When something goes wrong and you're faced with an unhappy customer, what do you do? More often than not, we explain why the situation happened, or tell them we understand that they're unhappy, or worse...we defend our actions and tell them that they're wrong.

And how does that usually turn out?

What about being polite and professional? That usually helps diffuse the situation, doesn't it? As it turns out, politely proving that you're right and the customer is wrong doesn't make him feel any better. So as it turns out, there’s a better way. There are actual skills and techniques you can learn so that even when you’re faced with that member or customer that just wants to get in your face and make your life difficult, you can flip that situation on its head and turn it into a positive.

Once we understand that acknowledging the plight of the customer is paramount to an acceptable resolution, we can truly become an advocate for our customers rather than an adversary.

This episode has the potential to change your career for the better. Learning and mastering these customer service skills will limit the chances of a disgruntled member talking badly about you to others...or worse.

Our guest in this episode is Richard S. Gallagher, the author of the "Customer Service Survival Kit: What to Say to Defuse Even the Worst Customer Situations"

From Amazon.com: "The Customer Service Survival Kit explains how to use the right words to turn volatile scenarios into calm and productive customer encounters. Anyone can learn this delicate art with the book’s blend of clear techniques, lessons from behavioral science, case studies, situation-specific advice, and practice exercises. Readers will discover:

• The power of leaning into criticism

• Trigger phrases that can make bad situations worse

• The secret to helping people feel deeply heard in a crisis

• How to use the divide-and-conquer approach to safely deliver bad news

• Indispensable problem-solving tools

• How to become immune to intimidation

• How to wrap up transactions so that customers are happy

• And more!

Best yet, learning to handle worst-case scenarios has the spillover effect of boosting the skills and confidence needed to deal effectively with ANY customer—the key to radical improvements in every organization."

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