How to Deal with Angry Customers. My best tips.

Learn how to deal with angry customers is one of the most important lessons anyone who provides a service can do.

They are rude, demanding, possibly very annoying but the most important part is that they are hurting your business.

If you want to learn how to deal with difficult or angry customers read this post from top to bottom.

Because here you will learn not only how to deal with an angry customer but also how to prevent having them in the first place.

This happens as if I was a rite of passage. At one moment, life will put in our way a very unpleasant people. You know, the kind that could make you feel that you or your work is worthless. 

They yell they swear, they diminish your work and are always trying to save pennies by lowering the rate. 

I have had a few of this since I began to sew professionally in my small design studio. 

But a few days ago I had the worst of them all!

My most recent angry customer drama.

A few days ago, I was yelled, insulted and more by a client who took my work without paying it.

This was not the first time I had encountered a difficult situation with a client.

It might not be the last.

Actually, situations like this had only taught me to grow personally and professionally. And, of course, to be more careful at the time of laying out my conditions. 

I want you to know that you are not alone.

This has happened to many of us and yes, is very unpleasant but the good thing is that it can be prevented and managed in a professional way.

But what can you do when someone is demanding for something that is not right by trying to intimidate you??

Well, here are some tips I’ve picked up along the way.

How to deal with Angry Customers 101

Taking Preventive Measurements

More than waiting for an ugly situation to happen, we need to know how to prevent it.

Here I list my top 4 basic lessons you can do to deal with difficult customers.

1- Identify possible bad clients beforehand

This one is my favorite so far because you can get rid of this type of clients before even start to work with them.

How does a bad or problematic client look like?

Scoop Industries actually has a great article about how to identify this kind of behaviors.

First of all, try to make a conversation about he/she and her/his life. See the way she talks about it. 

You can ask if he/she has had this kind of work (your work) made for them before and if they do… How do they talk about their experience?

If they began to complain, or insult other people’s work, this is a yellow light… Consider that if anything happens this is how they will be talking about you to others.

Another great way to identify someone who is not going to appreciate your work is if they put a “but” in everything you say. Especially on the rates.

Some might try to save money by asking for a lower price. They will tell you that they have other options where is cheaper. Or they will ask you how much do you “really” spend on material and supplies. 

-”This elastic is only 5 cents!”- they will say.

Or worse, they will try to diminish your time and labor by saying something like…

-”Is not that hard to make, you shouldn’t be charging this much”.

Red light my friend. 

Do not work with someone like this. Is only going to give you headaches and trouble.

2- Always make quotes in a formal signable format.

It sounds like something logical doesn’t it?  And yet most of us sometimes overlook this simple first step.

Make an invoice that contains what you are committing to deliver, when and for how much. 

Be as clear as you can and don’t forget to include any terms and conditions you consider necessary.

Then print it and make your client sign it before you start making any project.

3- All changes are signed upon

If it is there going to be any change to the project you are making, you make a new sign up sheet.

It doesn’t matter how little it might seem or how much do you “trust” your client’s word. 

Every change should be approved and signed by your client. 

This is called proof. And is worth a sheet of paper.

4- Ask for a non-refundable advance payment

Whenever I make a custom-made job I ask for 50% of the final price and I make clear that is non-refundable. 

This is the money you use to cover your material and at least some of your time invested in the project. 

Just in case anything would happen you didn’t lose any money in the process.

Have you ever had a bad experience with a client? What happened and what did you do to fix the problem? Tell us in the comments below. Let’s share our experiences to learn! (And maybe blow off some steam?)

Too late! My Customer is yelling already.

In the sad case, you are already in the middle of the battle with your client you need to take into account these tips.

Because at this point, the most important thing is to protect your business.

1- Take control by don’t take it personally and take a step back.

Knowing how to deal with angry customers is to know not to take it personally.

The first point is the most important one as it will make it easier for you to keep control of the situation and don’t start to yell back at your client. 

Here is the thing. 

There is a lot of reasons someone gets to the point of yelling and insulting people. Maybe they had a terrible day or they simply don’t have emotional self control at that moment. 

Could be that they were educated this way.

The kind of people that yells and diminish employees to get what they want is the kind of people who learned by their role models that this was the only way to win things over. 

