Training your sales team to deal with angry customers

For luxury retail brands, higher price tags and positioning in your niche comes with higher expectations—and often higher tempers when things go wrong. Handling angry customers requires a refined approach in order to soothe frustrations and turn challenging situations into positive outcomes. Whether the issue is with a product return, a missing item, trouble with pricing, or customer interactions with sales staff or other brand representatives, you need to smooth things over to protect your store’s reputation.

Effective customer engagement requires clear communication, swift resolutions, and empathy from start to finish. You can turn negative situations into opportunities for positive engagement. Explore the tips and methods below and train your sales team to deal with upset customers with grace and professionalism.

This list of tips can help your sales associates greatly reduce the risk of negative reviews and instead provide excellent customer service that may get a return visit and more positive interactions with your brand. No matter what the situation, the sales team should know how to handle it beforehand. Clear understanding of company policies helps.

Problem #1: Customer issue

Every customer conversation should focus on highly personalized service. When you collect data with a powerful platform like Clientbook, this becomes very easy for all members of the sales team. Of course, brand-new shoppers are more difficult, and you will have to use your communication skills to figure out what they truly want. 

Show genuine interest in helping them and ask about their preferences and needs. What type of event do you need this outfit for? Will this jewelry be a gift for someone special? Talk to them on a more personal level, especially when handling customer requests for something not readily available in your shop. The more care and effort members of the sales team put into the interaction, the less chance of an angry client who leaves the store with nothing or abandons their e-commerce shopping cart.

Problem #2: Returns

No matter how carefully you work to choose the perfect product for your clients, returns will still happen. A dissatisfied customer may expect friction or an overly complex process when trying to get a refund for an item they do not want. The most important thing for a sales associate to do is engage in active listening and maintain a friendly and professional tone of voice.

As with all customer interaction, empathy always helps. Saying something like "I understand how this is frustrating for you," may soften the words and actions of even rude customers. Acknowledge the issue after hearing their complaint. Clearly explain the options available to them based on your shop's return and refund rules. Don’t waste a lot of time apologizing excessively or insisting that there is nothing wrong with the product. People want quick solutions to their problems.

Better yet, do what you can do turn the return into an exchange so it’s not a complete loss for you or the customer. It’s a win-win for everyone involved. 

Problem #3: Pricing

Difficult customers who choose to shop at luxury brands may still complain about prices. It might still be possible to transform them into a loyal customer by clearly demonstrating the value in the product to sell. For example, a jacket on your rack comes from a sought-after designer, has natural, high-quality fabrics, and is hand-stitched in Europe. There are ways to point out things like this during an excellent customer service interaction.

Another excellent customer service skill is to give them options adjacent to their first choice that cost less. Perhaps they don’t truly need a limited-edition bracelet and would be just as happy with one on sale from the same designer. 

You can also point out the benefits of being a loyal customer specifically related to price: repeat sales discounts, loyalty program perks, and special event inclusion down the road. Focus on overall value of both the products and interactions with the brand.

Problem #4: Bad online reviews

Although sales associates may face angry customers who actually come to the store to complain about a product or service, most bad reviews happen online. You don’t have the benefit of reading body language or using your face to display empathy and care for the customer. The best way to deal with these still focuses on a personal level of attention, empathy, and an attempt to offer solutions that turn the bad to good.

Act quickly and professionally by acknowledging the customer experience in a respectful manner. Thank them for their feedback and express a willingness to work with them to make things better. Simply saying "We would love the opportunity to make things right" can go a long way to soothing frustrations and making the right impression. Publicly acknowledging this also shows other customers or people interested in the brand that you take things like this seriously.

After helping the customer as much as possible by facilitating a return, offering an apology, or taking other actions as needed, the final step is to use the review as more data to improve your brand down the road. This valuable information can help you avoid such issues in the future.

Conclusion

Of course, there are many reasons why customers get angry or frustrated. They can range from long wait times, to out of stock items, to website navigation issues. People also get upset at companies when they themselves make a mistake or fail to do their due diligence during a purchase. All these things need the same basic approach. Comprehensive training for your sales team should cover a diverse range of examples for best results.

No matter what type of luxury products you sell or whether you focus on brick-and-mortar or e-commerce sales, angry customers will happen. With proper training and practice, your sales team can transform negative interactions into more positive ones. Empathy, clear communication, and the type of personalized attention you can only get with effective data collection and analysis will make this possible. Those are just some reasons why using a powerful tool like Clientbook makes sense for any luxury brand.