How to deal with rude customers in 18 different ways (2023)

Show your interest, start with an apology, and sound sincere when you do this, regardless of whether the customer is right or wrong: "I'm sorry you had a horrible experience and I would do anything to make it better."

After an apology, we usually ask you to wait a moment while we work to resolve your issue. During the waiting time we serve a snack and ensure peace and quiet. Then an executive appears who patiently listens to her questions and reassures her.

The basic idea is to use reverse psychology and show maximum respect. A customer may be having a bad day or being rude in general, but it's not our job to make them decent people. The wait and snacks served to make them feel comfortable and calm. A follow-up by a senior executive trying to break the ice is sufficient at first.

Akram Tariq Khan, co-founder daTuLibaas

There is a percentage of the population that for some reason is never happy and wants to move on. You just have to have that tough talk with them. In any case, be friendly and respectful, but politely show them the door and send them to a competitor.

You might say something like, “Look, I've noticed that there's a mismatch between the services we provide and what your business really needs. And while I'd love to continue this working relationship, I have to be honest with myself and with you. It looks like we are not the right people for what your business needs right now. So how about I introduce you to someone I know who may better serve your needs?

Why does it work? The customer will respect you for being honest. They can come back in the future if they are a better fit for you and your business. Also, it will be very helpful for them if you suggest an alternative solution. Either way, you did the right thing for you and your own business, which is why I believe this is the best tactic for dealing with rude customers.

Allan Dib, founder of Successwise

Rude customers cost far more than just a refund or compensation, they have an indirect cost: the mental health of our employees. Even if it sounds rude, we cut ties with them as soon as possible, we follow the 80-20 rule and strongly believe in itEmployees are the most valuable asset in the companyThat's why we value your sanity.

Armandas Tiskevicius, Leiter E-Commerce andMezzoroni

Recently, during a project, a general contractor attacked our employees with racially sensitive words. Due to current events and politics, many of our team members already feel undervalued and "don't belong". The majority of our employees are Spanish. They are the lifeblood of our company and an important reason for our current exponential growth. we willI will not allow anyone to belittle our team.

So I drove two hours to make it clear to both the contractor and my team that if someone disrespects a team member, we will remove our team from any project, regardless of size. Removing our equipment before the work is complete is very expensive for us because we risk not getting paid, but it is contractually allowed and can drastically affect the project schedule. That's a price we're willing to pay for my team.

Robert Lewis, President of Peak Access Solutions

Rude ones are the best. Why? Because when you finally defeat them, it will be a much greater triumph. So how do you win over the rudest customer? A natural reaction would be to bite off bad behavior.

Although,lead a teamI heard many scenarios of rude customers from 15 executives involved in significant amounts of money. If you keep a cool head under this type of client-induced pressure, and invite a calm and understanding tone in an elevated situation, you'll find that you've regained control. No, this isn't about being a wimp. It's about winning the race. Kill them with kindness and professionalism.

Set boundaries and ask questions to stop the behavior, e.g. B. "What would you like our next steps to be here?" You can place it firmly on the driver's seat. Making logical decisions with the aforementioned boorish customer usually earns respect, and more often than not you'll get a call or email describing how you caught them on the worst day of their life, with a half-hearted one apology accompanying his confession. .

Rachel Crocker, Founder ofRachel Crocker Consulting

See Also

Learn how to deal with rude customers (incl. examples + strategies) | Message24 templates for dealing with angry customersHow to deal with a difficult (or angry) customer: 16 tips

I've dealt with quite a few rude customers myself, so I have a tough skin on how to deal with rude customers. A warm smile can do wonders when it comes to getting people to be rude to you. It's almost impossible to get angry at someone who smiles at you.

When dealing with rude customers, it is important to remain neutral and listen and actively acknowledge what is being said. For example: "If I understand correctly, your main concerns are A, B, C. Right?" This approach makes people feel heard and respected. After the customer is done talking, I don't suggest any solutions. But instead I ask, "How can I make it up to you?" or "What solution do you think would be best for your problem?"

Alex Manos, CEO daBeverly Hills Autoclub

Rude customers are playing a game and subconsciously trying to manipulate a situation. This is why you need to release your emotions:

• • Hear
  • Apologize for your feelings, for example, "I'm sorry you're not happy."
  • Reassuring e.g. "I can take care of that for you"
  • Overcome emotional manipulation by asking for facts. It can be "when did you buy it?", "when does it stop working?" and "What store did you buy it from?"

We train the customer service team to focus on anticipating customers' needs, no matter the situation, so they know how to handle rude customers. For example, anticipating a complaint and, contrary to typical behaviors and attitudes, daring and exceeding their expectations.