They probably have spent their lives doing it to several other service givers. And you just happened to cross their way. 

This is not about you being a bad seamstress or whatever profession you have.

Now. I am definitely not telling to put the other check and let them tell you whatever they want. 

But you need to understand that whatever insult, yell or rude treatment a client is giving you is most likely about them than about you, is going to allow you to think more clearly about how to react. 

Not to mention it will help you to not engage in the heat of the moment.

So take a step back, breath and get to point 2.

2- Quickly and honestly assess who’s fault is it.

Did you make a mistake? Is what your client telling, the truth? 

If for whatever reason you made a mistake outside the exact thing you and your client agreed on. 

Then you probably need to offer a good solution for both ends.

Let’s say you took a wrong measurement and now your dress won’t fit the client. 

All right that’s on you and the best and honest thing to do in a case like this is either offer a full refund or fix the mistake for free. 

On the other hand. Let’s say that you are making a fit for a garment your client gave you because she is losing weight.

Is your job to tell her/him that there is a possibility that between weight changes, garments won’t fit perfectly. If after this they are still complaining or trying to make it your fault, simply remind them and try to explain the point.

At this point you can either stop the conflict by either offering a partial refund or by telling them you are sorry but you can’t do anything else about it. 

I have found that the partial refund is more than enough to calm a client when he or she internally knows they are wrong.

I don’t recommend offering a full refund here because you did your job and put your time and it simply has value.

3- Fire them forever.

I believe this is the biggest lesson I have learned in my career. Is definitely the best thing to do on how to deal with angry customers.

Fire them.

A bad client will always be a loss of money, time and effort. And we need to learn when to fire them and how.

We might be hesitant to let clients go because they pay well (this has happened to me) or because they order a lot from us. 

And some part of our brain translates that as good money/income.

But in the end, you will spend and lose more money and time following every new whim, complaint or angry fights your client wants to have. 

It isn’t worth it. Let them go. 

But let them go respectfully and with class.

You can’t go ahead tell them “You are an awful client and I don’t want to work for you anymore”. 

Instead, you can say something like “I think I do not have the skills to meet your needs for this project. So I would like to recommend you to another person who might help”. 

In this way, you are sending them away from you with an option in hand. 

Now that they are gone you can concentrate on attending your loyal, good clients.

4- Save every evidence of the conflict.

Before this person deletes or blocks you from every form of communication, take screenshots at your conversations online, emails everything. 

Print and save your contracts, agreements, and releases. 

You are going to do this because we never know what a person can do even after going peacefully (or not) from your shop. 

This is evidence in case they come back, they want to expose you or even if they want to take legal action against you.

5- But never fall for the social media rant/exposure

Exposing them to social media is not how to deal with angry customers.

In fact, is probably the worst thing you could do.

Do not. I repeat. Do not try to expose your client’s rant, fails, or angry wrong behavior on social media. 

I understand the urge, but this is going to talk as bad of you as of your client. 

If you get into the habit of exposing people or talking about them in a bad way (even if you are right) nobody is going to want to work with you again. 

You are going to seem as conflictive as the person who did this to you. Or it might seem you are doing it for the attention. 

Again it isn’t worth it.

Is not our job to make people understand their mistake, or make everyone hate them about it. 

Only in the extreme case that your client post something about the situation and is hardly trying to stain your name. 

Well, then you can maybe show some evidence. Think twice on the words you are going to use. Keep it professional always.

But I will try to avoid this as much as possible. 

Ranting on social media can bring a lot of different outcomes and unless you are ready to face them all, I will stay away from them. 

Keep your name clean and be the bigger person.

6- Breath, learn and let go.

When everything has passed, learn what you did wrong and what preventive measurements you can take in the future to avoid not only the same problems but similar clients before they even knock at your door. 

Then let it go. 

Free yourself from that burden and get to the next job with the same love you always should have. 

There will be always a possibility to face this type of clients as long as we keep working for people. 

At least now you know how to deal with angry customers the best way. 

And that’s the important thing.

Have you ever had a bad experience with a client? What happened and what did you do to fix the problem? Tell us in the comments below. Let’s share our experiences to learn! (And maybe blow off some steam?)

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