Complete Guide To Dealing WIth Difficult, Angry, Aggressive And  Abusive Customers

It sounds a bit lame. Slow yourself down in emotional customer service situations, and you'll be more likely to stay in control of your own emotions, and not blow up at a customer. It's not exactly rocket science, but it's absolutely critical to self control in tough situations.

Why Slowing Down Works As A Means Of Controlling Your Emotions

It's simple. When a customer "triggers" you, or tweaks your emotions, the first responses that rise up from your gut involve defensiveness or counter-attacking, and if you let those responses out, you give up control of yourself, and of the situations. So, you need to "stifle" those gut reactions and allow your thinking brain a chance to deliberate. 

That's why slowing down is essential. It brings control to you.

Below is an excerpt from If It Wasn't For The Customers, I'd Really Like This Job"

Tactic 2:  Slow down your responses

Earlier we mentioned that when you get triggered you tend to respond quickly and without thinking, and that these initial responses are usually ineffective ones. One tactic is to learn how to delay your response so that the gut response that comes out so quickly doesn’t occur. The reality is that you need a few seconds to think about what you should do, so you can formulate a good response.

You CAN learn how to do this, but it does require some attention and effort. After a while you can get into the habit of not responding immediately.

When you are dealing with a hostile customer, consciously slow your responses down. Remember Grandma’s Rule? When you are angry, count to ten before you say anything? Well, you can’t count to ten, but you can count to two or three before responding. By doing so, you break the trigger/automatic response cycle, and you will find this will help you keep yourself under control.

Another way of controlling your own response is to take a reasonably deep breath before responding. You need to make sure that when you release the deep breath, that it doesn’t come at as a big sigh, as this is annoying to some people.

Count to two or three, and/or take at least one deep breath before responding. Do this consciously at first, and you will find that each time, it becomes easier and more automatic. If you work at it, eventually, it will become a new habit, replacing the automatic, ineffective response to the triggering behavior of the customer.