1. Leverage the power of your smile:
Callers would appreciate calm and friendly demeanor. Donning a pleasant expression automatically helps your voice convey friendliness and openness. On the other, staying straight-faced, on the other hand, immediately removes that kindness from your voice. Therefore, try greeting a pretend client as you would on the phone i.e. out loud, first with a smile and afterwards without. This would help you deal with a difficult customer and please him/ her. Moreover you would not be subjected to hear hear more of a strain indicating that you do not really want to be talking to this person right now !
2. Understand that nothing is meant to be taken personally:
There are many instances where while dealing with a difficult customer, business owners or customer support agents take it personally. It needs to be understood that customer is being difficult due to past experiences with other companies. It is a fact that customers who have had bad prior experiences with other companies are often hyper-sensitive and read into things too much and often end up becoming difficult over the smallest things. Whenever any such case is encountered, it is important to calmly and clearly put the situation into perspective for the customer and assure them that their queries will be resolved in the shortest possible time span. This will lead to the customer being calmer and more cooperative.
3. Business owners and customers desire the same thing:
A pleasant, happy and speedy transaction is what both business owners and customers desire. Therefore, while dealing with a difficult customer, business owners can resolve any disputes by letting the customer know they are willing to fully work with them to make them happy. Letting the customer know they are there to help will lead to the customer becoming less difficult and easier to work with.