I got a call in today from a client who was just ready to rip me a new one. He didn’t have any desire to reason with me.
He called to yell and express his dissatisfaction. Negotiating with a person in this mental state is nearly impossible.
My CEO advised me in such scenarios to take out a piece of paper and begin writing down each pain point the client is bringing up. At the end of the client’s story, ask, “would it be ok if I talked about one of your complaints I wrong down while you were speaking?”
During this irate phone call I followed that process. Took good call notes on what the issues were (mainly a misunderstanding on how the Internet works), and concluded the call as a success. The client felt completely understood and confident about how things were going. Nice!