starting a long rant without stopping] Employee: Some people feel that their tickets aren’t deserved. (1) Customer: Darn right. I’m one of them. I’m fed up. Employee: I agree. You don’t feel your ticket is deserved. (2) Customer: So, what are you going to do about it? Employee: Obviously you are upset about this. (3) You may not be aware that we have a way for you to appeal the ticket if you like. Customer: Yeah? How? Employee: I’ll do my best to explain your options, so you won’t be liable for an infraction you didn’t commit. (4) Customer: OK. EXPLANATIONS When the customer starts raising his voice, and using swear words the employee realizes that until the customer calms down and begins to listen to the employee, nothing at all can be accomplished. So, he uses “some people think… or neutral mode” to try to break into the conversation. The reason this technique works (when it does), is that it’s an unexpected response that the customer doesn’t have a ready made answer for. Unexpected responses tend to derail rants. Notice also that the neutral mode response is short. That’s because an angry customer isn’t going to “hear” a long response. The customer responds by indicating he is “one of them”. But what’s important is the customer has become
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