Slow, calm breaths.
Wait to respond.
Prioritise truly listening to hear what they are saying.
The frustrated customer or exhausted volunteer may not always voice their concern in the clearest manner. Maybe emotions are getting the best of them.
So you may need to read between the lines to understand how or why they are struggling, and to figure out how you can help.
Putting yourself, as much as possible, “in their shoes” will help to understand their perspective.
That being said, although quality customer service prioritises helping each person, that shouldn’t be to the point where you end up neglecting others because you’re so focussed on that difficult customer.
Interacting with a difficult customer, or an over-extended volunteer, is never fun.
But everything you learn from each customer or volunteer interaction, the enjoyable and the not-so-enjoyable, can be integrated into how you design your product or service, especially how you approach customer service and the overall customer, or volunteer, experience.
And it doesn’t matter what your product or service is, customer service is the biggest part of what you do.
Having patience goes a long way to encouraging people to come back and to share the word with others.
So, taking a few moments now can be a small investment of your time, that has big returns in the long run.
It’s worth the effort to learn what you can from every experience, especially from the complaints. That’s how you can make your service even better. That’s how you learn to serve your customers, members, or volunteers better.
Patience.
It’s an essential part of quality service.