Help dealing with people at work

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I am not talking about my fellow employees. I actually have a few good friends at my work. Some know about my AS ,others don't and for the most part it's fine. My problem is with some customers. I work at a Hardware store and it's actually a good job for our small town. I know the store and can find anything and I am good at solving problems. My problem is dealing with people who come in angry and yelling. I don't deal well with that. I try to solve their problems logically and it just seems to piss them off. I had a customer come in yesterday ranting and raving. This kind of thing will put me on edge for weeks. I hate to give up a good job ( especially in this economy). Any body have any tips for dealing with angry people.

Express empathy for their situation. Example:

Angry customer: My faucet broke and I bought this new one here and it's missing a god damn washer! I spent four hours trying to install it and then had to take it all apart again!"

You: Oh gosh that happened to me once. It's like some of these companies have never heard of quality control. Let me see if we have one with all the parts so I can exchange that for you.

Angry Customer response 1: Problem is they make all these things in foreign countries now! (they) Put your money in their pockets instead of a quality product!

(His ignoring you and continuation of a rant generally means he is not opposed to your idea of exchanging the item).

Angry Customer response 2: I don't want to exchange it. I want my money back! I spent all #$^* morning on this because your *&^%ing company sells crap (blah blah blah, etc, mad mad mad).

Don't try to reason with him, just exchange the money and apologize. If he won't take the money ask if he would like to speak to the manager. If he declines that and is still shouting obscenities and refuses to take the money, call the manager over anyway.

Angry customer response 3: Some sort of positive response.

You have to keep in mind, in most instances the person is frustrated at the situation, not with you.

We should always assume that customer has right to be angry on shopkeeper. Try to curb common answers and use assumption. Be pateint and listen, speak politely with smile.

Follow the words of wisdom : "Speak when you are angry and you'll give the best speech that you will ever regret."


-syed-

The problem is that employers blame the autistic for angry customers.

I used to have the same problem back in my bartending days. thankfully, I had a really cool boss who gave me the 'license to refuse service' ;P basically he allowed me to use the rule we had written in bold behind the bar, saying that we could refuse to serve anyone without naming the reason (that was England though, I don't suppose it's legal in America?). the result was that I felt responsible not to overuse it (and I was the only staff member allowed to do it actually, which only made the sense of responsibility bigger) and eventually I learned to deal with some of the angry customers in an assertive way.

remember you'll always have jerks who'll ruin your day though, some people just are this way :/

I'd flat out tell people that I won't help them if they continue to yell and swear.

Most call centres have these policies, and I don't see why it would be any different for a face to face confrontation.