Anyone that has every done a stint serving customers, whether waiting tables, answering phones, or via email, has struggled dealing with stupid customers, or angry customers. The best customer service reps are able to keep situations brief, keep conflicts to a minimum, and the highest percentage of customers leaving happy. These are some general tips that I use personally and share with my staff.

1. Every interaction is a potential sale. Even for sales that have taken place, unhappy customers, that customer will tell people good or bad things about your store. So keep your eye on the dollar bill.
2. Customer service via email has its own challenges, because people have “cyber balls”, they are much nastier then they would be in person. You too may be nastier. If you find yourself getting way too mad, tempted to tell someone off, go ahead and write it out , then delete it, and send your 2^nd reply instead.

3. Check your personal bad mood at the door:  Anyone has a bad day now and then, and that is the hardest time to deal with customers. Even minor questions turn into big headaches. Check in with yourself, recognizing your bad mood is the first step. If you realize that your irritation level is due to your own bad mood, stress in your own life, illness, you can then decide if you can overcome it, or if you need to take a break.  Deep breaths, a change of scenery, taking a walk can make a difference.
4. Picture the person you are talking to is your dear sweet grandmother.  This trick really works! When I find myself answering the stupidest question, if I picture this is my actual grandmother, sweetest woman in the world, just confused, not internet savvy, my patience level increases tenfold. How could I be so irritated with this sweet old lady whose eyesight is not good and who is confused with reading my webpage and just wants to know what the shipping cost is?  (by the way, this trick also works for driving in Florida behind a slow blue-hair with their blinker on for 3 miles—imagining it is my nervous grandmother keeps the road rage at a minimum)
5. Treat it like a personal challenge to turn around a grouchy disgruntled customer. When you react without sarcasm, when you respond with patience and sympathy and understanding, the chances of turning around a bad situation are very high. Most people just want to be heard, they want an apology. Think of that satisfying feeling of turning around a bad situation, and knowing it was your reaction that controlled the situation and made it all better. Keep a running tally, give yourself a gold star, something to remind yourself that it can be done. And often the angry customer ends up apologizing---give yourself 2 gold stars! If you work with others, have a contest, keep a public board of your gold stars.
6. Have a budget for making unhappy customers leave satisfied.  Offer refunds, future coupons, plan on spending a little bit of money. Do not go overboard, but in the long run, a bad situation is turned around quicker with a coupon or refund, the time spent arguing and future lost sales are not worth the $10 shipping credit you could give to make the problem go away instantly.  Not to mention your stress level or your staff’s stress level.
7. Realize that some customers are going to be unhappy no matter what. You cannot have 100% customer satisfaction. Realizing this, or letting your employees know that you realize this, empathizing with them about those few absolutely insane customers, will go a long way in decreasing their stress level, and making them better service employees.