Mock Call with an Irate Customer with Call Flow Guide

hi everyone i'm sheena and i am candace
and today we are going to do a mock call
with an irate customer
i will be assisting the customer and i
will be narrating
so every time you hear the sound of a
finger snapping
like this that means that candace will
be frozen
and i will be talking in the background
my task will be to
explain why candice is saying the the
things that she's saying during the call
so this way you will be able to
understand the call flow
but if you want an uninterrupted version
of this mock call then i suggest to
click the link above
because that is where i'm going to link
the video
where we don't interrupt the call so
that being said
let's begin let's begin by the way guys
this is the product knowledge for this
mock call i want you to take a minute
to read and familiarize it so you will
be able to better understand
the solution given to the customer's
problem in this mock call
go one two three ring
hi thank you for calling home supplies
this is candice how may i help you
order number one two three four five six
full name amber hill okay pause
so as you notice the customer already
gave her order number
and her full name right at the start of
the call
what do you think does this mean this
means that
you can now check off step three because
the customer
already confirmed her account herself
all candace has to do now is to
enter the customer's information in the
system and search
her account that's it so you might also
notice that
the step three came before the step two
know that this is normal depending on
what the customer says first
the order of the steps two three and
four in the call flow
is interchangeable so in this call step
three came before step two and this is
fine
so that being said let me point out
another thing
that you should notice in this call um
we all know that this is a call about
ira customer
so what i want you to do now is to
listen to the customer's
tone of voice when she was uh speaking i
will replay because what the customer
just said i want you to listen to her
tone of voice to see
if you could already feel that she is
going to be an irit customer okay so let
me replay it
order number one two three four five six
full name amber hill okay
i'm not sure if you noticed but amber
stonovoys the customer
is already a hint that she is going to
be
an irit customer and that's for two
reasons
first is that she didn't bother with the
the greeting she didn't even say hi she
didn't say any one word greeting
she just blurted out her order number
and her full name that's it
so if the customer does this there's two
reasons either she's an irish customer
or she
is in a hurry but in the case of amber
here
it's more like she is an irate customer
because
her tone of voice which is the second
second reason why she's an irish
customer here is
in her tone of voice there was no warmth
or friendliness in it you can really
feel that
she's not happy there's like an edge in
her voice that you can feel
i don't know if you can feel it but this
is something that you will
have the instinct for once you have the
experience
these here are indications that a
customer is going to be an irit customer
now let's proceed thank you
give me one moment please so i can pull
up your account
okay i got your order here and it was
for a convection oven for 129
is this correct yes
correct except that you guys sent me
a cutting board oh i am so sorry that
was
no no no no no no
let me finish don't give me your story
for this inconvenience bull
because this is not an inconvenience
candace this is a disaster
i am upset i waited one long week
one long week and you guys sent me a
cutting board
i mean how would you even explain that
candace how could you even explain that
that someone from your shipping
department
could mistake a piece of cutting board
for an
oven that's what i'd like to know
because
because because i can see how it's my
son's
birthday this thursday and i need that
oven to bake his cake
it is now monday and i have no oven
but hey i guess that's okay right
because i have a
cutting board amber i truly understand
how frustrating this is for you
i truly do i do i i know that our
shipping department
tries to their best to keep the orders
as accurate as possible
but on very rare occasions this kind of
mistake happens from time to time and i
am
so sorry that this happened to you of
course
this is not an excuse and a mistake is a
mistake
and right now what i can do is to help
you resolve this issue
a pause okay so this here is
step two which is to empathize to assure
or apologize in the case of this call
here
candace apologized because this
was clearly the company's fault the
company sent
the wrong item to the customer so
candace
should apologize another thing that i
want to bring to your attention in this
apology is
did you notice that candice did not just
say
i'm sorry she didn't she didn't just say
a one sentence
apology statement like i'm so sorry for
the inconvenience or
i understand your frustration she
actually said something else she said
a lot more i want to replay it to you so
that you would notice
what she said and then i will explain
later so
let's play it again amber i truly
understand how frustrating this is for
you
i truly do i do i i know that our
shipping department
tries to their best to keep the orders
as accurate as possible
but on very rare occasions this kind of
mistake happens from time to time and
