No matter how hard you try, it’s inevitable that you will sometimes encounter a problem customer. It may happen that the person has had a particularly unfortunate experience with your company—or they may just be one of those naturally difficult people. It happens! 

Don’t worry, though. You can keep the situation under control if you use the correct strategy. One of the most successful strategies for dealing with problem visitors is the ECA method. Many customer service organizations use this to manage this type of problem and ensure the best possible outcome. 

ECA is an acronym that break down like this:

Let’s look at each of these elements to see how you can use them to your advantage.

Problems are most likely to arise when a customer feels his or her needs are being ignored. Most people will accept that organizations occasionally make mistakes and will be tolerant if they are treated well. But if they feel that no one is listening, they may get agitated.

So when chatting with an angry customer, understand that many things happened before they reached this point. After all, no one wakes up in the morning thinking they will complain for the heck of it. You must empathize with their situation and do what you can to defuse the problem.

Listening carefully is an essential first step, but your job doesn’t end there. The customer doesn’t just want someone to express their feelings to...they want action!

As a live cat agent, it’s your responsibility to take control and ensure that the problem is resolved. If you have enough authority to do that on your own, take action right away. That could mean:

Do whatever is within your power to bring the situation under control and win the customer over. If you don’t have enough authority to do this yourself, don’t hesitate to bring someone else into the loop.

Your supervisor or manager will most likely have more discretion to fix the problem. If you don’t feel they are doing enough, escalate this to a more senior manager. Customer happiness always comes first!

When you handle a situation of this type well, you will be amazed at your results. You can turn an aggrieved complainer into a delighted customer who is ready to purchase again and again. And all of this can happen in the space of a few minutes.

As a live chat agent, you have the power to transform complaining customers into advocates who love to share the word about your brand. So instead of spreading the bad news about how they were let down, they will focus on the good news about how you fixed the issue.

Turning customers into brand advocates is a fantastic way to make a company successful. And as part of the live chat team, you are in a wonderful position to make this happen.