In this guest article from Paul Archer, of Archer Training, we look at a practical strategy to use to help you deal efficiently with problems and issues raised by customers.

Ideal for sales support people particularly when on the phone, customer service specialists, account managers handling existing client accounts and anyone who deals with customer issues. You’ll find lots of little tips and ideas that can help you improve this vital area immediately with some specific tactics to adopt when pacifying the odd irate customer plus how to give bad news, not everyone’s favorite sport.

Removing the Emotion
Have you ever had to deal with customer problems and queries particularly when they start getting a little heated? Your blood pressure builds, you start becoming defensive – all those human emotions of dealing with stressful situations can get in the way of handling the issue competently.

I took up mini rugby refereeing a couple of years’ a go and experienced this many times. Occasionally when I made a decision which went against the coaches and parents’ views, I began to feel pressure build up inside especially when the same parents voiced their concern over my decision.

This blood pressure build up clouded my concentration and affected the way I went about the rest of the match. In the same way handling intense customer problems where they might be a little agitated can have a similar effect. I improved my knowledge of rugby laws, took some courses and this knowledge helped me. Likewise we can ensure our own product knowledge, understanding of the computer system and general confidence can help us to handle customer problems.

But the real breakthrough for me came when I heard these words from an experienced referee:

“Be sure of yourself, take your time, move purposely, act deliberately, be decisive with your communication, ignore the calls from the touchline, blur them out of your mind and above all remember that there is no game without the referee.”

This strategy advice changed my game enormously and removed much of the emotions.

Like a lot of difficult situations the best thing to do is to plan in advance how you’re going to tackle them when they occur. You’ll be amazed at how quickly this can take the pressure of the moment and let you deal with the situation deliberately and professionally without emotions getting in the way.

The Strategy:

L – listen
A – acknowledge
P – probe
A – answer
C – confirm

Listen
Telephone listening needs to be noisier than the face to face kind. Let the customer spill out their problem or issue and invite them to empty out before moving onto the next stage.

Use verbal nods to show you’re listening “I see”, “go on”.

Concentrate on the caller and try to eliminate any distractions around you both external ones and those that go on inside. Remove the emotions that might be building up inside you. Remember the customer is not getting excited with you, just the company you work for. Get yourself into 3rd person position to build empathy; this is where you can see both yours and the customer’s point of view.  Then you’ll appreciate their excitement.

Finally remember to summarise the problem that they customer has given you using a phrase such as “let me make sure I’ve got this right then…”.

Acknowledge
More empathy building going on here. Acknowledge that you’ve heard, have understood and can see their point of view. This is often enough to placate them until you’ve solved the problem as it buys you time.

Use reflective statements here such as:

“I understand what you’re saying”
“I can appreciate how you feel about that.”
“I’ve been through that as well and it was terrible.”
“I see where you’re coming from”
“Gosh that must be awful”

Probe
Now’s your opportunity to probe a little more to ensure you have the situation clear in your mind. Ask some searching questions to isolate the problem or issue to make sure you have it all wrapped up. Asking a question or two also gives you valuable thinking time so you can chew over the problem a little more.
Care with your questioning though as deliberate precise questioning can be construed as interrogation and if your customer is getting a little irate this can turn up their blood pressure.

Use open questions here and soften them by putting a soft fronter to them. Sometimes just by putting a few words at the beginning of a question can really soften its impact and make it far more palatable.  Words such as:

“May I ask….”
“I’d be curious to know….”
“I’d be very interested to know…”
“Tell me…”

Or any other words that suit your style. Telephone experts usually have a full voice range able to effortlessly move from low to high pitch at will. Most of us have to learn this. Deliver a question by lifting your voice a tiny bit at the end of the question.

Answer
Now’s the time to answer the customer’s issue or problem. It may be that you’ll have to go away and find out, speak to someone else or whatever is needed to get the answer.  Make sure you obey the golden rule of under promising and over delivering. Give a timescale to get back to them but allow yourself some buffer just in case.

Sometimes you have to give bad news and here’s some ideas to deal with this particularly difficult task, which many of us dread and will put off.

Three steps to give bad news:

1. Tell the truth
2. Reflect feelings
3. Take charge for the next step

Tell the truth as it is. Don’t flower it up to make it sound less imposing.  Get to the point and give the facts and use as little language as you can.  Don’t waffle the answer. You can mix up the bad news with some good news using the word “but” to separate them.  “But” puts emphasis on the next part of the sentence for example:

“I’m afraid our product doesn’t have that feature but it does allow for unlimited claims in the future”
“Your clawback period will be 3 years but once you’ve achieved this level of business we can reduce this to 1 year.”

Then reflect feelings which you’ll get.  Go silent. Wait and they will respond.  Reflect, reflect, reflect but be careful you don’t agree just respect their position and situation.

Once you’ve reflected feelings launch into next step mode. Your customer will want to hear what’s the next step so take charge and outline where you can go from here and what can be done in the future.  Think actions.

Confirm
Finally confirm that all is OK or that you’ve helped as much as you can.

LAPAC is really useful and does work. The key parts are the acknowledging and probing which calms your customer and gives you thinking time.  It shows the customer that we want to take some time with their issue and do what we can to help.

Use it, practise it and next time you find yourself getting high blood pressure, just stick to the strategy and you’ll soon find the emotions leaving and you can concentrate on answering the query or handling the problem. Just as I now do with my little junior rugby players when the coaches and parents start debating my decisions on the pitch. But I have to say the little ones are darlings on the pitch, it’s the parents who sometimes need to do some growing up.

Rant over!

Paul Archer is an international sales speaker, sales trainer, author and coach based in the UK. He specializes in rapport selling and rapport coaching and can ignite his audiences large or small. For more information on Paul and his training courses, visit www.paularcher.com, where you’ll also find his own sales blog, too!

Other cold calling and telesales tips:

Is your new Telesales & Telemarketing Tips & Tactics Blog doing okay so far…?

Referrals – The Lifeline of All Good Telemarketing Professionals!

15 Steps to Easier Cold Calling Success!

Back to Basics: 9 Telesales Tips to Help You Sell More on the Phone!

5 Quick Telesales Prospecting Tips!