i am so sorry that this happened to you
of course this is not an excuse and a
mistake
is a mistake and right now what i can do
is to help you resolve this issue all
right
so let me dissect this apology statement
because
there are four parts of this apology
statement
so first uh that was the apology
statement
you know saying sorry i apologize for
this inconvenience and second
as you heard candice offered the
possible explanation as to why
the mistake happened what this does is
it makes the apology more sincere
because you're actually taking the time
to explain to the customer and make her
understand
why this mistake is happening compare
that to just saying oh i'm sorry
explaining the mistake the reason of the
mistake is actually more
sincere that is the second part so in
the third paragraph you also notice that
candace admitted the mistake of the
company
and this is very important this is
exactly what
every irate customer wants to hear from
call center agents
that the customer is in the right and
the company is in the wrong
and in the case of this call since it is
really the mistake of the company that
the customer received the wrong item so
it is perfectly okay to admit the
mistake of your company
because the thing about irit customers
and angry people in general is that
it is impossible to have a rational
conversation with them
if you do not acknowledge their emotions
first that is just a plain fact
you will never be able to have a
productive conversation with them if you
don't
acknowledge that they have been wronged
that the company
has made a mistake okay by the way just
a short reminder guys that
if you are going to uh tell the customer
that it is your company's mistake i want
you to
make sure that you do not bad mouth your
colleagues
your co-employees it's not professional
to do so
and that is just a no-no in customer
service even if your colleague committed
a mistake which in this case
it was a shipping department who made
the mistake you should not say something
like oh yeah the shipping department is
really
careless i'm so sorry about that you
don't do not bad mouth your colleague
what however big the mistake is
uh because that is just a no-no so in
this case candice just said that
the shipping department tries to
get get the orders as accurate as
possible but sometimes
this kind of mistake happen so
it's it's acknowledging that the company
made a mistake
but it's not really talking about the
shipping department
in a negative way so that is what you
want to do when you want you
you want to admit the company's mistake
and lastly
candice drove the conversation back to
the subject of
how she could help the customer
she said and i will do my best to help
you with this
issue this is really a polite way of
telling the customer that okay
now that i've said sorry now that i've
have explained the mistake
and now that i have admitted the
company's mistake
i think it's time that we move on and
try to resolve this issue as soon as
possible so we could both
hang up the phone happy and now
let us listen to the customer's reply
well they shouldn't have done that to me
it's for my son's birthday
and a cutting board for an oven i mean i
mean i can understand if you sent me an
oven with the wrong model number but
a cutting board seriously i don't know
about you but
this smells like a practical joke to me
pause all right at this point
it looks like amber is not yet ready to
let go of her negative emotions she's
not yet
ready to let go of her anger just yet
and
if you're dealing with an irit customer
this is
perfectly normal this is perfectly
normal one apology statement is not
usually gonna do it is not going to
magically just
calm down the customer you will have to
say it a few times this is a way to make
sure that the customer
vents out her frustration if you say one
apology statement
once then do not expect the customer to
just calm down right away
so at this point it seems like amber is
not yet ready to let go
if this is the case what you want to do
is to just repeat
the apology statement but in different
words so let's hear what candice has to
say about this
i assure you amber what happened was an
honest mistake we would never do that to
our customers on purpose
of course you really should have
received precisely what you ordered
and we failed on that and for that i am
truly sorry
the best thing that i can do for you now
is to make sure that this gets resolved
as soon as possible
okay as you can see these are different
words
from her previous apology statement but
basically the purpose is the same
first she explained again that this was
an honest mistake we would never do that
to our customers on purpose
next she again admitted the company's
mistake
saying that we failed on delivering you
the correct item
and the last part she ended her response
with the assurance that she will resolve
the customers
issue as soon as possible now let us
hear amber's
reply well i don't really have a choice
do i so get on with it
okay this is a good reply from an angry
customer
this means that the customer is already
starting to hear
reason how did i know well if you
compare
amber's previous responses in this
conversation
um they were before they were lengthy
they were long and they were full of
accusations
but after hearing candice apologized
twice her only response is well
i guess i don't have a choice do i so
get on with it she's still irate mind
you but
because she has already vented out her
