Acknowledge the customer's feelings

- When you're reading an email from a customer, does the image of a toddler having a tantrum sometimes pop into your head? Sometimes the fierceness of our customer's feelings can be surprising. To write an effective response to those situations, we need to help the customer get past their feelings and begin thinking. One way to do that is to acknowledge the customer's feelings. When our customers email to express those big, big feelings, we need to acknowledge the feelings without necessarily agreeing that those feelings are justified. For example, if a customer emails your hotel to say that he was disgusted because the tiny bar of soap on the vanity was unwrapped, you may think, "Oh my, sir, you need to get a life." Of course, what you really should do is respond and acknowledge the customer's feelings. You might not agree with those feelings but ignoring them won't make them go away and it may cause the email exchange…