna have to work withangry customers it really has
such a big opportunity to makethat such a good experience for
the customer reaching out.
Megan (40:11):
Yeah, it's a great way to reframe it in your head,
because the reality is you willwork with an angry customer at
some point in customer support.
There's no way around it.
It's going to happen.
But if you can approach it as,oh OK, now is my time.
To work with an angry customerLike this is my challenge of the
day, like how much can I turnthis around, how much can I do
for them to make this the bestexperience?
(40:32):
It can become a fun challengeinstead of a oh my gosh, what do
I do?
Here we go.
Priscilla (40:40):
It's a great opportunity to really strengthen
your skills and make someone'sday yeah.
And if you're on a team that hasthese kinds of tools for you to
use, you can feel a little bitmore comfortable knowing that
you're not going to get hung outto dry if it doesn't go well.
If it ends up that you can'tchange their opinion Sometimes
you can't and if that happensyou're not going to be held
responsible necessarily, butinstead you have these tools to
(41:02):
equip you to handle it well.
And if you kind of have thatfreedom if it doesn't end up
well, that at least you've triedand you've taken the steps that
you need and now you can pullin someone else that can maybe
help on their end or maybe thecustomer does move to a new
product which is not the idealsituation, but sometimes that
will happen and kind of knowingthat you have these strategies
(41:23):
in place that you tried kind ofcommunicates to yourself that
you tried what you could try,and sometimes it doesn't work,
but you can kind of be confidentin the work you did do, if that
makes sense.
So I hope that some of thesestrategies that we've talked
about will help you to navigatethe experiences that you're
going to have in the future withfrustrated customers.
I hope that when you're in themiddle of that email, you can
(41:46):
remember to take a break, thatyou can remember to assume
positive intent and to notrespond when you're frustrated
yourself, and hopefully thiswill allow you to flip those
situations for your customersover and give them a really
remarkable, wonderful experience.
All right, well, it's time forSupport in Real Life, which is
(42:08):
our segment, where we talk aboutreal support experiences from
the real world, and so Jordanhas a story to share with us
today.
What do you got, Jordan?
Jordan (42:17):
All right.
So today I have another Redditpost and this person is asking
for advice for dealing withcustomers that aren't really
telling the truth.
So the writer writes advice fordealing with customers that
claim they have been calling forweeks and I know for a fact
they have not.
I'm the primary receptionistright now and fairly often I
(42:38):
will get customers claiming theyhave left messages for weeks or
days and I can look back at myrecords and not see a single
message left.
What are some tips to deal withthem or things to say to
diffuse the situation?
Priscilla (42:52):
Yeah, megan, do you have thoughts?
Megan (42:54):
Yeah, I was going to say it's okay to acknowledge it and
then move on.
Sometimes I see this in oursupport inbox and same thing.
We can look and see there areno emails from them.
But going back to assumingpositive intent, maybe they
wrote in under a different email.
Maybe they say they've beencalling for weeks but it is
their partner or a family memberwho has been calling for them
(43:16):
or calling to get the same thing, and so sometimes I think it's
okay to just acknowledge it andsay wow, I'm not seeing that on
my end.
I'm so sorry if we missed those.
Let's get into it now on how Ican help you, yeah.
Priscilla (43:28):
I think that it's kind of like taking their
reality at face value.
There's no reason to argue withthem about whether they've been
calling or whether they've beenemailing, because what you want
to do is solve the problem.
And so what's the problem?
Let's move past thisdisagreement we might have on
whether they've been calling andcalling for weeks or whether
they haven't.
But as a support specialist,our goal is to solve the problem
(43:49):
, and so let's move on beyondthat.
So it's kind of like there's noreason to argue with them about
that, even if you know thatthey haven't written in or they
haven't emailed, I mean, or theyhaven't called.
There's no reason to kind ofget to the nuts and bolts of
that, move past it and figureout what the issue is and kind
of accept their reality in thatsituation, as long as it's not
(44:10):
something that is related to theactual problem.
Megan (44:13):
Yeah, I think a lot of times when customers say that
it's their way of communicatingurgency with you Like I've been
trying to solve this and Ihaven't gotten a solution, I
think the best way to get aroundit is to just acknowledge it
and then, like you said said,get to the solution, because
that's what they're trying tocommunicate, is that they're
trying to get there as fast aspossible.
Priscilla (44:31):
Yeah, and acknowledging it allows you to,
like you were saying, if it'stheir way of saying this is
urgent, we can say, hey, yeah,it is urgent and we're going to
take it with the sameseriousness that you are
bringing it with.
We're going to take care of itfor you.
(44:51):
We're not going to get into theweeds about how many times
you've called and all of that.
That's not important.
What's important is gettingthis sorted for you and getting
it solved so that you understandthat we care about you as a
human being and more than just acustomer.
Jordan, can you read the lastbit of her question again?
Jordan (45:03):
Yeah, they said what are some tips to deal with them or
things to say to diffuse thesituation.
So I'm wondering if they'relooking for, you know, maybe a
phrase to say when someone'slike I've left you a bunch of
end, but I'm happy to help getthis solved for you.
Megan (45:29):
Or to say I might have missed it.
I think sometimes to takeownership of it.
It goes a long way because itreally doesn't matter.
You can take ownership as longas you're like oh, I see all of
those calls that we missed andI'm so sorry about that.
I think you can just gloss overit and take ownership of.
I'm not seeing that on my end,but I'm so sorry if we missed
that from you.
Let's handle it right now.
Priscilla (45:50):
Yeah.
Or sometimes, when people say Iemailed you, we'll get this in
support.
Sometimes They'll say I emailedyou and I know didn't get a
response back and I can see thatI did respond to them.
Sometimes I'll say somethingalong the lines of I see that I
sent a response at this time.
I'm sorry if that didn't makeit to you Kind of to say like I
did send something, but I'm alsorespecting the reality that
(46:13):
you've given me.
That is, you didn't get aresponse and there's other
things that could have happened.
It's possible that the emaildidn't send, or that your email
bounced or whatever it is, ormaybe you went to spam and you
just didn't see it.
Megan (46:24):
It just doesn't have to be anybody's fault.
Like you know what.
We're going to start from hereand keep going.
I think that's great.
Priscilla (46:37):
So remember to share your stories or questions with
us by emailing us at happy tohelp, at buzzsproutcom, or by
using the link in the show notesto text the show.
You can send us your storiesand questions that way and we
will pick one to read on ournext episode.
So send those in, and that's itfor today.
