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

Some angry customers will “play to the audience” in public situations where others are present. You can tell this is happening by observing whether the customer seems to be looking to other customers or bystanders for approval or talks to them. Removing the audience involves arranging for the customer to be served away from the audience, usually in an office space. Here’s an example of how to do it: “Mr. Jones, I’m sure you’d prefer that your privacy is
protected, so let’s go to the office and we can continue there.”

Other Removing The Audience Techniques

Sometimes it's not possible to move to a private space, or to separate two or more people in a party. For example, you may have one customer accompanied by a parent, or two or three friends "ganging up", to pressure the customer service representative. Other techniques, some of them non-verbal, some of them having to do with guiding the interaction to the ONE specific customer (the person who is the decions-maker) can be used.

There's more detail on how to do this in "If It Wasnt' For The Customer, I'd Really Like This Job book.