I work in sales during the day. It's not car sales, (I know, right?!) but we do sell a service to folks who are interested. We get leads, they are called by the representatives.

I received an incoming call today from an angry student (I work at a bartending school), who was irate that we had withdrawn him from classes because he was out of time. 

We spoke in circles:

Him: "I didn't know I was out of time"
Me: "Because you never called."
Him: "Well, if you want my business, why didn't you call me?"
Me: "Well, if  you want to become a bartender why didn't you call us?"
Him: "I want a refund"
"Me" You already TOOK the classes"
Him: "I was misinformed"
Me: "No, no you weren't"

...after I had hit all of his objections, he told me that I wasn't giving him what he wanted, he wanted my supervisor, and didn't want to talk to me any longer.

What would YOU do at this point? Grab one of your superiors? A co-worker to play your superior? Hang up?

I did none of these. I really didn't hear the tail end of his request. All I heard was "I am not getting what I want".

To that, I replied "What DO you want?"

"....I want to take the class again for no charge."

"So, you're saying that you want me to break the contract, risk my job, and make an exception for you after you have taken no responsibility for your role in this situation?"

"...Yes."

"Okay, I'll do that. But I need you to go ahead and repeat what i just said to you. As in, "Katie, I want you to:..." and fill in the blank with what I just said.

"Katie, I want you to risk your job and make an exception for me even though I have taken no responsibility for my role here."

...there was silence.

...then he laughed.

The point of this back and forth banter? The turning point was simply stopping the arguing and flat out asking "What do you want?" Instead of deciphering or guessing what he wanted, I asked, I acknowledged, and I asked for him to acknowledge.

Just an idea for an approach to those difficult customers.