If you enjoyed this episode, besure to leave us a review and
follow us on Apple Podcasts oranywhere where you get your
(47:00):
podcasts.
Also, you can find us onInstagram at happytohelppod.
Thanks for joining us today,megan, and thanks to everyone
for listening.
Now go make someone's day.
Welcome to Happy to Help.
A podcast about customersupport from the people at
Buzzsprout.
I'm your host, priscilla Brooke.
Today we're focusing on aspecific customer profile the
angry customer.
We'll go through some tips youcan use to effectively work with
angry customers so you can turna negative experience into an
excellent one.
Thanks for joining us.
Let's get into it.
As always, we are joined by ourproducer, jordan hey Jordan,
(00:27):
hey there.
And today is already a greatepisode because we are joined by
Megan Nelson.
Megan is a member of theBuzzsprout Podcaster Success
Team.
She joined us in 2020, rightduring, like the beginning of
the pandemic is when she started.
I think her first day was April1st 2020.
So we were like deep into thethroes of being stuck at home.
(00:50):
She has experience in publicrelations and social media and
she did some teaching before shekind of entered the podcasting
support world, and so it's beenreally fun.
She's been on the team forabout four years now and she
provides excellent support toour podcasters, but in addition
to that she also writes theweekly newsletter for Buzzsprout
(01:11):
and does some work with ourmarketing team on marketing
initiatives, and so it's reallyfun.
I'm excited to have Megan here.
I think she's going to havesome really good insight into
working with angry customers.
Megan, I'm curious what is yourfavorite thing about working in
support?
Megan (01:26):
Well, thanks for having me.
I can't believe I've alreadybeen in support for four years.
It's crazy.
It's so fast Probably myfavorite thing about being here
for the last four years.
I love getting to helppodcasters all day.
I think it's really cool thatwe get to spend all day
answering questions, teachingdifferent things, and that, like
instant gratification piece isso cool to me how we can help
someone and five minutes laterit's like they're back on their
(01:48):
podcasting journey.
Priscilla (01:49):
Yeah, I think that's like such a good thing to
remember when you're working insupport is the instant
gratification Like you'reworking with someone on
something difficult, or even ifit's not that difficult and that
you can get it resolved, likeright away, and move on to the
next thing.
If you're like the kind ofperson who likes to check off
things on a to-do list, ohthat's me, which is so me too,
then support can be like reallysatisfying.
(02:12):
In that way You're like great,tied that one with a bow.
Moving on to the next one, Ilove that.
So I'm glad we kind of werestarting on this like positive
note, because today we're goingto talk about angry customers,
which you know is something Ithink that everyone who works in
the help those kind ofcustomers, while also kind of
(02:45):
protecting our own boundaries,our own peace, our own calm,
because it's really easy to getcaught up in the frustration on
both sides if you're workingwith an angry customer.
So that's what we're going totalk about today, and I'm really
excited that Megan is here tojoin us.
The first thing I kind of wantto talk through is why are angry
customers angry?
So when you're working insupport, there are going to be
(03:08):
times when someone writes in andthey're frustrated for a
variety of different reasons,and I think it's important,
before you start to get to aplace where you're trying to
solve problems or even likeunderstanding strategies for
responding to someone, I thinkit's important to know why
they're angry in the first place, and so I jotted down a couple
things on my end about thingsthat I've seen over the years,
(03:28):
about why people are frustratedand why they write in.
The biggest one, I feel like,is that a customer writes in
because they've had a badexperience with your product, or
maybe if you offer a service.
I feel like that's the mostcommon.
Megan (03:56):
They've run into a roadblock and they ride in and
they're frustrated becausethey've experienced something
tough in that moment, like ourgut reaction.
But I think, as support people,we always want people to see us
as humans too and not just likesomeone sitting behind a
computer.
We're not just a robot, and soI always try to like keep that
mindset in reverse, like, okay,they're human too.
What happened to make them likethis?
Priscilla (04:16):
Right, and so understanding, like the why of
what's frustrating them is, likeI feel like that first step.
I also feel like sometimes wewill get customers who reach out
who are just frustrated becausethey're expecting to have a bad
experience.
You know, like maybe theydidn't have a big issue with the
product or a bad experiencewith the product, but maybe they
(04:40):
just have a random question.
That's pretty run of the mill,but they're like I have to reach
out to support now and so I'mcoming in hot and I'm frustrated
right off the bat.
I think that is another goodthing to be aware of if you're
working with someone who'sfrustrated because the product
has made them frustrated, or ifthey're just frustrated because
they're assuming that thesupport is going to be mediocre
(05:01):
or painful and so they're comingin ready for that.
They're kind of bracing forthat experience.
Megan (05:07):
Yeah, I think, unfortunately, the support
industry gets a bad reputationfor, you know, going to be a
negative experience or this isgoing to be a headache, or it's
going to take some time, and youcan definitely tell the people
who write in bracing themselvesfor those situations.
But that's also a uniqueopportunity.
I think that you get to be likeoh, just you wait, this is
about to be better.
Priscilla (05:24):
Yeah, exactly, I liked what you said about the
human side of it.
I think, as we're getting readyto talk through this, one thing
that I think of is like thetimes that I have been the angry
customer, you know, like I meanI can think not a ton, but I
can think of times where I'vebeen so frustrated working with
a support team, and sometimesit's because the service I'm
(05:46):
getting from the team is bad.
Sometimes it's because theproduct didn't work the way it
was supposed to.
Sometimes it's because you'rejust not getting any responses
at all and that's frustrating.
But I can think of those timesand I'm like, oh, I did not.
That was not my peak Priscillamoment.
That was a pretty bad momentfor me, not one that I'm proud
of.
And even while understandingthat and recognizing that, oh,
(06:09):
that wasn't a great moment forme, I also can recognize why I
was frustrated.
So it's not like I shouldn'thave been frustrated.
That's still legit and valid,but maybe the way that came
across wasn't the right way.
And so I think you saying youknow they're humans and we're
humans, I think that's reallyimportant as you're working with
(06:30):
anyone, to kind of keep that aslike your most top of mind kind
of information that you keep inyour head that, ok, we are just
people working together and Imean that's kind of how we
approach all of our supportanyway.
But I think with angry customers, it's really important to keep
that top of mind.
Both of these types ofcustomers can be won over right
(06:50):
with remarkable support, but Ithink the techniques that you'll
use for each one are slightlydifferent, and so I kind of
jotted down some techniques.
So the person who's kind ofangry with the product or angry
with the service, I think it'simportant to apologize.
