161: How to Approach Customer Threats

Has a customer ever left your employees shaking in fear? Today we discuss ways to diffuse customer threats and protect our brands and ourselves from the worst.

Is your front-line prepared for customer threats?

We’ve turned the tables a bit today! Instead of advocating for the customer, we’re talking about protecting our staff, and our brands from customer threats.

A lot of time and energy goes into training customer-facing employees. But few leaders train their people specifically on how to respond when customers behave in a threatening manner. Sometimes they will only threaten your brand reputation, but if you’ve worked in retail like Adam, you know some customers will threaten bodily harm.

What is your protocol for handling a customer who has gone from irate to downright scary? Where do you draw the line between customer service issues and personal safety issues?

If you've never had to ask a customer to leave or file a police report, don’t be so sure it won’t or can’t happen in your industry. How you respond can make all the difference for keeping customers, employees, and your brand happy and safe.

In this episode, Adam and Jeannie share some real-life stories of customer service issues that have escalated to potentially harmful situations. Listen in for tips and great examples for preventing, responding to, and recovering from extreme customer meltdowns.

Related Content Customers That Stick® post, How to Handle Customer Threats 360Connext® post, 4 Things to Keep You from Losing Your Mind over Customer Behavior Episode 096: Jay Baer, Hug Your Haters Episode 085: Proactive Customer Service and Worst-Case Preparation

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Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.