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An Unusual Strategy For Responding To Angry People, That Works.
Pacing And Leading.
Most of us do not realize the personal flexibility we have in our behaviour and response to other people. An effective way to respond to angry people at home, at work, and in sales situations, is pacing and leading. It is a simple procedure once learned. It may appear counter-intuitive at first but is very effective in tense situations such as on a complaints desk.
People in this position were once trained to respond to the client’s complaints in a calm, quiet, and reasonable manner, with the goal of returning the conversation to a point where the customer’s complaint could be dealt with rationally. Staying resourceful and calm on the inside is absolutely the right advice in that situation; the only problem is that if the customer is raging and shouting, and you respond in calm, level tones, the customer will not feel taken seriously.
Worse, they would probably feel patronized, like you’re implying that they are acting like a child. In that situation, a certain type of customer is going to escalate their anger rather than calm down, so the attempt to soothe the situation has actually made things worse.
Looking at this from the point of view of pacing and leading, what could you do instead? …. While staying in a resourceful state yourself…