If it's our fault, like if it'ssomething that it really was,
like the product malfunctioned,then apologizing for that
specifically is really important.
If it wasn't something that theproduct did wrong and it wasn't
(07:14):
our fault, or maybe it's theproduct didn't work the way they
expected it to work, but itwasn't actually that the product
was wrong, it's just that theydidn't understand it, right.
Does that make sense?
Yeah was wrong.
It's just that they didn'tunderstand it, right.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, then like empathizingwith them, even though we're not
necessarily apologizing for it,but we're going to empathize
with them because their realityis still their reality and it
still caused frustration.
Megan (07:34):
Yeah, I think a lot of times angry customers like a
great way to start diffusingeither way is just to recognize
the anger, because that'ssomething that they want to see
recognized, because it'ssomething that came up for them.
So the faster I think you canrecognize that, either through
an apology or throughempathizing with them, makes
them feel seen and like you'reon their team going to say that
(08:03):
you know really well.
Priscilla (08:04):
But obviously you can still be mad at people you know
well, but it's harder to berude and angry to people when
you know that it's like anotherperson who's like actively
trying to help you.
And so like establishing thatearly on and like humanizing the
conversation right off the batI think is going to hopefully
start you off on the right footwhen it comes to like turning
that situation around.
Megan (08:22):
Yeah, which can be difficult when you're on email
support because you don't havethat voice connection or you
don't see someone right in frontof you.
But it's also important to makesure you're trying to establish
that through your words as well, so people understand that it's
on the other side of thecomputer.
There actually is a personthere.
Priscilla (08:37):
Right.
And that goes back to the toneconversation we had a couple of
weeks ago about how importanthow you write is and the tone
you write in, especially whenyou're working with someone
who's frustrated because theyare not going to have a ton of
margin for your tone beingslightly off.
You know what I mean.
They're really close to theedge there, and so you want to
(08:58):
make sure you're veryintentional about how you're
writing back to them.
One thing I had on here forthose kind of customers that are
frustrated because they had anissue with the product was to
confirm details.
I think sometimes when you'rewriting in and you're frustrated
, it can be easy to focus on thefrustration right off the bat
(09:18):
and miss the like facts that areunderneath, and so confirming
those details and making surethat everyone's on the same page
before you start to like solvethe problem and address the
frustration I think having thatbasis and understanding of the
facts is really important, andso for those people that have
run into an issue, it's reallyimportant as a support
specialist to know what issueexactly they run into and what
(09:42):
steps they use to get there andkind of understanding those
facts right as like a base level.
Jordan (09:47):
So by saying like confirming the details, do you
mean that it helps to write backand be like okay, so you're
saying that you took this stepand then you ran into this and
then you tried this and you raninto this.
Is that what you're talkingabout?
When you're talking about, likeconfirming details?
Are you talking about likefollowing up and asking just to
make sure, like did you checkyour password and check this and
(10:09):
check?
Priscilla (10:09):
that that's a good clarification.
I mean the first thing, makingsure that you understand the
steps they took, understandingtheir reality.
Jordan (10:18):
And it's like repeating back to them what they've said
and it kind of confirms to themat the same time that you are
hearing them, you are listeningto what they're saying Exactly
and they're yes, it's likeactive listening but it's funny
to talk about it as activelistening when you're on email
support.
Priscilla (10:36):
But it's kind of like that active listening.
They've told you what issuethey've run into and now you're
going to return it to them, kindof as a way to show your work,
that you know exactly what theproblem is and you understand
and you're on the same page andso then you can move forward
with solving the problem forthem.
Megan (10:53):
I think that's such like an important piece to remember,
especially for angry customers,because I think sometimes
someone can write in reallyangry and sometimes they're
using language you're not usedto or something kind of catches
you off guard and your firstinstinct as someone who just
wants to help is to like I haveto make the situation better
right now, and sometimes thatcauses you to jump to
conclusions on this must bewhat's happening because they're
(11:15):
so angry about this.
But if you take the time tostep back and repeat back to
them the steps they're doing, italso helps you as the support
specialist not miss anything andnot make any assumptions or go
straight to like diffusingwhat's going on.
Priscilla (11:28):
Because the only thing that's more frustrating
about having an issue with aproduct and then reaching out to
a support team is when thesupport team doesn't understand
what the issue is.
Megan (11:37):
Or solves the wrong issue for you because they made an
assumption that can spiral itway worse than the one email
that came in.
Priscilla (11:43):
Yeah, so getting that foundation is so important One
thing that we that's prettyunique to Buzzsprout but people
will write in and they'll say Ican't download my episodes.
And in Buzzsprout, typicallyyou're uploading episodes,
you're not downloading them.
And so sometimes people willwrite in and they'll be
frustrated and say my episode'snot downloading.
And it's important for us, as asupport specialist who's trying
(12:06):
to diffuse a situation, toclarify that what they're trying
to do is uploading, because ifwe were to just take downloading
at face value, we'd be like,well, yeah, you're not supposed
to download, but that's going tomake someone more frustrated.
So, kind of like looking forthose facts, finding that
clarifying do you mean thatyou're uploading the episode?
If so, here's where that couldhave gone wrong or however it is
(12:27):
.
But yeah, I think that's reallyimportant to set those facts so
that you're on the right path,going forward and not making
assumptions that could justcause more frustration.
Megan (12:35):
Yeah, especially if you're in an industry like
podcasting that has veryspecific terminology and that's
very easy to get mixed up.
Priscilla (12:42):
Oh yeah, for sure, and I kind of alluded to it
earlier.
But I think angry customersthey're not going to have the
tolerance for kind of fluff.
So one thing we do a lot withsupport is we're very casual and
we're friendly and we're funand we use GIFs and we use
emojis.
And if someone writes in andthey're angry about something
and you send them a GIF backthat's like tonally so different
(13:03):
than their frustration in theiremail and you send them like a
high-fiving, like we can do thisGIF, that's probably not going
to be easing the situation.
So you kind of have to read thetone a little bit and make sure
that you're handling somethingwith the same sense of care that
they are, so that you're notdevaluing, maybe, the issue that
they're running into.
You want to make sure your toneis kind of matching them a
(13:24):
little bit so that they feellike they're being taken care of
by someone who really caresabout the issue that they're
going through.
Megan (13:29):
Taking it seriously.
Yeah, taking it seriously.
Priscilla (13:31):
You said it in three words.
