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Legal and physical threats from angry customers are both serious, but they call for
different types of response.
How to respond to legal threats:
Do not attempt to offer your own interpretation of the legal issues involved.
Tell the customer that you are not in a position to speak for your company on legal matters
(unless you are).
Inform your supervisor immediately.
How to respond to physical threats:
When a customer makes a physical threat, your number one priority is to protect yourself and
your coworkers.
Get help immediately, either from your coworkers or from security personnel.
Inform your supervisor immediately.
Occasionally in a situation where a customer feels that their complaint has not been dealt with
satisfactorily, they will decide to bring out the “big guns”. Depending on the way the customer’s mind
works, this may be via the means of threats of legal action, or threats of a more physical nature. The two
types of threat differ significantly. Where legal threats are concerned, it is somewhat possible that they
might have reason on their side. It is unwise in these cases to get into a legal argument with the
customer – you are not there to debate issues, but to look for solutions. It is wise simply to state that
you are not in a position to comment on legal matters, but that you will pass their message on.
Where physical threats are concerned, it is a different matter entirely. While a legal threat may have
some basis in case law, no customer has a right to threaten or direct personal violence towards any
member of staff. Physical and verbal assault are both illegal and should be treated seriously. Even if your
instinct is to respond to a threat by fronting up to the customer and stating that you doubt their
seriousness or capability, it should be resisted as this can be considered provocation. You should always
report an instance of any physical threat. Someone who threatens you might threaten anyone else – and
no matter how much of a fake and a coward you judge them to be, they might follow through on a
threat.
In both cases, your supervisor should be advised of the threat that has been made. If the threat is
physical, the last thing you want is for a potentially violent individual to be in the general area when you
or your co-workers are leaving work. However much you may doubt their ability to make good their
threat, they cannot be allowed to make other people’s lives uncomfortable.