Irrationally Angry Customers Are Not Angry Irrationally

There are two kinds of people in this world: people who occasionally overreact and people who lie about never overreacting.

The reality is that everyone gets excessively mad sometimes.  Everyone is guilty of at least once treating a minor inconvenience like the crime of the century.

Amplified reactions are particularly common within the customer contact space. Customers react to mildly frustrating policies by screaming, cursing, demanding to speak to supervisors, threatening to blast the company on social media, vowing to get agents fired, filing complaints with the Better Business Bureau, and loudly promising to take their business elsewhere.

These reactions will sometimes be radically disproportionate to the offense or blatantly offensive to the agent.  In such cases, it would be easy to dismiss the reaction as that of a crazed, irrational human being. And, to be fair, no agent should ever have to endure cruelly disrespectful treatment from a customer.

It is nonetheless important to remember that an irrationally angry customer is not necessarily angry irrationally.  While certain customers may overreact, they are ultimately still reacting to something the organization did.

And so while customer-centric brands may withdraw from heated conversations, they do not ignore the context of the conversation.  They assess their role in driving the customer’s outrage. They, more importantly, consider what they can do to prevent future complaints and outbursts.

Great brands assume responsibility for angering customers

I recently had an ongoing issue with an online delivery.  As part of the support process, I input my order number into the self-service tool, provided a brief description of the issue, and confirmed my desire to receive a phone call.  When the agent called, he seemed completely oblivious to the issue at hand. Worse, he asked me to repeat everything I had already provided in the form.

I admittedly lost my temper.  I said things of which I am not proud, before ultimately hanging up on the agent.  I was a jerk, and it would have been easy for the brand to dismiss me as an “irrationally angry” customer.

Instead, the company focused on what prompted my anger: a fragmented experience that required additional customer effort.  When I called back, the new agent apologized to me for the inconvenience, explaining that the company just hired new representatives who were still getting comfortable with the tools.  She took down a note regarding the issue of agents asking customers to repeat an order number they have already provided. The goal was to eliminate that issue -- and deliver a more legitimately omnichannel experience -- in the future.

Don't stress over what rude customers said; focus on what you can do better in the future

Not all companies will be so nice and apologetic about the situation.  And, to be honest, not all customers deserve such a nice, warm, apologetic response from the company (I sure did not).  All customer-centric companies will, however, learn from the core of this experience:  they cannot fix the human proclivity to overreact, but they can prevent customers from needing to react in the first place.

As unfortunate and loud as my rant may have been, I only delivered it because the agent wanted me to repeat details I had already provided.  Had the experience worked properly, the call would have been far more pleasant.

In contrast to my favorable e-commerce situation, I recently encountered an unproductive interaction at a local Subway.  The brand recently began offering a falafel sandwich as part of its new $4.99 menu.  Upon ordering the sandwich, a customer was told that he only had the option of adding cucumbers, spinach and tomatoes.  The claim made no sense, as it was neither specified on any signage nor consistent with the store’s usual policy of letting customers select whichever and however many vegetable toppings they want.

The conversation got heated but eventually seemed to reach a resolution.  And then the employee told the customer he also could not get cheese on this particular sub.  At that point, the customer delivered one final hostile remark and stormed out the door. Looking at me, the employee rolled his eyes.  “Do you believe that guy?”

To put it simply, yes I did.  The customer’s anger may have been unbecoming, but it was not unwarranted.  Based on Subway’s well-established practices, he had every reason to believe he could get cheese and unlimited vegetables with his sandwich.  Based on the idea that brands are supposed to be customer-centric, he had also every reason to believe that the employee would not have been so averse to accommodating the request, even if the policy had been better documented.

I, meanwhile, did not want to see a brand ambassador be so dismissive toward an angry customer.  I wanted him to say, “You know, that guy has a point. We should probably put the restriction on the signs.”  Or, alternatively, “That guy was a jerk, but I probably should have just let him get some extra vegetables.” I wanted to know that the employee was committed to identifying -- and remedying -- the root cause of the anger.

Business owners and leaders are right to protect their employees from hostility.  The most effective way to protect against such hostility is not, however, to simply give them free reign to hang up on rude customers.  It is to learn from heated interactions and then create an experience so taut and customer-centric that no one ever has a reason to become hostile.

For more on making the right decision in the moment, check out Don’t Fear The Customer Experience. For a better sense of what a great experience entails, review the 5 Words That Describe The Best Customer Service.