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I just got my first internship doing Help Desk at a private school so I am excited to get started and experience IT work for the first time.

My Manager says that the most important skill I should have is being warm nice and friendly to the customers that will ask for my technical support and advice.

But the question I have for all of you is how do you deal with an angry pissed off user?

Whats the best way to handle an angry customer in person or over the phone if they are angry that you are not able to resolve the problem or that they are impatient and already want their problem resolved.

What do you tell them and do you often get mad or try to remain calm?

40 Spice ups
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I handle it the same as a non-pissed end user. Them being pissed will not actually make the issue they’re having magically go away.

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Calm is always good. Sometimes a pause is the best way to take things down a notch. When I am dealing with a difficult person, I stop what I’m doing, I inhale for 8 seconds, I hold that breath for 4 seconds and then exhale for 6 seconds. It helps me center and focus on fixing the problem and that span of 18 second silence is signal for the user to step off. I also swear in Japanese - most folks don’t understand.

Now everyone - deep breaths and whisper “shiruka boke”.

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4

Always remain calm, take to the spiceworks forum with the venom.

I had a hard time cultivating the calm demeanor needed to get through those calls. Remain calm and steady with your voice, do not engage any personal attack that they might start or snarky comment. Stick to the facts and the reason for their call.

They are your customer and the reason you have a job\internship.

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Hello Jonathan, firstly congratulations on your first Internship.

Let me start off by saying that IT is a Thankless job! yes, you do the best you can to help address a problem, some people would appreciate your help and thank you for it, others may just say it’s a part of your job! but at the end of the day, you need to realize that what you did was important to ensure that the people can still do their job and that you are doing your job right and learning everyday.

Back to your original question, In my experience, “being calm” is the most important skill, usually if you loose your patience or temper because of an angry user, you will tend to make mistakes and not focus.

With any user, try and explain the problem to the user and possibly what you think may have caused it and also explain what you plan to do to fix it. (this gives users a hint of what they should not have done to cause the problem if it was user error) Sure he wants it fixed right away, but the situation should be addressed as best as possible to make him understand that you are listening to what he said and doing your best to make it right.

If he still is angry or annoyed, let one of your supervisors be advised about the situation and let them handle it from there.

Good Luck!

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There are many ways to handle it … and not so many to handle it right.

Kill them with kindness is usually the best one. No matter how rude an upset they are, be nice, and show genuine empathy. Now that is easily said, not as easily done.

Never take it personal, they just don’t call you when things work, but things don’t work, they actually know it’s not your fault either, they are just upset, just you know, try to be see it from their side. something is not working, you get upset and call support. It’s not about you, just let them say what they have to say and let them know you’ll do the best you can to take ownership of the issues.
( don’t promise things you can not keep, ever)

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Put them at ease, assure them that you will do all you can to get the issues solved, explain that you are still learning but you are happy to help, explain you understand their frustration but you will follow up the issue and get back to them (and make sure you do if you can’t fix it yourself).

If the issue deems an apology, give them one, politely.

Unfortunately the best way to handle these types of situations is to be faced with one, don’t speak over the user, let them have their say, then have your moment, interrupting them or overs-talking them will only fuel their fire.

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And always remember to empathize. They seem to be a lot friendlier when I’m the one telling him that it’s a bloody computer. Surprised that it ever actually works right! :wink:

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Keep them calm and don’t let their anger get to you. Re-assure them (if you can) that everything will be fine and they won’t lose anything. Most of the time they are upset or angry because they have been working hard at something and they fear that it will be lost.

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Kill them with kindness, self deprecating humor or make the feel sorry for how daft you are (or appear to be)…

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Empathy is the big one, as is acknowledging and playing the positions of power. As help desk, it’s natural that you’re going to have to escalate many issues, either to a more senior member of your group or to the on-site field techs.

If you’re unable to resolve issues yourself, whether in person or on the phone, and you have to escalate, you let them know that, and that you’ll make sure that it gets taken care of right away.

They may get snippy and bark back that they “ALREADY TRIED THAT” with every suggestion you make. In those cases, you may just have to escalate right away, even if they didn’t actually “already try that.” Although you’re expected to maintain a professional demeanor, that doesn’t mean that you have to accept abusive behavior either.

Although how you handle it will be different with each case, the idea is to let the person know that they’re in your hands and you care about their issue, even if it’s minor in the grand scheme of things. The issue isn’t minor to them.

Case in point: user can’t print, because the desktop printer in their office isn’t responding, despite being surrounded by multiple networked printers a short walk away in any direction. The wrong answer is to merely suggest they print to one of those printers, and just be done with the call. The right answer is to ask for other surrounding details, because this may be, for example, a social worker or counselor who needs to print a confidential report right away for an IEP meeting, and having that information sitting out in the open is not only bad juju, but could also be illegal.

