Imagine getting yelled at by a customer who you know is lying to you.

Would you let them yell and lie, or would you turn the tables by agreeing with their lies and giving them what they claim they want?

This guy shares how a customer kept bluffing about knowing the CEO, so he decided to pretend to believe her.

Check out the full story!

How to lose your appeasement with this one simple trick

So this happened almost eight years ago but it’s something I routinely bring up to new hires when training/nesting because it is HIGHLY effective.

Backstory: Our company had an issue with a product, we were aware of it but still had to do damage control.

I was on the phones at the “Supervisor” level and had been handling upset customers who didn’t think our appeasement was sufficient and I thought I had heard everything.

But then there was Karen.

Cue Queen Karen.

When a customer requests an escalation someone in my role has to take it after the customer facing advisor briefs us on the case.

This advisor warned me I had quite the handful here and I said “No worries, I got this” and I joined the advisor when the customer was taken off of hold and we were immediately greeted with “took you long enough!”

UH OH…

Due to the issue overwhelming us and management only approving Overtime that day we had a 45 minute escalation queue and our five minute “Briefing time” had been reduced to three minutes, so this customer had been waiting about 48 minutes to speak with me.

I was introduced and the advisor left the call. This is when the fun begins.

Me: Hello, customer I’m-

The customer seemed to think she knew how to get her way.

Customer: I know the CEO and I’m a shareholder! I know my rights and if you don’t give me what I want right now I’ll hang up this phone and you WILL BE FIRED!

Me: OK, I apologize if you feel our appeasement offer is insufficient. I can escalate your case to see if we can grant an additional appeasement, but I would need at least 48 hours to see what can be done.

Customer: I KNOW THE CEO! I can call him right now and have you fired, so do it NOW!

He decided to let her have her way.

In this moment, all my frustration and rage boiled over and instead of screaming her stupid I decided to call her bluff.

Me, after pausing to regain my composure: Ma’am, I can clearly see you are very important and since you have clearly stated twice that you have a far more effective path of escalation than any I can provide I feel it is best that you follow your escalation path.

Silence for a good 30 seconds followed by “What?”

Me: You said twice during our conversation you can directly speak with our CEO. My escalation path ends far before the CEO or any other senior officer in the company so I think it’s best you follow your escalation path.

But that’s not what she really wanted.

Realizing she messed up she tries to walk it back

Customer: No, you see…

Me: No, no. I simply cannot allow you to continue down this path when you have a far more effective way to resolve this issue. I will make sure to note this in your case and on your account so you don’t have to bother with our less effective escalation path in the future. I hope you have a great day. Click

Finally the cherry on top!

In case you’re wondering what happened she filed a formal complaint when she called another advisor who saw my notes and complied with her request.

My manager thought it was hilarious and took the extraordinary step to call her and ask why the customer was bothering her staff when she could have dealt with the CEO directly and gotten her preferred resolution.

The customer was dumbfounded that we actually believed her and whined about getting the appeasement.

But the manager wasn’t about to give in.

My manager held the line on denying appeasement and advised the customer to choose her words more carefully going forward.

So, yeah…if you call Tech Support and say you personally know the CEO of the company you may get an advisor I trained who will close your case and refer you to your escalation path.

AWESOME! That sounds very satisfying for everyone except the customer.

Let’s find out what folks on Reddit think about this story.

This user thinks these are the best kind of stories!

This user thinks this is the best response when someone claims they know the CEO.

This user loves how this guy tackled the situation.

This user knows the best case scenario!

This user shares their experience with a patient.

Lying can really backfire!

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.