FIX THE FITS FIRST Dealing with Angry Customers By J. N. Halm

If he were a cartoon character, I am sure I would have seen smoke coming out from his ears and nostrils. I had never seen such an angry chap. He was so livid that his face took on a contorted look in a matter of seconds. He was visibly shaking as he screamed. At a point it was very difficult to decipher the words that were pouring out from his lips. He was really mad. 

I had been in the queue for just a few minutes but it was obvious that it was not moving fast enough. There were just two cashiers serving the more than thirty-five customers who had cramped into the banking hall that Friday afternoon. Being the end of the month, I was not too surprised to have seen those many people in the banking hall.

What surprised me was that only a couple of tellers were at post on such a day. At that time of the day and during that time of the month, one would have expected the management to have made plans to have as many of their staff as possible working during those peak hours to ensure that customers got speedy services. Unfortunately, what I witnessed was far from “speedy services.” The line was moving at a very sick snail’s pace.

Having worked in the banking industry before, I instantly realized one of the main reasons causing the delay. The problem was not with the teller being slow. In fact, it was not even to do with the number of cashiers. It had to do with the absence of what I call a “link man”. The link man is that individual who stands behind the tellers to collect the cheques and withdrawal slips, which needed verification before the teller could pay, and send them to whoever was in charge of authorisation to do so. The absence of the link man meant that anytime a withdrawing customer came and the limit was above that of the poor cashier, she had to excuse herself, get out the enclosure and go inside the manager’s office to have the cheques authorised for payment.

I had been in those situations before, so I could easily empathise with those poor cashiers. But I am pretty sure the many other customers did not know what I did nor could they really be bothered. They were there to receive service—and they wanted it fast.

Anyway, for about ten minutes we made do with the go-slow without much of an incident. A customer would walk to the cashier, present a cheque or a withdrawal slip, the cashier will take a look at the slip, and then she would either pay the one or get up to go get authorisation from inside before coming back to pay the customer. It was like that for a while. However, all the calmness was about to change.

There was a particular gentleman who had been patiently waiting his turn. There were just two people before it got to his turn when the cashier got out of her enclosure one more time. At that material moment, something snapped. The man had had enough. Out of the blues, he screamed. His exasperation was so much that he just could not hold it in any longer. I had never seen a man that angry before in my life and I have never seen one that angry ever since that time. He was screaming on top of his voice, chastising the entire management of the bank for their poor service. His shrieks reverberated throughout the entire banking hall.

After a while, the lady and another officer who had heard the screams came into the banking hall. I observed from my ringside position as these banking officials attempted to fix the problem. Interestingly, that was when they broke the first law of handling infuriated customers. They went straight to fixing the problem which in this case was collecting the man’s cheque and paying him his money for him to leave the premises. That was not the best move.

At this juncture, I would not be surprised if many readers start wondering if there is something wrong with me. It seems the very best thing to do when a customer is angry is to solve the problem for the customer to get out of your hair. Just solve the problem that has caused the anger and let the customer leave with his or her troubles. Right? Wrong.

Solving the problem and solving it quickly is very important but it is just the second step. The first step in dealing with a fuming customer is to acknowledge and respect the customer’s right to be upset. One would have expected these officials to have made statements such as “Sir, we can understand your frustration. We know it is quite annoying to have to wait for this long. However,………. (then you begin the process of reparation).” Or, “Sir, you have the right to be upset. It is not the best that you have to wait this long.”

What would have most likely happened is that the man would have vented more. He might have shouted his lungs out but eventually would have realised that his anger has no object to be directed at. Anger must always be directed at something or somebody. By acknowledging the customer’s feelings of anger and disappointment, you suddenly disarm the customer. It is akin to having a fight with someone who refuses to engage you. It can be very disarming to the agitator. This is why we say it is important to allow the customer to vent the anger bottled up inside. After a while, the customer will calm down and that is when you begin the reparation process.

Coming in directly with the solution without hearing the customer out feels like an insult to the intelligence of the customer. The customer will resent that move and this will make the process of solving the problem much more difficult—which was exactly what happened in our case. The man did not take kindly to the attempt to “silence” him.

The other official who accompanied the lady attempted to invite him inside his office but the man would have none of that. He insisted he was not moving anywhere. As a matter of fact, he was not even keen on jumping the queue. He was going to stay in his rightful position. According to him, all he needed was for the right thing to be done, which was for the right systems to be put in place to ensure that customer got speedy service. The man instantly won my respect for that stance.

I could see from the look on the faces of the banking officials that were at their wit’s end as to how to deal with this man. In their minds, they had the solution to the man’s problem and man was still not helping them solve the problem. They could not understand why the man was still angry when all he needed was to be served quickly. The fact is that the officials had missed the first step—the allowance for the venting. And until the step is passed, there was no way there was ever going to be a solution.

I have realised that it is a lack of understanding of this very issue that makes employees brand some customers are very difficult. It is true that they are customers who are genuinely troublesome. I have had my fair share of those customers in my time. However, a majority of those so-called “difficult” customers are most often not given an opportunity for their anger to be vented. If only customer-facing staff would take the first step of acknowledging the feelings of the upset customer, some of the issue that escalate into customer defection would not happen.

Another reason why an attempt to serve the customer quickly was a wrong move was that it ended up angering the other customers around. Those in the queue started agitating. They wanted to know if a display of anger was the quickest way to get served at the bank. The situation became unbearable in just a matter of minutes—all because of the actions of a couple of untrained banking officials.

Anyway, the man eventually got served and he left the banking hall but not before informing the officials that it was the last time they were ever going to see him in that bank again. He vowed to stop all business transactions with them. I was tempted to believe that the man would carry out his threat for a very special reason. The fact is that no one likes to lose their temper, especially in public. No one wants to be seen as a brash and uncontrollable person. It is quite embarrassing. What this means is that this very man would be so ashamed if he has to return to the scene of his greatest fit of anger. It would be easier if he altogether just closed his account and started doing business elsewhere.

As he stepped out, I could not help but wonder the number of people he was going to narrate this incident to. I also wondered what would have happened had the bank in question followed the right steps in an attempt to ameliorate the situation. They failed woefully and lost a client for good. So the next time you are confronted with a customer thrown in a fit of rage, remember that before you fix the problem, it is important to fix the fit first.