So I think with people who areangry in general so not people
that have run into an issue withthe product, but someone who's
just writing in because theyhave an expectation that sports
going to be bad and so they'rejust right off the bat, they're
coming in hot I think with thosepeople it's likely that they've
(13:51):
already decided how theinteraction is going to go and
so we kind of have this funopportunity to prove them wrong,
if that makes sense, and soit's a little bit.
I mean, I kind of see those alittle bit more fun when people
write in and they're like ohgreat, this happened again.
Now I can't do this or I'mfrustrated and I have to reach
out to support, and it's notbecause of something like that's
(14:12):
product related, but it's justnow I got to do this and you
guys are going to be bad.
It's more fun, kind of, to belike oh, let me show you it's
actually not going to be bad,this is going to be great and
you're going to have a fun time.
So I feel like with those peopleI always try to get to the root
of what's frustrating themfirst.
So it's the same thing withkind of like figuring out where
the issue was with the product.
I want to get to the root ofwhere the frustration lies and
(14:34):
if it's that, they assume thatit's going to be bad support
because it phone support,starting right there and
addressing that right up frontand saying, hey, we actually
have really great email supportand let me show you like, let me
work with you and show you thatit's going to be really good.
Megan (14:47):
Yeah, and a great tip for that which I try to do is when
I can tell somebody is writingin and they think this is going
to be a bad experience, I try totake as much personalization
from their email as possible.
So, like, as always, make sureyou're including their name, but
sometimes even like repeatingsome of the phrases that they
have said in their email back tothem as a part of your answer,
or if they have something funnyin their signature.
Replying back to them with thatcan also really help too,
(15:10):
because it makes them be like,oh my gosh, they really read
through my email and they careabout this and they're
responding, and it's not justlike some quick answer they're
trying to send off to me.
Jordan (15:18):
Yeah.
Priscilla (15:23):
I think that can go a long way with somebody who's
not expecting it yeah, it likeinserts the personality into it
and with those kind offrustrated customers who are
expecting a bad experience,giving them that personality can
be so beneficial and it really,like can turn the whole thing
on its head.
I know that you've had thishappen, megan.
I've had it happen where peoplewrite in.
One of the things that is likemy pet peeve in support is when
(15:44):
people say what gives, likethey'll ask a question and then
they'll say what gives, and itjust always kind of like grinds
my gears a little.
I'm like oh, what gives?
Oh, let me explain.
But those people I'm alwayslike, let me flip this around
for you.
Let me show you that I am notjust like a robot on this other
side, but I'm a real person.
I'm going to help you.
I'm going to like show you thatI know who you are, kind of a
(16:06):
thing.
I'm going to read that thing inyour signature.
Jordan (16:08):
I give, I give I give what gives.
I give, I give a lot.
Priscilla (16:14):
I give a lot of care and understanding to you as a
podcaster.
Megan (16:17):
I also think, like the speed of the response time with
those podcasters is key.
Obviously you never want to belike rushing your response, like
you don't want time to be atthe sake of quality, but if you
can give them a very qualityresponse in a few minutes or in
an hour or whatever is standardfor your company's response time
, I think that makes a reallybig difference too.
(16:38):
I think it can totally turn iton its head when they get a
thought out email back fiveminutes later.
Priscilla (16:46):
Yeah Well, I don't know about you guys, but when
I'm frustrated, just in like myregular life, the more I sit
alone in my thoughts, the morefrustrated I get.
And so it's like you said youdon't want to leave someone
sitting for two hours becausethey're just going to grow and
get more frustrated and maybethey start emailing you multiple
times.
We have that too, where peoplewill say I've been sitting for
45 minutes, you haven'tresponded.
So kind of prioritizing that alittle bit and getting back to
(17:07):
them quickly with good qualityresponses is good, and I think
the flip side of that is makingsure your responses are quality,
because if you're respondingquickly and they're one sentence
, quick blurbs, that's not gonnacommunicate to your customer
that you're really invested inthe situation and they aren't
going to feel cared for in thatway.
(17:29):
So I think there's a goodbalance there of being quick and
also being thorough.
Megan (17:33):
Yeah, you want to make sure you're still the expert in
the space.
Priscilla (17:35):
Yeah, I think the point is kind of what we talked
about earlier, that people comeinto support situations
sometimes with bad expectationsof that support experience and
the reason they have thoseexpectations is because they
have had bad support experiencesin the past and so it's not
that they're just coming inbecause they expect us to be bad
for no reason.
(17:56):
They've probably had situationswhere they've been treated not
great, and so you know we alsowant to be aware of that.
You know that's not who we areand we're going to give you a
really good experience.
But I also recognize that thisis not what you're expecting,
this is not what you've had inthe past, and so hopefully by
the end of that conversationthat's changed their opinion of
(18:16):
support a little bit.
But we kind of want to begentle to that, that it is
because they've had a badexperience in the past, not just
because they expect it to beterrible for no reason.
Megan (18:24):
Yeah, and it can take a few interactions too.
I think to be prepared for thatas a support specialist as well
.
I know there are companies I'veemailed into and had great
experiences with, and the firstone I'm always skeptical, like
did I just get a good supportperson, or is this how you run
your team?
Jordan (18:37):
Yeah.
Megan (18:37):
And then after a few interactions I'm like oh no, I
can definitely count on them IfI email them.
I know I'm going to getsomething back.
So I think, also being awarethat it could take some time to
build that relationship.
Priscilla (18:46):
Yeah for sure, and I don't want people to hear this
and think, ok, so you're tellingme, as a support specialist, I
should just be a punching bagand people can be rude and mean
to me and angry with me and I'mjust going to roll over and take
it because I'm a supportspecialist, like.
(19:06):
I don't want that to be thetakeaway here, and so I also
want to talk a little bit aboutstrategies that we use Megan and
I and the rest of theBuzzsprout support team use to
kind of navigate angry customersin a way that allows us to
still protect our calm andprotect our peace in support and
just protect ourselves and nothave someone just yelling at you
for no reason when you can'tget through that.
Megan (19:26):
Yeah, and the reality is is there's so many calm,
wonderful, not angry customersfor the one angry customer, and
if you let the one angrycustomer get to you, it can
impact your responses to all theother customers you deal with
while you're processing what'sgoing on, and so it's really
important to make sure, like yousaid, like that you're
protecting your piece, that youdon't have to roll over and be a
(19:47):
punching bag for them, becauseyou also not only just for
yourself you have to be able togive to these other people
writing in to support and youwant to make sure that they are
getting the same remarkablesupport as the angry customer.
