BEP157 Dealing with an Angry Caller (Part 1)

We’ve all dealt with angry people before. But dealing¹ with an angry person on the phone, in a business setting, can be tricky². Sometimes you don’t know the person, so his or her situation may be completely new to you. You can’t see the person, so you can’t read facial expressions or body language. Sometimes the person yells or talks so quickly that you can’t understand exactly what they mean. And sometimes they might be rude, which can make you angry yourself.
Successfully handling an angry caller is an important skill. Often, these callers are customers and you don’t want to lose their business. Satisfied customers will return and recommend your company to others. Angry customers will do the opposite.

So in today’s lesson, we’ll cover ways to calm down angry callers, using a calm tone of voice, and let them know you’re listening. We’ll also look at language for acknowledging an angry customer’s feelings and frustrations³ by showing empathy. Finally, we’ll talk about ways to clarify problems so you can solve them quickly.

Let’s hear how Diana, a Customer Care agent for a credit card company, handles Jay, an angry customer whose credit card has been locked, or disabled.

Listening Questions

1. What city is Jay visiting?
2. What did Jay buy his wife for her birthday?
3. When was Jay’s credit card locked?

1 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

2 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

3 frustrations   

挫折( frustration的名词复数 )； 失败； 挫败； 失意

参考例句：

• The temptation would grow to take out our frustrations on Saigon. 由于我们遭到挫折而要同西贡算帐的引诱力会增加。
• Aspirations will be raised, but so will frustrations. 人们会产生种种憧憬，但是种种挫折也会随之而来。