The Preemptive Acknowledgement is the customer service professional's secret weapon against negative emotions. It's very simple to understand, but spotting situations where you can use it effectively can take a little ...

There are certain words that, when used in the wrong place at the wrong time, can trigger a customer's anger. These are called "trigger words". They often make customers angry because ...

The Attitude Anchor is a great way to keep our own negative feelings neutralized, especially when dealing with an upset or difficult customer. The concept works by focusing on something positive ...

It's amazing how many customer service problems occur because everyone assumes everyone else is doing their job correctly. If I take a call from a customer who really needs some information ...

Taking ownership is sometimes confused with being blamed, but it's really about accepting responsibility for solving a problem. A great way to take ownership (and diffuse any anger) is through the ...

Customers often bristle at the word "policy" because it is usually used to tell customers they can't do something they want to do. Artful customer service reps sidestep any potential anger ...

It's tempting to write off service-failures as one-time problems, especially if you found a way to make that customer happy again. What if it wasn't a one-time problem, but the result ...

We've all been tempted to complain about a difficult customer. Perhaps they were unreasonable, a bit light on brains, or just plain mean. Whatever the reason, we should remember that those ...

The greatest customer service lessons come from customers themselves. One of my favorites is a customer who said to me, "Sometimes you have to bend a few rules to make it ...

You often hear that the key to helping an angry and upset customer is to avoid taking it personally. I couldn't disagree more! The more personally you take it, the more ...

Many customer service issues can be solved quickly at little or no cost by simply expressing empathy. The challenge is empathy requires two things from customer service providers. First, we must ...

An easy way to deliver truly empathetic customer service is to imagine your customer is a close relative. You'd be sure to give a close relative ...

It may be tempting to exaggerate or bend the facts a little to make a customer feel better when there is a problem. Unfortunately, this tactic often makes things worse in ...