Andrew Wallbridge, Head of Leadership and ManagementTSW

I remind our employees that courtesy has limits and is not a one-way street. We are landlords, so we provide housing services to our customers (tenants). It's an intimate relationship based on trust and a set of written guidelines that we all agree to (a lease). It is also based on state law so as owners we are held to a high standard.

So if a customer becomes overly rude or abusive and that's their habit, we try to fire that customer. Accordinglythe Pareto principle, 80% of your headaches come from 20% of your customers. We fire them when they report rent violations for their behavior, as set out in our mutual respect agreements. Also, abusive tenants are often abusive neighbors, so we also notify them in writing that they are disturbing the “quiet enjoyment” of other tenants when we receive these complaints.

Often these cards defuse the situation and we can all get back to work on the issues that caused the tension. Sometimes we agree to disagree and make it easy for a tenant to get out of the lease so everyone can move on, essentially firing the tenant because it's been a waste of time and we can't accommodate their wishes.

Gary Zaremba, Agent/Owner ofPepZee Imóveis

The customer is king and sometimes needs special treatment. Your goal is not to fight rudeness and make the customer feel guilty about your behavior, but to solve the problem and make both parties happy.

A few months ago, a customer sent an overly dramatic, rude, and hostile email complaining that his emails were never answered.

After checking and realizing that the support team had responded to all of their tickets, I wrote the customer a very nice email asking them to check with their technical team if our support address was from blocked by his firewall. No apologies or promises of compensation until the issue is resolved. Just empathy for what the customer was going through.

I then received an email from the customer apologizing for the behavior as his company's firewall was in fact blocking all emails from our support. me followed bythank the customerfor letting me know and making him feel better (not bad!) about how he was behaving. Don't forget that politeness trumps rudeness!

Angeliki Bekyra, Customer Success Associate beiTalentLMS employee training platform

Customer service is extremely important in the business world. One of the best skills in customer service is abilityUse emotional intelligence in businessand show empathy. Customer service reps can show and feel empathy just by listening. When it comes to empathy, it's important to feel emotions internally and express them externally in a way that customers can observe.

One way customer service representatives show customers that they empathize with their situation is by repeating what was said in their own words. For example, when a customer closes a lengthy complaint, as a customer service representative, you can paraphrase the issues and make them more concise by saying, "So you're saying...". This will help customers feel heard and also gives them an opportunity to correct potential misunderstandings.focus on the customerand excellent customer service builds brand loyalty.

Kevin Miller, Founder and CEO ofthe word counter

If you are a business owner, chances are you have encountered at least one rude customer or one rude customer. That's part of territory, but how you respond can mean a lot to your experience, your customers' experience, and your reputation. Company. Nobody wants a bad review, so it's best not to directly give the opponent an idea of ​​what you're thinking, and consider how you deal with rude customers.

When a customer expresses displeasure, it's important to remove the emotion from your message and read between the lines. What are they really saying? More often than not, you will find that they are confused, don't feel heard, or their expectations are not being met.

Finding common ground requires removing confusion by providing clarity, actively listening and repeating that you understand what they are saying and ensuring that their expectations of how the project and outcomes are perceived are correct and met.

Amy Goldizen, owner and founder ofDriver Black Label

We have policies based on whether we're dealing with rude/disrespectful prospects or paying customers. If a prospect is clearly disrespectful of a team member, we'll let them know we're not a good match and suggest a competitor as an alternative.

If a paying customer repeatedly disrespects an employee, we request a call/meet. On that call, a manager informs the customer's manager that we need to upgrade to "Tier 1" support, which will incur additional costs.

The outcome of this meeting generally falls into one of these categories:

• • Customer contact often changes the tone or introduces a new touchpoint.
  • If the customer accepts "Tier 1" support, the team member will receive a quarterly bonus paid for the support fee.
  • If the customer does not change his tuning or upgrade, we reserve the right not to extend his contract.

Ryan O'Donnell, co-founder ofrespondents

Empathy must guide all customer interactions, even when it comes to rude customers. Even if they look angry, you should see it through their eyes. I recently worked with a customer who felt the product was not relevant to their needs and wanted a refund. I took full responsibility and told them I'm sorry I let them down. As an apology I offered them a free upgrade and free product instead of a refund.

They happily accepted the refund and were grateful to receive this type of service. Sheoffered to write us a 5-star review! It would have been easy for me to give up this client, but the people who get upset the most can also be your best cheerleaders if you do what's right for them.

