**ESRI INTERNAL ONLY*** The people who work directly with customers to hear their pain points and help resolve their day-to-day issues are the backbone of any organization. However, as we all know, it's not always sunshine and rainbows in the land of customer support -- everyone is human and from time to time emotions will flare. So, how do we deal with it when those situations arise? The good news is, there are several tried and true strategies you can put into practice to help you defuse tense customer situations and get moving toward a satisfying resolution for all parties. In this two-part video series, we see these strategies being demonstrated by an analyst during a very tough and emotional case. The first part of the series focuses on handling a getting a call from a customer that is having both a bad technical experience and a bad support experience. The strategies used here include: 1. Remain calm 2. Don't take it personally 3. Allow the customer to vent 4. Listen actively 5. Empathize 6. Apologize gracefully 7. Connect our goals with the customer's goals 8. Get agreement for next steps 9. Find a solution! 10. Wrap it up - summarize next steps and thank the customer --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Follow us on Social Media! Twitter: https://twitter.com/Esri Facebook: https://facebook.com/EsriGIS LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/esri Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/esrigram The Science of Where: http://www.esri.com