How to Earn Back the Respect of an Angry Client

How to Earn Back the Respect of an Angry Client:from Business 2 Community by Laura Cole
There are few things more dangerous to a small business than an angry client on a warpath. A young business does not often have many clients to spare, and even just one angry voice can destroy any chance of working with good clients in the future. It is no exaggeration to say that one angry client can topple a small business. If you have made a client angry, you must act swiftly to fix the situation.
There are typically a lot of emotions in play when you have angered a client. The client may feel disrespected, betrayed, or ignored. He or she may be willing to give you another chance, but he or she may also have taken the first opportunity to smear your name wherever there is an audience to listen. In some cases, it may be too late to do anything about an angry client, but that does not mean that you should ever give up.
With this in mind, it is worth addressing what situations may result in an angry client and how they can best be avoided.There are several strategies that can help you, so long as your able to think both strategically and creatively.
What Causes Clients to Become Angry?
There are many ways to make a client angry, but only a few of them will result in a client angry enough to stop working with you, or start trashing your name in front of other people. Those are the situations we are going to focus on this section. There are three primary situations you need to avoid if you want to keep your customers happy and positive. More specifically, you need to avoid situations that involve miscommunication, unfulfilled value, and insults or disrespect.
Miscommunication
Miscommunication problems are common in almost any type of business. You probably won’t find a single entrepreneur anywhere who hasn’t faced some kind of emergency because of a communication error. Communication problems are often accidental, but that does not stop them from escalating until your entire business is at risk.
The communication problems that result in angry clients are often the ones that give that client false ideas about what will be delivered. Some common examples might include situations like: -
·    The client received the wrong information about dates
·    The client received the wrong information about features
·    The client received the wrong information about costs
·    The client misunderstood his or her obligations
Miscommunication is a serious problem on its own, but it is even more dangerous when the client is convinced that dishonesty was involved. Few people will be willing to work with you if they believe that you routinely lie to your clients. Fortunately, there are ways that you can avoid miscommunication.
Avoiding Miscommunication
There are several ways that you can avoid be victimized by miscommunication problems. First, handle all client communication for as long as you can. This will not be possible when you are running a larger business, but it is the best way to make sure the right message is delivered while you are operating an independent venture. If you communicate with clients through employees, you should make sure you have staff members you can trust to be both honest and tactful.
Also, make sure you stay in frequent communication with your clients as long as their project is ongoing. That way, you will be able to tell as soon as possible when a client has been given the wrong impression. Breaking the bad news immediately instead of waiting until the end will decrease the chances of the miscommunication becoming a serious incident.
Unfulfilled Expectations
Sometimes, a client simply will not be happy with the finished product, even when it meets every condition that both parties agreed upon in the beginning. The client may be dissatisfied with the quality, or simply disappointed that the product does not match an unspoken expectation. No matter the reason, clients with a product that does not live up to their expectations are not going to send you much repeat business or leads.
There is not always something that can be done about this problem. Some clients simply have very unrealistic ideas of what they can expect for what they’re paying. Some clients may even ignore you when you understand that they have unrealistic expectations, and try to explain what they can actually expect.
Education is the only real answer to this problem. Make sure you are very clear and upfront about what product or service you are offering. Emphasize the positive points, but don’t lie about the features of your product or service. A sale that results in an angry customer can mean fewer total sales down the road.
Insult or Disrespect
It is always a serious problem when a client believes he or she has been insulted or disrespected. There are many ways this can happen. Most business owners would never deliberately insult their clients, so this most often happens by accident. Sometimes, emails get sent to wrong person, or venting sessions somehow get back to the person targeted. In some cases employees are responsible. In other cases, the insult is purely an accident that resulted from cultural differences.
You should always be paying close attention to what your clients are hearing from you and your business. In most cases, you can prevent insults just by making sure your behavior is professional at all times. Don’t take risks with colorful language, and avoid talking about clients to people who are not involved with the business. If you are involved with a client who makes you so angry that you can’t contain yourself, it may be better in the long run to make a clean cut while the client still has a positive view of your business.
Recovering From Disaster
We have talked about ways you can prevent disaster from happening in the first place, so it’s now time to discuss what you should do if the damage is already done. Hopefully, you’re in a situation where the damage can actually be repaired. To increase the chances of repairing a professional relationship, you should address the problem as quickly as possible. When you are approaching an angry client, you should make sure you understand what went wrong, and decide if an apology or compensation is appropriate.
Make Sure You Understand What Went Wrong
The most important step in earning respect back from an angry client is making sure that you know precisely what went wrong. If you misunderstand what went wrong, you are likely to make the client even angrier. Also, when you really understand what went wrong, you’ll be in a much better position to do something about it.
Start by asking your client for any information about what went wrong. The client may not feel that he or she owes you any details, so you may need to rely on your own records to find the point of failure. While you are looking for what went wrong, you should try to make sure that it isn’t something that could happen to another client.
Apologies Can Be Helpful, but They Can Also Backfire
Your first instinct may be to apologize, but an apology does not fix an underlying and it may cost you the opportunity to present the problem as a misunderstanding instead of a mistake. Admitting to a mistake could actually decrease the chances that the client will work with you again, especially if the apology comes across as forced and fake.
However, apologies can also be a great way to ease tensions, and it may be your only option if you made a serious mistake or miscalculation. If the mistake is serious enough to end the relationship between you and your client, you may need to consider other strategies as well. After you have made any necessary apologies, you should measure what you can offer and what you have to lose.
Measure What You can Offer to What You Have to Lose
Keeping clients is very important. That’s why you should work to recover clients whenever possible. There are two reasons for this. First, it is always good to have more business. Second, a client that has decided to start working with you again will not be spreading stories about you to other potential clients.
There will probably be huge costs to getting an angry client back on your side. The client may demand concessions that you cannot actually afford. You will have to make a decision about whether the cost is worth getting the client back on your side.  Do what you can, but understand that you will make many mistakes on your way to making your business stable. Sometimes, you just need to let your mistakes go and get on with your work.
Best of Luck with Your Future Clients
The best way to deal with these problems is to prevent them from happening in the first place. We hope the advice in this article will help you avoid problems in the future. It’s likely that you will still have emergencies though, so perhaps you will be able to use our advice on how to recover from these disasters.