How to manage upset customers? Using the LAUGH Method to work with angry or frustrated guests

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We’ve all been there.

A mistake happens; some confusion about your tour; an unmet expectation. Whatever the cause, you now have an angry, frustrated customer on your hands.

The reaction can be aggressive, with customers yelling and shouting and making demands about what should be done. Or at times much more passive, you’re suddenly getting icy looks, curt responses and overhearing snippets of negative comments. Either way, it is now time to put on a new hat.

How to manage upset customers is a skill that all service professionals must develop. Some companies will enroll staff in weeks of workshops and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on customer service training. And when you start to look at the facts and statistics regarding customer service, you start to appreciate the real-world costs that come from poor service.

Most thought leader’s and authors on the subject of excellent service, will tell you that your staff need to be reliable, responsive, empathetic, creative problem solvers, reassuring, calm and consistent.

Dealing with upset customers is absolutely an art versus a science, and will take a lot of practice to become proficient. Each human being and every situation are filled with nuance and subtlety, and what works for one guest may not work at all for another.

In this video I share a customer service tool that I have grown to love. I routinely use it not only while leading tours, but also in my day to day life. It is called the LAUGH method and it is a simple guide for how to manage upset customers.

The L.A.U.G.H. Method has been circulated widely by Dr. Ian Brooks - A leadership consultant from New Zealand - but it’s original source likely goes further back.

It is an acronym comprising of the 5 recommended steps for handling complaints and tough guests.

We’ll look at each letter of this acronym and explore the overarching process to resolve challenging problems on tour. I’ll even share specific language on how you can effectively, ‘Listen, Acknowledge, Understand, Give Solutions and Hit Home’

While the specific incidents and guests will always be different, this step-by-step process will give you the big picture of how to reliably get to a satisfying outcome.