Priscilla (19:58):
Yeah, I think that's really important and you know,
if you're leading a support team, I think it's really important
to have these kind of strategiesoutlined for your team so that
your team feels equipped tohandle these situations and they
know what tools they haveavailable to them to move
through this situation.
Because if you aren't given anytools to work with an angry
(20:21):
customer, then, depending on theperson who's working with them,
it can be really difficult andit can be it can cause people to
burn out really easily if youdon't have good tools in place.
I wanted to talk through someof our tips we have.
So we have kind of a documentthat outlines some of our like
strategies and support, and so Ipulled some of those that kind
(20:41):
of relate specifically to angrycustomers and I wanted to talk
through those a little bit.
So the first one goes back toone of our earliest episodes
where we were talking aboutempathy with Brian and he
mentioned the idea that everyonehas a story.
That's a really important thingto remember when we're working
with frustrated or angry or meanpeople in support is that
(21:03):
there's something going on ontheir end that we don't know
about, and so when you'reworking with anyone who's
frustrated or not.
Remembering that and keepinglike you said, Megan, at the
beginning, the human aspect ofit.
Keeping that top of mind isreally important to set the tone
for the entire back and forthand it allows it to keep it calm
, or at least it gives it theability to stay calm.
(21:25):
It's possible that theconversation won't stay calm if
they get more frustrated overtime because you can't fully
control how someone's going torespond to you, but at least
keeping that for us as thesupport specialist, top of mind
is a good way to start off thatwhole interaction.
Megan (21:41):
Yeah, it helps to set the framework for where you want it
to go.
Priscilla (21:44):
Yeah, exactly, and you said it earlier, megan.
You said use the customer'sname, and I had that written
down here too as like a strategy, a way to like make sure that
we're communicating to them thatwe're human.
It's kind of like leveling withthem, like I'm going to use
your name.
Sometimes I'll use it at theend of an email to like remind
them like hey, I still know,your name is Cynthia.
(22:05):
You know, like I'll say hi toCynthia in the beginning and
then I'll say if there'sanything else I can do to help,
please let me know Cynthia, orsomething, so that the person
knows that at the end of theemail that I still know who they
are, I still know who I'mtalking to, and we recommend to
never respond angry.
I think that's prettyself-explanatory.
But you know, when you'reworking with customers all day
(22:27):
and you're emailing them overand over and over and over, it
can be hard sometimes to stopyourself if you start to get
frustrated.
But it's really important ifsomeone is written in to you and
they're angry and you findyourself also matching that
anger or even like feeling itinternally and going okay, I got
to suppress this and write ahappy, empathetic email, but
(22:48):
inside I'm frustrated and I'mstarting to get mad with them.
Just stop typing.
I feel like I have learned.
I've gone back and read emailswhen I was frustrated and I was
writing in an empathetic way,and I can tell that I was not as
empathetic as I could have been, like I can.
I can feel the frustrationcoming through, even if I feel
like I'm masking it really wellin my writing.
(23:09):
The reality is you're probablynot, and so one of our top
things is if you're frustrated,if you find yourself getting
frustrated, take a break.
Stop responding.
It's totally OK to let it sitresponding.
Megan (23:23):
It's totally okay to let it sit.
I think that's like a reallyfreeing thing if you lead a
support team to instill in yourteam as well.
I remember when I was firststarting on the team.
You know we're in the height ofCOVID.
We're getting a ton of emails aday, everyone's starting a
podcast and that was a verychallenging time for a lot of
people.
So we did see maybe I don'twant to say more angry customers
during that time, butdefinitely there was more
emotion being put into some ofthe emails that were coming
(23:44):
through and it was so freeingfor me to have Priscilla say
like hey, you can wait a minuteto respond to that person.
Like go answer this other oneand come back to it, just to
kind of clear your mind for asecond and to make sure you're
not responding from an angryplace, Even if you think you're
not.
Sometimes putting a little likeactual time distance between
you and the email is superhelpful for everyone's mental
(24:05):
state, Like it helps you cooloff a little bit.
Sometimes it helps the personwriting in have a second to be
like oh wait, maybe I shouldn'thave gotten so worked up about
that or maybe I said that in away that didn't come across well
in email, and so I think havingthat start at the top and come
down is super freeing for theteam and can really help to set
a calm culture.
Priscilla (24:25):
Yeah, and I think earlier we said we don't want to
make customers wait too longwhen they're frustrated.
I do think there's a balancethere.
You don't want to make them sitfor an hour, but if you're
responding from a place offrustration, that's not going to
be beneficial to anyone.
Place of frustration, that'snot going to be beneficial to
anyone.
And so taking five minutes,stepping away from your desk,
(24:46):
changing the track, you know,changing your mind to something
else and then coming back to it,allows your kind of patience
reserve to build up a little bit.
And even if that's just fiveminutes, it can still be really
beneficial.
And that kind of leads into thenext one, which is take a break
.
During right, when Megan startedreally in the pandemic, things
got a little bit crazy atBuzzsprout support because we
had, you know, megan was a newhire, she had just joined the
(25:08):
team, podcasting was booming andBuzzsprout was getting a lot
more new podcasters that neededhelp, and so we were, you know,
stretched a little thin at thatpoint, and so we ran into
situations where we had beenlike working without moving for
a long time.
So when you're working withsomeone and you haven't taken a
break in a while and they'regetting frustrated with you, it
(25:30):
can be really hard to continueworking with that person.
So it kind of goes hand in handwith the don't respond angry.
But it's almost just like takea break, walk away, go outside,
see some sunshine, remindyourself that there are things
outside of just what's happeningin your computer, because
that's going to give you so muchmore to pull from when you come
back and you start working withpodcasters again or with
(25:51):
customers again.
So take a break is another toolthat we have in our tool belt
when we're working withfrustrated customers.
Megan (25:57):
Making a cup of coffee can save a lot.
Priscilla (26:00):
Yeah, it can Take a minute.
Go make a latte, come back,you'll be happier and then
you'll give people bettersupport.
For sure it's miraculous.
Okay, one of my favorite thingsthat we do is that we will pull
each other in.
We'll call for backup.
I love this technique for acouple reasons because it allows
us, as a team, to lean on eachother, and it also shows other
(26:21):
people as a team to lean on eachother, and it also shows other
people on your team that youhave their back.
And so if someone's getting toofrustrated with you and you're
like, you know, I just feel likethis person is going to need a
different voice, because at thispoint they're frustrated with
me Like maybe it's me, maybe I'mworking with someone, priscilla
and they are starting to getfrustrated with me and I go.
