Despite your best efforts, things can and will go wrong . Whether you experience a problem with a customer delivery, billing, product configuration, credit or any other area of potential challenge, the more prepared you are to handle and resolve the problem, the better both you and your customer will be.

Hopefully, none of your customers will ever get angry with you when a problem rears its head but chances are high that you will experience an angry customer during your sales career.

Some will be angry for no valid reason and others will have more than enough reasons to verbally express their anger.

When Anger Turns Physical

A quick note about when an angry customer gets or threatens to get physical with you while you are trying to resolve a problem. No one has the right to invade your personal space and no one has the right to use or threaten physical harm to you. If you encounter a customer who gets physical or who threatens to do so, excuse yourself from the situation.

There is no benefit to squaring off with an angry customer and seemingly mild physical encounters have a tendency to escalate quickly. Get out of the area or get off the phone when a customer's anger turns physical.

Help to Assess the Situation

The thing about angry people is that they often get so wrapped up in their anger that they lose sight of the whole situation. Responding only to anger also disallows you from getting a clear understanding of the problem.

Ask the customer to calmly explain the details and how they view the problem.

Ask them to take you through the challenge step by step. This approach will often calm the customer down as they are forced to "state their claim" in a systematic method.

Pay close attention to what most bothers your customer. Perhaps a specific step was missed or a promise was not delivered on. Often times, taking a systematic approach can identify a simple issue that can be solved easily and quickly.

Don't be too Quick to Accept or Assign Blame

If the problem is real, automatically accepting the blame, even if you know you were not at fault, is a bad approach to take. The blame could be shared by many including your customer. Once you have a clear understanding of the problem and have completed your assessment, it's time for full and open honesty.

If the problem was caused by you, accept the blame. If it was caused by the customer, let your customer know your feelings as well as how you are still focused on helping your customer resolve the issue. If the problem creator cannot be identified, avoid assuming where the blame should land.

Don't Lessen the Effect

Want a sure fired way to get your angry customer even more upset? Tell them that they are exaggerating the issue and that they shouldn't be as upset as they are. Another effective way to add fuel to the fire is to act like the issue is really easy to resolve. The customer may feel that if something is easy to resolve, it should also be easy to avoid.

Describe Your Solution

If the problem is real and you have a thorough understanding, explain that you will resolve the problem and give specifics about how you are going to work towards a resolution. You should include as many details of your solution as possible and include realistic dates when each solution step will be completed.

Make 100% sure that you don't over promise anything when laying out your solution. Doing so will set you up for a much more uncomfortable customer conversation if you can't deliver on your promise.

When a Problem Can't be Solved

Not every problem can be resolved and not every challenge can be lessened. For example, if your customer is angry about being denied credit financing due to their poor credit rating, suggesting that you will work at a resolution could be a fruitless waste of your time. This is not to say that you should not explore possible solutions to seemingly unsolvable problems, however. You owe it to your customer the due diligence needed to either find a solution or to realize there is not solution.

When there is no solution, calmly tell your customer that the problem cannot be fixed. Be honest about your attempts and, if possible and appropriate, offer other ideas to mitigate the problem's effect on your customer.