1. Allow customers to talk.

Allow angry customers to talk and express their feelings until they release their frustration and calm down.

2. Show you care.

Use empathy statements to show you understand the customer’s feelings or frustrations. Having good communication skills means that you have the ability to give voice to their struggles and make them feel heard.

3. Use the correct tone.

Don’t smile, laugh, or mock upset customers; as an agent, you must try to avoid conflict as much as possible. Convey empathy with a soft tone, even if your own feelings are less than sympathetic.

4. Be neutral.

Do not offer your opinion, agree, or disagree with customers. Offer empathic support and work to solve their problems effectively.

5. Don’t react.

Never respond to angry comments. Allow the customer to voice their opinion and interject with helpful redirection when appropriate.

6. Focus.

Though you must listen actively to customers’ issues, when a customer is tangential, you may need to use neutral language to calmly redirect the conversation back to the important issues and focus his attention on constructive solutions.

7. Use verbal softeners.

Use words like “likely”, “typically”, “perhaps”, “sometimes”, “possibly” or “occasionally” with customers who might not respond well to categorical words like “always” or “never”.

8. Make angry conversations private.

Avoid talking with angry customers within earshot of employees or other customers.

9. Agree with the customer.

Find something to agree with the customer about. An agreement will result in collaboration and cooperation.

10. Use silences.

When customers talk, listen and wait for silence. When your customer has stopped talking, summarize their main point and work together on a solution.

11. Use timeouts.

If customers are frustrated, annoyed, or are not capable of engaging in a productive conversation, allow them the opportunity to think by themselves for short periods of time. Then, address their concerns effectively.

12. Set limits.

When customers refuse to act constructively and alternative methods have been exhausted, set limits and end the interaction.