15 Ways to Deal with Rude People, Clients & Customers

15 Ways to Deal with Rude People, Clients & Customers

When people are rude to you or speak to you in a funny, condescending, bullish tone, or if they just outright insult you or your business and say something rude and derogatory. Say whether in person, on the phone, live chat or by email or something. How do you deal with this for each scenario and why? That's what we'll talk about and give you some tips on how to properly deal with such rude people and handle and deal with them in a positive manner!

Think Like God Thinks - Find Positives in Everything
God has infinite knowledge and wisdom so nothing is too hard for him. He can make good come out of any situation or scenario and use any for good! And he does like a good God would. But God is a positive thinker! He thinks positively about things and sees positive and good things within them that can be taken out, buffed and shined (or tried in fire) and used to get ahead with in life.

And that's how you need to think like, sort of, more or less. Just basically finding the good and the positive in everything and using that as food for good and turning it around in your favour. That's not always easy to do when you don't know how. So here's some ways of thinking when it comes to dealing with rude and or aggressive or demanding customers, clients and just people in general!

1. Don't Ever Loose Your Cool - Be Like the Fonz
Never let the sun go down on your anger. What does that mean? Basically, don't flip out! Be angry but in a righteous way. Even the Fonz gets angry, but he doesn't go flailing his arms and putting his deuces up. Get a hold of your anger, be the bigger man and take the non-neanderthal approach to doing business.

Whatever happens, no matter how heated it gets, try not to raise your voice at people as this is always seen as something people have to respond to by talking back but louder! And never ever insult someone no matter how much they do you or your business. Just thank people for their opinion and leave it at that and move on!

2. Don't Take it Personally - Leave your feelings at the door please!

I remember when I used to work for a telesales company (ever seen the movie Boiler Room? It was like that) and my boss was really strict and also very ruthless too! He wouldn't care if the person who wanted to buy his service was someone that didn't really need it and only had enough money to pay their rent that month, or some old woman on a pension, he would still take their money if they could be talked into it. He wasn't breaking the law by doing that, but he never really used to like it and you'd probably lose your job if you refused to take people like this on. I'm glad I never worked their long!

But sometimes, in that industry, in that environment, you would sometimes speak to very rude people that used to either be offended you called them or for some other reason and would verbally swear at you and call you all the names under the sun. Now I'm not going to lie and say I've never told someone where to go and hung up on them before when they have lol. But you can't really do that if it's a potential/existing customer and client!

However, what I've learned when someone was rude to me on the phone (and in person) and insulted me or my business or business I was working for, personally in some way, was not to retailiate in the same manner. But to recognize what it is and to play on it and use it for good. Basically to just turn it around on them and play to their human side.

So what I would say if someone insulted me is something like, "well thanks for that sir, cheers!" Or just "oh right, thanks for that." And then from here just say, anyway is there anything else I can do for you? Because some people, no matter how much you thank them, they can just carry on insulting you. Some people are just going to be anti-social in which case you either just need to hang up or call security!

But never take insults or personal remarks personally and let them effect you. Make them just bounce off you like you're made of teflon. Laugh and smile them away and keep smiling! If someone says something rude or funny to you in an message or order on here, don't respond in like manner. Don't let it affect you negatively. Turn it round on them with a compliment saying thanks lol.

If worst comes to worst, just cancel the order or report them to staff but it shouldn't ever come to that! Just remember, don't take it personal, it might not even have anything to do with you. ;)

3. Confront or Refrain

Look sometimes you have to stand up for yourself and gain the respect you deserve! Both in real personal life and in real business life too. And if someone is really out of line, then you should confront them on the matter. And that can apply both online in person, in life and business and online too in personal and business life.

Let's say for example that someone demands more than you provide and you should give it to them or they will leave a bad review for you or talk smack about you on your FB page or something. Or say that someone insults you or talks down to you or one of your staff and upsets them but still wants a good deal on your service. You can refuse to work for such people of course, but that would be a loss of earnings. And you can always deal with anything they've said or will say, to or about you, your business etc on any site later on anyway.

So when/if people, clients, existing and potential, are ever rude to you or are out of line in their demands or way they've spoken to you. don't be afraid to confront them and put them in their place as that is your God given right as a human being and the way of the world and good for business too.

Sometimes though, you might want to refrain from confronting people on things they've said. Think about whether this person will likely do business with you or you them and just leave it. Just leave it and don't even reply to them. Refrain completely and just move on!

4. Don't Expect Rudeness to Change!

Rude people are often always rude people lol. I know people and I know people with manners and literal verbal skills and those that just speak in grunts and moans lol. And most people who are rude to people, are often hot headed people and the type to lose their cool and blow their top or fly off the handle, whatever philosophical bent you want to take lol. But it's true! Rude people and people that are generally rude to talk to. Do you have that one mate that is often rude to people for no reason or uses language that isn't called for? lol I know a couple people like that!

Some get given ASBO's and put on curfew LOL. And some people even get put on a black list! And that's just the nature of rude! It's something to do with their upbringing if you ask me! And this can happen sometimes in the world of doing business. You can come across rude customers or people and then later on have to experience their level of dealing with things all over again. Every company, electric board, gas board, water board, mobile company, insurance company, entertainment company etc etc, has a few bad customers like this and it can have an affect on morale and business all round.

So it's important for businesses to know about how rudeness doesn't ever stop being rude and knowing how to deal with it each time it rears its ugly head.

5. Objectify Scenarios and Situations

Objectifying the scenario or situation at hand is basically just looking at it from all angles and perspectives. So if someone has said something negative, offensive, demeaning, rude or condescending to you. Instead of replying in a negative way, you would look at all the ways that something good or positive could come from it. As well as possibly, all the good things that you could do or offer to that person or persons.

That could be something like, offering to transfer their call to someone higher up or more knowledgeable and powerful than you are but really it's just going to someone else in the same department who adopts the same logic and tactic until it is eventually and then they can decide how to deal with it. Or it could simply be just replying to something someone has said and offering them a chance to leave feedback or a testimonial somewhere. Even a discount code or reduced rate on something. But more something that benefits both of you.

Okay this is getting pretty long and I've got a pizza in the oven so I'll leave it here for now and post the other 10 later!

Over to You!

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