“I attended a corporate training program on Customer Engagement Skills, and one of the things they taught us was how to deal with an angry or upset customer” Jigneshbhai told me and Swami as we had our coffee last weekend.
I am not sure why our broker friend attends such programs. He was quick to explain.
“A high-net-worth client who works for a big MNC got a free pass and asked me if I was interested and I said why not. A lot of my customers are angry currently as their investments aren’t going anywhere – so let me see if I can learn how to handle them!” he clarified.
“Yes – and a lot of your friends too” interjected Swami. “So what did they teach you?” he asked eagerly.
“It was interesting. They talked about 3 reactions, 2 of which are easy but wrong, and the third which is difficult and right” Jigneshbhai explained.
“The first one is to run away – avoid him during the anger, get out of sight – somehow try to evade the situation and hope peace returns. Whenever Swami is an angry client, they must be doing this!” he cheekily said.
Swami was listening attentively but pretended to not hear this.
Jigneshbhai continued.
“The second one is to give it back – get back with a vengeance, tell the customer how he is at fault and you are not responsible for all his problems, hoping that he sees his part of the problem and shuts up. Whenever Swami has an angry client, he must be doing this!” Jigneshbhai said with a twinkle in his eye.
Surprisingly, Swami was still listening attentively, and I thought he was pretending not to have heard this too.
“The third way, which is the right way as per their theory, is to hear him out, just listen patiently, let him vent the anger, and then slowly try to understand the source of the anger – whether it is you or something else, and rationalize if possible. And importantly, if there is something to fix, fix it. This is the tough choice to take, but it works generally.”
“Well that’s the theory” Jigneshbhai was a bit sceptical on whether anyone really does this. Most theoretical things are best in theory, he seemed to suggest. But then he was just explaining what he had heard.
Swami echoed that thought immediately. “Some stupid theory. No one hears anyone out when he is angry.”
“I hear you” Jigneshbhai said.
“So what’s the point?” Swami looked at me and asked our broker friend if he had any more insights.
“Well he also gave an example of how today, like most organizations, the government keeps talking all the time about the Mango Man – the आम आदमी but does little when he is angry.”
“And he gave multiple instances to indicate that” Jigneshbhai added.
“Like?” Swami asked as usual.
“The Mango Man is angry that they ask him to be resilient in the face of terrorist attacks. So the PM and the Home Minister got chappals thrown at them. Not a good thing. But in response, they took a high moral ground and forgave the thrower. Run Away.”
“The Mango Man is angry because the inflation keeps going up. The Agriculture Minister got a slap. The entire political class says this is anti-democracy. Give Back.”
“The Oil Minister got the flak when petrol prices were raised, and the Finance Minister got it when interest rates were raised. So they reverse the price rise a bit sometimes. Run Away. And talk something about fiscal deficit which the Mango Man does not understand. Give Back.”
“The Mango Man is angry because of the corruption in the system. And demands a strong anti-corruption law. The government got the Anna Hazare episode. Again the political class says either they are working on it as per parliamentary procedures, or says this protest is against the constitution. Give Back as well as Run Away based on what works at that time.”
“So these were the examples he gave. I am not sure if he represented the opposition but seemed like logical metaphors to me” Jigneshbhai explained in detail.
Swami and I mused over it a bit. It was not one of those things to be taken lightly or argued about we thought. Perhaps we also found it logical because we were also the Mango Man.
So, the Mango Man is Angry, we thought. At multiple things. Inflation. Corruption. Economy. Terrorism. Perhaps at his situation. Perhaps at not being heard. And is venting it at the politicos – rightly or wrongly. An angry customer can shift to a competitor. We didn’t quite know what will happen with the Angry Mango Man.
All we knew as we finished our coffee was that it was not a good thing. But then we were the Mango People. We were not politicians.