How to acknowledge demanding customers?

Acknowledge does not mean agreeing to. Nor does it mean that you will give your customers whatever they want. It just means that you respect their viewpoints, even if you personally disagree with it.

Good acknowledgements are the easiest and most powerful way to defuse a situation while still respecting your own boundaries.

4 ways to make a powerful response:

1. Paraphrasing 

It is easy and powerful. You simply take whatever other people say, gift wrap it with your own words and hand it right back to them. When a customer gets upset with you, and you have no idea what to say in response, paraphrasing is a great place to start because the customer is handing your response to you.
Start with listening. Give customer the time and space to say whatever they feel they need to before you jump in with a response. The more you put a customer's statements into your words, the more you show how we you are listening.

      2.  Observation

Then now start to observe. See how the person is probably thinking or feeling. It is perfectly acceptable to your best judgment about what the other person is thinking or feeling. People will always appreciate your honest attempt to hear them out.

    3.  Validation

Letting customers know that their feelings are valid. The key is to invite a big crowd into your response with phrases like 'everyone', 'nobody', 'no one' or 'just about anyone'. Your goal here is to let upset customers know that they are far from alone, and that their reactions are totally understandable. You can also personalised your comparisons by adding your own expertise into the mix.

   4.  Identification

Sharing what you feel in common with the customer. As with other forms of acknowledgement, it does not mean that you agree with them or are giving in to them. It simply means that you can, by virtue of your common humanity, grasp how they might feel about a situation. In the process, you are creating a powerful bond with your customers. 

The goal with all of these techniques is to show difficult customers that you 'get ' them. The main reason people behave the way they do when they are upset is because they think it will force us to see their view of the world. when we show that we understand their view, there is often much to fight about. This is why good acknowledgement is the key to defusing situations and creating real dialogue.