--- title: "How to recover customer satisfaction — Sleekplan Journal | Sleekplan" canonical_url: "https://sleekplan.com/blog/recover-customer-satisfaction" last_updated: "2026-06-19T11:44:32.366Z" meta: description: "Do not interrupt your conversation partner. If a customer is upset, he will want to let off steam in the first few minutes of the conversation. Give them the opportunity to do so. Only when he has been able to get rid of what is bothering him is he also willing to listen to you." "og:description": "Do not interrupt your conversation partner. If a customer is upset, he will want to let off steam in the first few minutes of the conversation. Give them the opportunity to do so. Only when he has been able to get rid of what is bothering him is he also willing to listen to you." "og:title": "How to recover customer satisfaction — Sleekplan Journal | Sleekplan" --- ## 1. Ask questions If you feel overwhelmed in the first moment and do not have a suitable answer ready, you can save some time by asking questions. They give the customer the feeling of being interested and listening. It also helps you to better understand the customer’s situation. By asking specific questions, you should be able to clearly identify what is bothering your customer. Is the customer not satisfied with the results of your work? Has a mistake been made? Are the costs too high? Does he expect faster progress? Only when you know this, you can react. ## 2. Avoid an escalation of the situation First and foremost, your customer is looking for an outlet for his anger and frustration. If you are angry, you may also take the wrong tone or resort to unfair attacks. Do not let verbal attacks provoke you. Try to ignore inappropriate comments as far as possible. If it should be too much for you and the customer becomes personal, ask for the observance of generally valid courtesy standards. ## 3. Meet your customer with empathy Show understanding and sympathy for the situation your customer is in. Put yourself mentally in his position. This makes it easier for you to understand the customer. If you have made a mistake, you should apologize for it. Your apology should be honest, but not submissive, as this will reduce your credibility. ## 4. Take the complaint seriously Under no circumstances should you make your customer feel like a disruptive factor that keeps you from doing your job. Don’t play down the situation, even if you think it is half as bad. Such behaviour will make the customer even more angry, because it is not the reaction he expects from you at that moment. Instead, show that you have understood his request by repeating it again and give him the feeling that this request is now at the top of your list of priorities. ## 5. Formulate positively Positive wording makes you more service-oriented and helpful. Instead of saying “I am not responsible for this”, you could refer directly to another contact person, for example “My colleague Mr. Schmidt can help you with this”. Such formulations help the customer to feel well looked after. ## 6. Offer suggestions for solutions Your customer now expects his problem to be solved quickly. Make an effort to find solutions. Make suggestions on how to tackle the situation and what could be done. In any case, your customer should notice that you are interested in finding a solution to the problem. Despite your efforts, you should not make promises you cannot keep. If something goes wrong a second time in the cooperation, you will certainly have lost the customer. ## 7. Keep smiling Even if it is difficult and you don’t feel like smiling when your customer is in a good mood, you should still do it. Because the smile affects your voice. You automatically come across as more relaxed and positive. This has a positive effect on the atmosphere of the conversation. ## 8. End the conversation with a positive feeling At the end of the conversation, summarise the key points again. Put the solution in the foreground. This will give the customer the good feeling that you will take care of his concerns. Surprise your customer by thanking them for their feedback. ## 9. Offer an add-on Your customer’s trust and satisfaction have suffered. Now it is time to regain them. A small gesture is already enough here to make the customer feel positive. This could be something that you take over additionally. NNasa·Aug 3, 2020 More from the Journal [Feb 25, 20225 min User Feedback Tools - The ultimate list for 2022→](https://sleekplan.com/blog/user-feedback-tools-2022) [Nov 15, 20214 min NPS: What is the Net Promoter Score?→](https://sleekplan.com/blog/nps-what-is-net-promoter-score) [Nov 13, 20216 min User Feedback Tools: Become a customer-centric business!→](https://sleekplan.com/blog/user-feedback-tools) Keep up ## New essays land on LinkedIn every Tuesday. Follow Sleekplan on LinkedIn — we post every new piece there, plus the shorter notes that never make it to the journal. [Follow on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/sleekplan/) Done reading? [Try Sleekplan free ](https://sleekplan.com/sign-up)