It happened again… and there you are facing off with an irate 
customer…. You’re standing eyeball to eyeball with a person who’s as angry as a hornet… and while you have no idea why … the customer’s toxic tone prevents any logical explanations ..... Instead of reason...he blurts out demands for better service ... in run-on and vague euphemisms ... that you can't repeat in public … .All while you try to piece together a few details that show you what went wrong… Sound familiar…?
Stressors, such as poor service, long telephone waits or rude clerks... impact some customers negatively more so than others … all because chemical and electrical activity in their brain turns communication skills and curiosity into heated defiance …. Add to this customer's cortisol rush ...the fact that in some modern workplaces there are enough triggers to turn on spigots of any model customers’ toxic cortisol. That’s where you enter…stage left…. Hopefully you have a strategy in hand before the face-off… What do you tend to do...?
Luckily, the human brain holds tactics that can turn around the tone of most angry customers…
If a customers is mentally prone to the stress chemical… cortisol… that person is likely sensitive, more insecure and quite willing to see the worst in any words you fire back... so you’ve likely noticed that logical explanations work less well in these heated encounters… Kindness or encouragement... if you can dodge the darts... tend to work wonders...on the other hand.
The brain reverses cortisol chemicals for most people when encouraged… If you are personally prone to serotonin, or if you’ve learned how to create more of that chemical for well-being in your brain ...you likely give others more wiggle room to vent…and you'll also be faster to restore a calm tone....
To control chemical and electrical activity is to use a good tone when a customer with excessive cortisol flares up.... However, poor tone used with customers merely creates more cortisol than you want to face or fight….
That’s why it is useful to try the serotonin route first… through thoughtful or caring words to an angry customer… especially when a floodgate of cortisol is heading your way ... following a breech in the person's anger dams.
What works well for you… on those cortisol occasions ... if all else fails, take Robyn McMaster's advice and run for cover…
See related articles:
http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/2006/07/what_is_cortisol_and_why_shoul.html
http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/2006/07/what_is_serotonin_and_why_shou.html
http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/2007/05/bank_any_serotonin_today.html
http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/2007/05/the_magic_dose_of_serotonin.html
http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/2006/10/seritonin_builders_for_better.html
http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/2007/07/chemicals_to_refuel_when_work.html
http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/2007/08/tone_to_the_finish_line.html
http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/2006/08/stick_a_neuron_in_your_head_an.html
http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/2006/10/i_just_needed_to_vent.html
http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/2006/07/problems_that_spark_solutions.html
http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/2006/09/10_practices_that_boost_your_b.html
» Seth Godin Said to "Fire the Customer"... Would You? from BrainBasedBusiness
On April 28, Seth Godin looked at belligerent customers on the one hand and at Stew Leonard’s famous granite rock on the other … and wrote: “… if it's not worth making the customer right, fire her.”Support for the... [Read More]
Tracked on: May 16, 2006 5:19 PM | Permalink to Trackback