Customer Service Tip #3 - Handling objections and hostilities

Any industry involving customer service presents an opportunity for hostilities and objections to arise. It’s critical that these are handled promptly, consistently and peacefully.

It’s important your team understands that the customer may not always be right, but it’s critical that your approach is thoughtful. Ultimately, the customer is the boss. Without customers, there is no business. This can be hard for the customer service teams directly liaising with customers during times of hostility to understand. Which is completely valid in the face of abuse or heated discussions.

Educating your team on the importance of customer service and having standard protocols in place can alleviate the pressures on your customer team as well as the customer during turbulent discussions.

To ensure objections and hostilities are being handled coherently, coach your team to carry out the following actions:

• Be honest and maintain integrity. Talk to your company values
• Listen to understand
• Repeat back to the customer their understanding to get clarity
• Take the heat out of the discussion
• Ask for a suggested solution
• Acknowledge the suggestion
• Refer to Business Owner/Manager if required
• Keep customer in the loop and let them know when to expect a reply
• Always reply to a customer

We hope these tips help you and your team feeling more comfortable when tackling ojections and hostilities. 

If you missed yesterday’s tip, click here to read!