(26:42):
You know, I really think theyneed a different voice, like
there's something about methat's adding frustration.
I'm going to pull in Megan andhave her take over, and Megan
has renewed full tank ofpatience with this person, and
so she's going to come in.
They're going to hear a newvoice, and maybe the response
from them then is oh, megan's somuch better than Priscilla is,
and them than is.
Oh, megan's so much better thanPriscilla is, and that's you
know.
(27:02):
If that's how they take it,that's okay.
But the goal is to make surethat they're getting the best
responses, and if my voice is nolonger doing that, then having
the ability and the freedom topull in someone else to provide
a different voice for them, Ithink can be really beneficial.
Megan (27:17):
And it doesn't have to be a clunky transition either.
Like in your email, you canjust quickly say like I'm Megan
and I work with Priscilla, shewanted me to take a look at this
for you, and that makes themfeel like, oh, I'm getting extra
care, extra attention.
They're really thinking aboutthis from their side and it is.
You have two people now who aretalking about your situation,
trying to make it as best aspossible.
Priscilla (27:54):
So it doesn't have to be an awkward transition.
It can be a quick handoff andit can really make a big
difference for some people tojust feel like a look at this
and to give new insight or toget a new perspective or
something like that, and itcommunicates to the person that
they're getting VIP treatmentbecause they're getting a second
person, and so, yeah, I thinkthat's a really good thing to
point out.
That doesn't have to be likeevery time you're pulling in
(28:16):
your manager.
It doesn't have to always beescalated up.
It can be a lateral voicechange to always be escalated up
.
It can be a lateral voicechange.
Okay, another tool that we useis assuming positive intent.
So a couple weeks ago we weretalking about how, with
communication, so much of it isbody language, so much of it is
not the words you're saying, andso when you're working in email
(28:39):
, you're losing so much of kindof that communication because
all you're doing is email andwritten word, and so with that
it's sometimes you will bemisunderstood by your customers.
But sometimes you willmisunderstand your customers
Right, because they're only ableto communicate via email as
well, and so one of the thingsthat we will do is we'll just
(29:01):
assume positive intent.
Well, and so one of the thingsthat we will do is we'll just
assume positive intent.
So sometimes someone will sendan email that you are like I'm
pretty sure they mean this to berude and sarcastic, but I'm
going to assume that they'rebeing positive and that they're
intending this to be helpful andthat's how I'm going to take it
.
I'm going to take it in thatway, even if I'm pretty sure
they're trying to be rude andsnarky, I'm going to assume
positive intent.
(29:22):
I'm going to be kind back andassume that they're being
positive.
And you know, I think that thatcan be hard.
I know for me it can be hard,because if someone's snarky with
me, I want to be snarky, butit's so important to assume that
they're being positive thatthey're not being snarky.
So when they say what gives andin my like person I'm like oh,
(29:45):
what gives?
You're coming in hot insteadresponding and saying like, hey,
let me explain this to you.
And not taking that like whatgives at face, like taking it as
a positive what gives, allowsme to kind of have a kinder
response if we assume positiveintent.
One of my favorite ways thisshows up, or has shown up in
non-support terms is have youguys seen the movie Everything
(30:10):
Everywhere All at Once?
Yes, I have not.
Okay, I love this movie.
It's fantastic.
If you haven't seen it, go seeit.
It's so good.
Michelle Yeoh is amazing.
Jordan (30:20):
There are some moments like I wouldn't take kids to see
it, but it is so good.
Michelle Yeoh is amazing.
Priscilla (30:23):
There are some moments like I wouldn't take
kids to see it, but it is sogood.
Thank you, jordan, that's agood thing to say no children.
It's not a kids movie but it'sso good.
But there's one part in themovie where you kind of have a
husband and a wife and the wifeis very combative, she fights a
lot, she's, you know, veryphysical with the fighting and
the husband is more meek andquiet and kind and they're
(30:44):
having this conversation whereshe's kind of frustrated with
him because he's not standing upand fighting back and he's
talking about how his kindnessis strategic and necessary is
what he says.
He says I know you think thatI'm weak, but actually my
kindness is strategic andnecessary.
It's how I fight.
I'm weak but actually mykindness is strategic and
necessary.
It's how I fight.
I remember watching it in thetheater and thinking that is so
(31:06):
good for support to think about.
We're not being kind becausewe're pushovers.
We're not going to read yourrude email and be kind back
because we're idiots and wedon't realize you're being rude.
We're assuming positive intentbecause that is a strategy that
we're going to use to help youunderstand that we're on your
team.
It's the way that we'refighting.
Our kindness is strategic andnecessary and I just love
(31:29):
thinking about that in thecontext of support and being
kind, because sometimes it canfeel, if you're being kind, like
you're just being a punchingbag for an angry, rude person.
But if you think about it less,like I'm just taking it in
because that's what I'm paid todo to be punched by this
customer.
But instead, if you look at itlike I am trying to get you on
(31:51):
my side, I am trying to prove toyou that this is going to be a
good experience.
My kindness to you is strategicand necessary.
It's not me rolling over andletting you kick me in the face.
So, yeah, I love that movie.
You should definitely see it,and that part of it always gets
me.
Megan (32:08):
Customer support homework .
Jordan (32:09):
I was going to say now I have to watch it again because
just you saying that line I gotlike the goosebumps and like the
weepy eyes again and I was like, oh, that was so good His whole
monologue when he talks through.
Priscilla (32:20):
that is so good.
I cannot watch it withoutcrying and I just love it.
Jordan (32:24):
I just love it so much.
Priscilla (32:25):
Yep, it really is crying and I just love it.
I just love it so much.
Yep, it really is Okay.
So the next thing is notgetting defensive.
I think sometimes, depending onhow long you've been with a
product or maybe how much of ahand you've had in building a
product, it can be really easyto get defensive when someone
has an issue with that product,and so it's really important to
not let someone's frustrationmake you defensive.
(32:48):
It's not worth taking itpersonally, if that makes sense.
Megan (32:52):
I think a good way to think about it is sometimes it's
just not as deep as people wantit to be Like it can be helpful
to have a computer or a phonein between you in these moments
when you're like, don't getdefensive, because you can kind
of take a step back and be likeOK, Like don't get defensive,
because you can kind of take astep back and be like OK, like
this is just an email that iscoming through the computer or
this is just another person onthe other side of the phone.
I can take a breath.
(33:13):
Like you said, it doesn't haveto be like a personal attack on
me.
Yeah, this is just anotherissue of the day Like really
keeping the angry comments orangry email, like keeping them
in their place, like knowingwhere they fall on your priority
list of the day.
