From the CCIQ Community: How Do You Handle Rude Customers?

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Recently, we asked our Call Center IQ LinkedIn members how their contact center handles "rude" customers. Here are some replies we received:

Think of rude customers as a challenge! Take the "I am going to do & say all I can to turn this situation around." (Make a game of it if it helps.) Draw on your patience, be kind and courteous, and REFUSE to let them "push your buttons". Remember - an unfueled fire will often burn itself out. Taking this approach increases the odds that the rude person will eventually end up apologizing to you for the bad behavior!

- Monica Jenks

When a caller gets really rude and no amount of trying to calm them down will work, I will calmly let them know that all calls are recorded for quality and TRAINING purposes, and that this call will be used in all future training in our company. This always makes them stop almost immediately. They often ask to not be used for training and the call either ends by them hanging up, or by calming down and admitting they were wrong. We still use the call for training.
- Kenneth Kriz

When asked how his organization monitors the fallout of such calls, since those ending in "hang-ups" do not reach any sort of resolution and thus might not do their part in maintaining or repairing the relationship with the customer, Kriz continued:

On these calls, maintaining the customer is not really a concern. They are extreme situations where cancellation of our service is due to the customer having no money and they take it out on us. 90% of our customers who cancel come back in one month anyway. Most times, the caller will calm down after being told they are being recorded and used for training. They think they are still being heard.