If you don’t know the answer, say so and say you’ll go ask (and make sure you do). If the confrontation gets worse, try to hand it off to a more senior member (again, there’s a line between professional service and taking abuse). But overall remember that they’re not calling just to be a jerk to you.

There’s a reason they’re mad, and it may have absolutely nothing to do with you, so try to find what that reason is and put yourself in a situation to where that’s happening to you and how you’d feel.

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Connection is key. Listen carefully, and repeat back when you believe you have heard. De-escalate by being very calm and empathetic to their issue. If they say things that are incorrect or untrue, do not challenge. Focus on finding what they desire, what they feel they are looking for.

A huge part of IT from my perspective is constant translation of language, intent, and context. You try your best to do what you think someone wants, and they end up unhappy as what they asked for (in your eyes) is not what they meant when they said the words.

Try to see things from their perspective. Why are they frustrated? What has caused such anger? If you can convince them you care, the relationship created between the two of you becomes more important than even the specifics of what they are upset about.

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You have received some very good advice. The main thing is to let them know that you understand their problem and you’re going to do everything in your power to correct. NEVER EVER let their anger cause to you get angry!

Tell them that you’re there to help them and even if you can’t resolve their problem(don’t tell them that), make them feel how important their issue is to you and that you’ll do everything possible to correct it. Sometimes most everyone gets to the point that they loose their temper. You want to be sure that you don’t allow yourself to take whatever they say personal. If they need to yell or stomp their feet, so be it. As long as you don’t stoop their level or allow their anger make you angry. If you can’t fix their issue, just let them know that you need to speak with so-in-so, in order to resolve their problem. That as soon as you and so-in-so discuss the issue you’ll be calling them back. That will hopefully give them time to cool off and give you time to research their problem or consult with a co-worker who can fix it.

The more you agree with them and put them at ease the better for both you and them! As someone said, IT is a thankless job sometime. Even when it’s a error… “Problem In Chair Not In Computer” never flat out tell them that!

Good Luck!

Dave “working with angry end users for 34 years” Eller

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Nah it is not wrong, ask them to print it on another printer if they need it urgently for the time being while you are working on getting the other printer fixed.¯_(ツ)_/¯
Yup, nothing wrong with not knowing, just own it up, “I am unfortunately not too sure, but let me find out for you”, no matter if that means to ask buddy google, a co-worker or escalating it to someone else.
Just set the right expectations. Don’t promise it’ll be fixed in 5 minutes because that sounds like something you came across before, though it sounds the same, it could be something completely different and will take hours to fix.
If you know you are going to escalate it, gather as much needed information as possible for the next person, so the person calling does not get asked the same questions over and over again.
I go bananas if I have to state the same problem 3 times. 1. to the automated system, 2. then to helpdesk, he cold transfers me to an engineer and I have to tell my story a 3rd time. By then, even if I called in calm, I am irritated. lol

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Great Advice thank you

How am I able to tell when too much abuse is TOO MUCH?

Like they would constantly have to be insulting me and cusing me out no?

Yeah I generally don’t mind dealing with angry between but there is a line where it can’t be across.

Otherwise they are too focused on insulting me and not fixing the problem.

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I hope some users can take a joke.

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Thats right lol

I so Agree with you

I would also imagine some people even if you are NEW to IT expect you to already know a lot?

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After working service industry in bars for 15 years… I don’t really know how to hold my tongue. I just don’t interact with end users as I tend to speak to people how they speak to me. Golden Rule and all that. The most human interaction I get from a ticket is dispatch paging me out.

Living the dream really.

The last job I had in a corporate env. with user interaction was over a decade ago. Had a lady call down to my shipping dept and start going off about why her overnight package wasn’t delivered to her yet… well few minutes later I may have called her some very descriptive titles, and then hung up on her. Luckily for me she was infamous for talking to people this way so when I told my manager he actually laughed and handled it.

I guess you should KCCO man, but remember…

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Exactly. I usually have an opener saying “Computers eh? Doesnt work when you need them and works when you dont.” It usually lightens things up a little bit.

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Depends on how pissed they are… I would hate to get out my tazer for someone who is just a little miffed.

I am actually usually pretty nice, try to empathize and throw in a joke. Thankfully the times people have gone to far on the abuse of me is few and far between. In the only case I ever lost it it was a Non-IT related thing (early days when I started IT I was IT and Sales Manager and Customer Service manager at the same time).

The owner’s wife was going off on me for something non-tech related because she kept giving people time off without checking with me because her kid’s friends worked at the company and they had band practice (their own rock band… not like marching band or anything). She did it out of nowhere one day and we had no coverage. At that point she went off on me for scheduling… and like really went off when she already had me severely pissed from trying to explain this very issue several ties before.

I calmly had her go to her office… then I exploded. I am sure my military friends would have been impressed. The owner heard me from the factory floor over all of the machines running. (And that stuff was noisy.) He rushed into his wife’s office and rather than getting mad at me told his wife to shut it and listen to what I have to say.

In the end I got raise and no more interference.

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