Flight attendants attacked by passengers. Retail clerks shouted down by customers. Almost every day, we watch videos posted of outrageous behavior by customers toward those employees seeking to serve them. It used to be those angry customers who would seldom — if ever — physically or verbally assault frontline employees.

It’s getting to the point where angry customers threaten the well-being of our employees and customers!

Now angry customers seem less concerned about the consequences of their actions. Often, angry customers presume they can take out their anger on frontline employees who seem powerless and vulnerable. These customers evidently believe the company will not support that employee or file charges against them.

While angry customers may feel they can get away with their bad behavior, they may be causing your other customers to lose the superior customer experience you provide.

It’s increasingly difficult for any company to maintain good customer experiences when angry customers are attacking their employees. Companies are losing customers by the droves due to angry customers who have no consideration for others. Your employees are leaving because they don’t want to put up with the stress of dealing with the venom — and your good customers might be leaving because they are reticent about experiencing some angry idiot making a scene. (And perhaps your employees are so stressed from dealing with angry customers that their level of service to your good customers has declined.)

In today’s pandemic marketplace, angry customers are becoming increasingly difficult to deal with.

To deal with angry customers, here is a five-step plan that provides employees insight into coping with angry customers. The following are those steps:

1.  Don’t go it alone. It’s not uncommon for customer service agents to be “alienated” by angry customers, leaving them to feel as if they’re all alone against angry customers. That’s not the case at all. Companies must recognize that angry customers are spreading like germs, and they must do everything possible to help employees not feel alienated or alone in dealing with them.
   1. Employees now have the ability to tap into online customer service communities where they can ask questions of other customers who have dealt with angry customers. Additionally, they can ask their managers for help in dealing with angry customers. This means you need to be having conversations with your leaders to ensure they back your team members against angry customers and to help coach and train them on how to best handle these potentially explosive situations.
2.  Ask yourself the right question. It’s not uncommon for angry customers to hurl profane or abusive language at employees, leaving them feeling angry and defensive themselves. That’s the wrong attitude to take. Employees should instead think about angry customers as angry people rather than angry customers.
   1.  What are angry people angry about? What are their concerns, fears, and worries? How can employees help angry people achieve some sort of resolution so they can move on with what they need to do in life?
3.  Put yourself in their shoes. Angry customers lash out at employees because they feel angry, upset, and frustrated with their situations. They lash out in the wrong place by attacking customer service agents who have nothing to do with their problems or concerns.
   1.  Employees should realize that angry customers are angry about something – maybe even angry about feeling angry. Think of it this way: angry customers are mad because they are angry about being angry. Employees should ask themselves whether they’ve ever felt angry about being angry.
   2.  If the answer is yes, now they can better understand how angry customers feel and why they lash out at customer service agents, who have nothing to do with their problems in life.
4.  Listen carefully. Listening is one of the most challenging things to do, especially when angry customers are yelling at employees. Listening requires deep concentration on what angry customers are saying.
   1.  Employees should be open-minded and actively ask themselves whether angry customers have a point. Maybe angry customers don’t really know why they’re so frustrated, but they’re acting out because that’s the only way they know how to deal with their feelings.
5.  Check your ego at the door. It’s not uncommon for angry customers to resort to name-calling and other forms of verbal abuse when talking with customer service agents, leaving your employees feeling angry and upset in return. That’s normal human behavior of those who lash out at others because they are angry.
   1.  Employees should not take angry customers’ words personally, however. They can’t be upset about angry customers being abusive with them – that’s too much anger for anyone to handle. Instead, employees should focus on the feelings behind uncivil words yelled by angry customers acting out of irrational emotions.
   2.  In other words, angry customers are often that way because they are angry at themselves for being so distressed. Employees should consider whether they’ve ever been irritated about being upset before responding to these customers who are acting out of their own overwhelming feelings.

There’s no excuse for this type of customer behavior. It should not happen. However, it does — and much too frequently in the real world.

Our job is to help our team deal with this challenge in a manner that de-escalates an emotional situation while maintaining a superior experience for your customers who are behaving in a way that should take place in any professional situation.