frustration before and candace even
already apologized twice
she's starting to feel that she's ready
to talk and have a productive
conversation with candace
so let's hear what candace will say
okay so if i heard you right your son's
birthday
is this coming thursday right yes
that's right okay now that amber is
ready to talk
candace is now asking her second probing
question in this call if my assumption
is right
amber's anger should now start to
subside
in fact her response here is very short
she just said
yes that's right if you think about it
this is actually the first response
she said in this call where she was not
nagging or complaining
she just said yes that's right so let's
listen to candace's response here
all right here's what i'm going to do
because you received the wrong item
i will request to have the correct item
sent
out to you within 24 business hours
so if if we send it to you today you
should receive the oven
before your son's birthday on thursday
all i need from you to make that happen
is the photo of the wrong item you
received
along with a photo of the barcode is it
possible that you could send to me while
we're on the line so i could already
process
their shipment for you here we are at
the step five
of the call um this is the part where
candice finally
offered the solution to her um
the the problem though is in order for
candace to execute the
resolution she needs to get the photo
of the wrong item she received along
with a barcode the question is
will amber take the photos for candice
and my answer to that is yes
absolutely she will definitely take the
photos and that's because
candice gave her a reason to
candice motivated her to to take a photo
of the item
by saying that she's going to send the
replacement
and that's going to be for 24 hours
that alone is already a motivation that
will drive
amber to take those photos and take the
effort with as
little complaining and nagging as
possible
so let's hear them i can send you the
photo
but um let me ask you this what
guarantee do i have
that your company is not going to mess
up again because
my purpose really for calling you guys
is to just get a refund
i really just want to order from amazon
because they have a one day shipping
no offense candice but because of what
you sent to me
i'm just not confident enough with your
company anymore
good point amber and i understand your
doubt but
when we encounter this kind of issue
where a customer receives a damaged item
or
as in your case a wrong item we always
make sure to handle the matter with
extra care so there will be no second
mistake
no no chance for a second mistake
happening
so that is why aside from the 24 hour
shipping
we will also do a thorough recheck of
the reshipment
so i can definitely assure you that it's
going to be the correct item this time
okay and this here is where amber
brought up her wish that she just wanted
a refund instead of a replacement
but if you read the product knowledge
the product knowledge states that before
processing a refund you need to push for
a replacement first that is the product
knowledge so in this case
if possible you want amber to choose the
replacement over the refund because then
the company will not make any money
thankfully though if you heard that
candice tried to persuade the customer
to
get the replacement instead of the
refund she
assured the customer that the same
mistake is not going to happen again
she even said that aside from the 24
hour shipping
they will also do a thorough recheck of
the reshipment
so that the same mistake will not ever
happen again
and i personally think that this is
really just what amber wants to hear
based on my experience if a customer
really wants a refund
she will just say i want a refund
that's it one sentence i want a refund
firmly and it would already be clear
that she really wants a refund she
doesn't want a replacement
but in this case if you replay amber's
response she was actually saying that
she was actually saying a lot of things
she was saying that
oh what guarantee do i have that your
company is not going to mess up this
time
it feels like she's saying that oh
convince me
to get the replacement instead of a
refund assure me that
the mistake is not going to happen again
and this is exactly what candace did for
her
this is exactly what candace replied
saying that it's not going to happen
again because we will do a thorough
recheck because the problem already
happened to you once and
we would not allow that to happen again
now let us hear amber's reply
well okay i guess i'm just gonna have to
give you another shot
so where do i send the photos to
you can send it to support
homesupplies.com
okay hold on let me go get my phone
because
i already took a photo of the cutting
board yesterday so
i should have it on my phone right here
hold on
okay uh so that's support
homesupplies.com
okay send can you see it
okay let me check
okay yes i got it by the way amber do
you also have the photo of the barcode
of the cutting board is that really
necessary
i'm not lying okay here is another
problem
amber took a photo of the wrong item
which is the cutting board
unfortunately she didn't take a photo of
the barcode
and according to the product's knowledge
you really need to
also take the customer really needs to
take a photo of the barcode
and in this case candace is no choice
but to ask for it
but the question is will amber do it
this right here is a little bit