Priscilla (33:28):
Yeah, and that kind of like goes back to like
stepping outside and you know,looking at the sky and realizing
there are bigger things thanthis one support, interaction
and you still want to make surethat you're handling that with
care, but you don't want to getto you in that personal way.
So yeah, cause you can burn outthat way you can.
Megan (33:44):
You know that's when you start to see like, yeah, because
you can burn out that way youcan.
You know that's when you startto see like, oh, you get really
anxious before answering emailsor you leave work feeling really
upset.
I think the beauty of customersupport is that it's not life or
death situations you're dealingwith most.
(34:04):
Respond with empathy, respondto human to human, but it
doesn't have to be such thisimmediate like oh my gosh, it
has to happen right now and I'mnot in the place to deal with
this and this is hurting myfeelings, or it can really cause
you to spiral.
Priscilla (34:16):
Yeah, and I think it is important to remember that in
most industries it's not lifeor death.
In some cases it is moreserious.
Megan (34:24):
Absolutely.
Priscilla (34:24):
So you do want to make sure that you're handling
it with the level of care thatit deserves, but you can handle
it with care without taking itpersonally at the same time, and
so you can still segment thatout and say this is really
important and this is.
Maybe it is life or death,maybe it is something like if
you do insurance support for aninsurance company, like it might
be something that's much moreserious, but it still doesn't
(34:47):
need to be personal to you.
It doesn't need to be apersonal attack and you don't
have to take it that way.
So I think it's just reallyimportant to keep that in mind
when you're working with someonewho's frustrated and it goes
back to like remembering theyhave a story, there are other
things that are causing them tobe frustrated, and then I think
it's really important, asleading a support team we kind
of talked about this at thebeginning of our talking about
(35:10):
strategies but making sure thatyour team knows where that line
is, where the line is that theycan take it, and then making
sure there is a line where theydon't have to take it anymore,
if that makes sense, so we canbe respectful and kind and
assume positive intent and allof these strategies, but there
(35:30):
is a point where the customercan get too mean or rude or
pointed or personal and you wantto make sure your team has a
way to step out of thatsituation to protect themselves.
Does that make sense?
And knowing where that line isfor your whole team can be
really, really necessary if youwant to have people on your team
(35:52):
for longer periods of time orelse, like you were saying,
they're going to burn out ifthey're constantly having to
work with people that arecalling them names and berating
them, and so I do think there isa line that you can set, that
you can bring up with thecustomer and say, hey, we're
actually real people here andwe're here to help you, and if
this is how you're going tospeak to us, we might not be
(36:12):
able to continue thisconversation because it's
getting to a point now whereyou're unnecessarily rude.
I think that's really important, to be really clear with your
team where that line is, so theyhave the freedom to come to you
as the leader and say I can'twork with this person anymore
and they don't feel any kind ofshame around passing that off to
a manager.
Megan (36:33):
Yeah, because I mean as many tips as we give out, and
these are all awesome tips.
There are times where it justdoesn't work, where you can try
every tip.
You can provide remarkablesupport.
You can take a break, you cancall for backup, you can assume
positive intent and still get toa place where it's not
beneficial, and you do need topass it off to someone and have
those lines be communicated in aattacking way at someone on our
(37:08):
team.
Priscilla (37:09):
I think it's pretty clear to everyone on the team
that at that point they can callin Priscilla and say, hey, I
need you to take this from here.
This person has gotten rude andthey're using, you know,
profanity directed at me.
And then I will come in like amama bear and be like hey, this
is not how you treat the peopleon my team.
We're here for you, like we'reall happy to help you with this.
That's what we're here to do.
We can't do it.
If you're going to be rude andmean to us, you don't have to do
(37:31):
that in order to get goodsupport.
So we actually have liketerminology around that that we
use with frustrated customersonce they cross that line to
make it really clear that ifyou're going to reach out to us
in the future, please treat uswith respect.
We're real people and we'realways going to treat you with
respect.
Treat us with respect.
We're real people and we'realways going to treat you with
respect and there's no need tolose that.
Megan (37:51):
It's so beneficial to have that terminology written
out before you have to deal withthe customer as well.
Because if you're trying to dothat in the heat of the moment,
even if you are ahead of a teamcoming in and taking it over for
somebody on your team, there'sstill emotion that goes into it,
because you're defensive of theperson on your team or you feel
you know this has escalated toa point where you feel like
you're invested in it more thanmaybe you'd want to be, or it
(38:13):
just is so helpful to have thatterminology written out ahead of
time so you can add it in andjust be as like to the point as
possible.
Priscilla (38:20):
Yeah, and so you're writing it originally at a place
where you're not emotionallydriven and then you might use it
in a place where, emotionally,you know you're frustrated.
But you can use this wordingthat you've already written out
in a calm experience, a calmtime, to do that.
Megan (38:33):
Takes the emotion out of it, for sure.
Priscilla (38:35):
I want to kind of end on a reminder that these kind
of frustrated and angrycustomers give us the really
awesome opportunity to fliptheir experiences over and give
them a remarkable experience.
I know there have been timeswhere I have been frustrated and
have reached out to a supportteam and have had a really good
(38:57):
interaction, and when thathappens, my loyalty is so much
stronger, and so we're talkingthrough these strategies.
I think it can be hard, it canbe against our nature sometimes
to be like, oh, I'm going.
I think it can be hard, it canbe against our nature sometimes
to be like, oh, I'm going toassume positive intent every
time.
It can be difficult, but thepayoff for that is huge.
If you can take someone who'sfrustrated and turn their
(39:19):
situation around and give them areally good experience, you're
gaining a customer probably forlife.
The loyalty there is huge, orcan has the potential to be huge
, and so it's important toreally work through this with
intention and not see it as, oh,this is going to be frustrating
, I got to move this person outof the inbox just to move them
(39:41):
on, but to really take it askind of like a mission of okay,
I want to change this person'sopinion about support.
I want this person to know thisperson's opinion about support.
I want this person to know thatI'm on their side.
I want to make this person'sday better because clearly it's
been a rough day, if this is howthey're reaching out to me, and
so I just want to make surethat anyone listening to this
who might be thinking like, ohgosh, and now I have to you know
(40:02):
, I'm gonna have to work withangry customers it really has
such a big opportunity to makethat such a good experience for
the customer reaching out.
Megan (40:11):
Yeah, it's a great way to reframe it in your head,
because the reality is you willwork with an angry customer at
some point in customer support.
There's no way around it.