Paul Burke, Vice President, Private Label, Sidekick Digital Media

One of our most popular product categories is stress balls. This particular customer purchased a safety cone shaped stress ball. Although the order form listed the name as Construction Cone Stress Toy and stated the size of the item (3.5 x 2.5), the customer was very upset that they were unable to use the stress balls as construction cones. construction project.

It got hot. The customer was obviously embarrassed by the error but declined to take responsibility. Finally we reached a dead end. The customer called and harassed our team for about a week. I ended up going to Amazon and ordered full size building cones, paid for them out of my own pocket and had them shipped straight to the customer's address. After that, the angry phone calls stopped.

Bret Bonnet, Co-Founder/President of Quality Logo Products

I've responded to over 6,000 customer support tickets at my company. Most of the time, the trick to dealing with rude customers is to reflect and name what they're going through. People understand in two ways, logically and emotionally.

If you try to explain your problem to them in a logical way, like "Your computer seems to be shut down," they're likely to feel less understood. Versus Emotional "Sounds like your computer is off, causes a lot of frustration and that's not an experience anyone should have," they tend to respond with "That's right," and they know that because you understand their emotional heaviness, you can help them properly.

They need to recognize not only what they have a problem with, but also what the problem means to them.

Spencer Shulem, CEO dabuild better

One of the best tips for dealing with rude customers and improving overall customer service is to make it easy for customers to contact different toll-free numbers in different parts of your funnel and email. Also, assign dedicated customer service representatives to specific departments that handle different aspects of customer service.

For example, shipping requests are assigned to a specific team of agents, billing issues to a different team, and refunds/returns to a different team to improve efficiency and reduce customer response times.

Also, enable customer support viaSMS automationto improve the ability for customers to contact their customer support teams.By setting up these systems, you can solve each customer's problem much faster, save time and increase satisfaction.

Ashwin Sock, co-founder ofWOW skin science

The most important thing when interacting with rude customers is not to take them personally. Look at it objectively as a problem that you need to solve. What can you do to solve the problem quickly and successfully and put the customer on the right track?

My advice to all business owners is to allow employees who are trained to be rude to customers to do this as you as the owner are very close to the business and tend to be biased or defensive. Do you know how many horrible exchanges I've seen on social media from owners starting arguments with rude customers? Or fight back with negative reviews?

A rude customer interaction is not the time to be "okay," whether you're an owner or an employee. Keep calm, be courteous and smile and do whatever is necessary to protect the integrity of the company name.

Hosea Chang, operations manager of Hayden Los Angeles

Speaking of dealing with rude customers, I like to think of it as the process of breaking down a big problem into many smaller parts. These small portions make it easier to deal with the problem at hand. People often use fragmentation toOrganize your daily tasks. It is also useful when dealing with difficult problems.

Suppose a customer always has an excuse for not being able to set up their account and use the company's software. You can ask them to help you with the final steps you need to take to make things happen during your next meeting. The fragmentation of each task makes it easier for the customer to understand what still needs to be done.

Shane Liuw, SEO specialistdigital first page

Rude customers often want to argue and insist on getting what they want. Sometimes these arguments can go on forever, especially if you give them room to develop. The best strategy is to be polite and respectful, but limit the space for discussion.

For example, if you receive a complaint, don't go into too much detail as to why. Simply thank the customer and show them your next steps. It's important to always show respect, even if the person doesn't return it. However, don't fall into the trap of explaining yourself or asking additional questions. If a person tries to provoke you, don't react and just focus on providing a solution.

Andrew Makhovskyi, CEO daeffy

My most effective tactic when dealing with rude customers is to always follow up, even after the issue is resolved. You need to make an appointment with the customer to connect or if possible get their number or email address. Monitoring the situation with them to see how they're doing can help ensure the customer isn't having an entirely negative experience.

While it's not true that the customer is always right, it helps to put things right and show that you care. You can build better customer relationships and reduce the likelihood that they will speak negatively about your business, both in person and online. Remember that customer feedback is important and a bad review can overshadow a positive one.

Adam Moore, founder of SocialPlus

If you're dealing with a rude customer, I recommend enlisting someone from your company to listen, answer questions, and even help you troubleshoot the issue. This can be helpful for a number of reasons. Firstly, it makes the customer feel special, secondly, the rude customer will not be able to take advantage of you and treat you badly, and finally, he can help you with new ideas so that you can solve the situation.

It could be someone in the particular department who caused the complaint, a company manager, or even the owner or manager. When dealing with a rude customer, enlisting extra help can really help.

Lucie Chavez, CMO von Radaris