critical because at first glance you
might think that this request from
candice is
just insignificant of course the
customer is going to do the bar
to to take the photo of the barcode but
if you handle this wrong there is a big
chance that the customer will feel
upset again and it will threaten
her ability to again have a rational
conversation with you
so when you encounter this kind of
question you want to do it
properly to avoid offending the customer
let's hear what candace's reply is yes
amber i would need it to have your
reshipment approved as soon as possible
after that we will ship the oven to you
immediately and you should receive it
within 24 hours
okay here again candace in order for her
to make amber
do what she wants her to do again she
painted a picture of
the scenario that amber wants to happen
which is
basically a replacement within 24 hours
so again
she she pictured that out for amber to
see and also you will notice that
candice was
saying power words like as soon as
possible
and immediately these are power words
these are very useful
power words in customer service they
create the impression of efficiency
of speed and competence that's going to
be a topic for another video but
know that there is such a thing as power
word
power words they are very important
customer service in order to
persuade and convince your customers
into doing what you want them to do or
what you need them to do
so now let us hear if amber will do what
candice says
okay let me go upstairs and take a photo
can you hold sure take your time two
minutes later
hello are you there yes amber i'm here
i've sent it did you get it yes i got it
um so now i will forward the photos to
the reshipment team
and you should receive the oven tomorrow
about the
the cutting board you receive you don't
have to return it
just feel free to keep it keep it or
give it away
okay here candice did a recap she
explained what's gonna happen after
sending the photo
when to expect the replacement another
thing that she did here
was to remind not to return the
the wrong item which was the cutting
board um
as you notice amber was so focused on
the resolution of her problem for the
for the
reshipment but she did not really ask
about what to do with the wrong item and
according to the product knowledge
the customer can just keep the wrong
item and she doesn't have to return it
but amber did not really ask about it
it's like she forgot about it so in this
case
your job as the agent is to make sure
that the customer does not call back
candice
reminded her what to do with a wrong
item
she did not wait for amber to ask about
it
this here is very important in customer
service you want to make sure to avoid
repeat contacts as much as possible that
is why candace already brought up
the topic about what to do with the
wrong item
remember that your job as the agent is
to get the
best resolution for the customer
according to the company policy
and to make sure that you save the
customer as much time as possible
so by telling the customer that she
doesn't need to return the wrong item
without waiting for the customer to ask
the question then you're basically
saving the customer time because by then
she would not have to call again
and ask about it so now let's proceed
oh good i totally forgot to ask you
about that so
thank you candace i really don't want to
drive to the post just to return that
so all right um
i guess it's all good then all settled
yeah yes all you have to do now is to
wait for the replacement to arrive
tomorrow and we will take care of
everything
and again we are so sorry for this
mistake
well as long as the oven arrives
tomorrow
i am happy thank you candace
you've been very patient you're most
welcome amber
is there anything else that i can help
you with today no
that's all you have a great day candace
bye
have a great day amber thank you for
calling home supplies bye
gosh ridiculous okay
so that was that what else should i tell
you
okay so that was all for the mock call
today but before you go i want to point
out one thing this is actually a
an easy call even for an ira customer
and you
probably noticed that why is this easy
that's because
when the customer received the wrong
item the company has the solution
just the exact solution that the
customer wanted
uh as you remember there were two
solutions
first is the replacement or a refund
either way it's going to be a really
good
solution for the customer but what if
what if the company policy does not
allow
what the customer want as the resolution
what if the customer is asking
something impossible something that is
not
within the company policy if that is the
case then it's going to be a really
harder call for you and that is what i'm
going to
discuss next time once i do a mock call
and once it is ready and that's going to
be the part 4. i will put it put a
description here above
in this video so you will know that it
is ready
the part four is going to be still an
irid customer
but it's going to be a bit harder this
time because the company policy will not
allow the customer to have the
resolution she wants
so make sure to wait for that video
and that's all if you think that this
video helped you
consider subscribing because it really
took me a long time to do this mock call
of all the videos i have here in youtube
this is probably
the the longest yeah so consider
subscribing
and liking this video so you will get
notifications on my future videos so
that's all bye