It's going to happen.
But if you can approach it as,oh OK, now is my time.
To work with an angry customerLike this is my challenge of the
day, like how much can I turnthis around, how much can I do
for them to make this the bestexperience?
(40:32):
It can become a fun challengeinstead of a oh my gosh, what do
I do?
Here we go.
Priscilla (40:40):
It's a great opportunity to really strengthen
your skills and make someone'sday yeah.
And if you're on a team that hasthese kinds of tools for you to
use, you can feel a little bitmore comfortable knowing that
you're not going to get hung outto dry if it doesn't go well.
If it ends up that you can'tchange their opinion Sometimes
you can't and if that happensyou're not going to be held
responsible necessarily, butinstead you have these tools to
(41:02):
equip you to handle it well.
And if you kind of have thatfreedom if it doesn't end up
well, that at least you've triedand you've taken the steps that
you need and now you can pullin someone else that can maybe
help on their end or maybe thecustomer does move to a new
product which is not the idealsituation, but sometimes that
will happen and kind of knowingthat you have these strategies
(41:23):
in place that you tried kind ofcommunicates to yourself that
you tried what you could try,and sometimes it doesn't work,
but you can kind of be confidentin the work you did do, if that
makes sense.
So I hope that some of thesestrategies that we've talked
about will help you to navigatethe experiences that you're
going to have in the future withfrustrated customers.
I hope that when you're in themiddle of that email, you can
(41:46):
remember to take a break, thatyou can remember to assume
positive intent and to notrespond when you're frustrated
yourself, and hopefully thiswill allow you to flip those
situations for your customersover and give them a really
remarkable, wonderful experience.
All right, well, it's time forSupport in Real Life, which is
(42:08):
our segment, where we talk aboutreal support experiences from
the real world, and so Jordanhas a story to share with us
today.
What do you got, Jordan?
Jordan (42:17):
All right.
So today I have another Redditpost and this person is asking
for advice for dealing withcustomers that aren't really
telling the truth.
So the writer writes advice fordealing with customers that
claim they have been calling forweeks and I know for a fact
they have not.
I'm the primary receptionistright now and fairly often I
(42:38):
will get customers claiming theyhave left messages for weeks or
days and I can look back at myrecords and not see a single
message left.
What are some tips to deal withthem or things to say to
diffuse the situation?
Priscilla (42:52):
Yeah, megan, do you have thoughts?
Megan (42:54):
Yeah, I was going to say it's okay to acknowledge it and
then move on.
Sometimes I see this in oursupport inbox and same thing.
We can look and see there areno emails from them.
But going back to assumingpositive intent, maybe they
wrote in under a different email.
Maybe they say they've beencalling for weeks but it is
their partner or a family memberwho has been calling for them
(43:16):
or calling to get the same thing, and so sometimes I think it's
okay to just acknowledge it andsay wow, I'm not seeing that on
my end.
I'm so sorry if we missed those.
Let's get into it now on how Ican help you, yeah.
Priscilla (43:28):
I think that it's kind of like taking their
reality at face value.
There's no reason to argue withthem about whether they've been
calling or whether they've beenemailing, because what you want
to do is solve the problem.
And so what's the problem?
Let's move past thisdisagreement we might have on
whether they've been calling andcalling for weeks or whether
they haven't.
But as a support specialist,our goal is to solve the problem
(43:49):
, and so let's move on beyondthat.
So it's kind of like there's noreason to argue with them about
that, even if you know thatthey haven't written in or they
haven't emailed, I mean, or theyhaven't called.
There's no reason to kind ofget to the nuts and bolts of
that, move past it and figureout what the issue is and kind
of accept their reality in thatsituation, as long as it's not
(44:10):
something that is related to theactual problem.
Megan (44:13):
Yeah, I think a lot of times when customers say that
it's their way of communicatingurgency with you Like I've been
trying to solve this and Ihaven't gotten a solution, I
think the best way to get aroundit is to just acknowledge it
and then, like you said said,get to the solution, because
that's what they're trying tocommunicate, is that they're
trying to get there as fast aspossible.
Priscilla (44:31):
Yeah, and acknowledging it allows you to,
like you were saying, if it'stheir way of saying this is
urgent, we can say, hey, yeah,it is urgent and we're going to
take it with the sameseriousness that you are
bringing it with.
We're going to take care of itfor you.
(44:51):
We're not going to get into theweeds about how many times
you've called and all of that.
That's not important.
What's important is gettingthis sorted for you and getting
it solved so that you understandthat we care about you as a
human being and more than just acustomer.
Jordan, can you read the lastbit of her question again?
Jordan (45:03):
Yeah, they said what are some tips to deal with them or
things to say to diffuse thesituation.
So I'm wondering if they'relooking for, you know, maybe a
phrase to say when someone'slike I've left you a bunch of
end, but I'm happy to help getthis solved for you.
Megan (45:29):
Or to say I might have missed it.
I think sometimes to takeownership of it.
It goes a long way because itreally doesn't matter.
You can take ownership as longas you're like oh, I see all of
those calls that we missed andI'm so sorry about that.
I think you can just gloss overit and take ownership of.
I'm not seeing that on my end,but I'm so sorry if we missed
that from you.
Let's handle it right now.
Priscilla (45:50):
Yeah.
Or sometimes, when people say Iemailed you, we'll get this in
support.
Sometimes They'll say I emailedyou and I know didn't get a
response back and I can see thatI did respond to them.
Sometimes I'll say somethingalong the lines of I see that I
sent a response at this time.
I'm sorry if that didn't makeit to you Kind of to say like I
did send something, but I'm alsorespecting the reality that
(46:13):
you've given me.
That is, you didn't get aresponse and there's other
things that could have happened.
It's possible that the emaildidn't send, or that your email
bounced or whatever it is, ormaybe you went to spam and you
just didn't see it.
Megan (46:24):
It just doesn't have to be anybody's fault.
Like you know what.
We're going to start from hereand keep going.
I think that's great.
Priscilla (46:37):
So remember to share your stories or questions with
us by emailing us at happy tohelp, at buzzsproutcom, or by
using the link in the show notesto text the show.
You can send us your storiesand questions that way and we
will pick one to read on ournext episode.
So send those in, and that's itfor today.
If you enjoyed this episode, besure to leave us a review and
follow us on Apple Podcasts oranywhere where you get your
(47:00):
podcasts.
Also, you can find us onInstagram at happytohelppod.
Thanks for joining us today,megan, and thanks to everyone
for listening.
Now go make someone's day.
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