How to Deal With the “Know-It-All” Customer

In any contact centre, interacting with “know-it-all” customers can be challenging, but it’s also an opportunity to demonstrate expertise and build customer trust.

These customers often come prepared with their own research and may question the advice provided. While this interaction may seem demanding, it presents a chance to acknowledge their insights and reinforce the agent’s knowledgeable and supportive role.

“The best way to understand the customer is to put yourself in their shoes. Something has caused them to believe they know best. Unpick that and you can work together to find an ideal resolution,” says Justin Robbins, Founder & Principal Analyst, Metric Sherpa.

8 Ways to Deal With a Know-It-All Customer

1. Give the Customer Some Recognition

Recognizing a customer’s efforts and insights can go a long way in building rapport and defusing tension, especially with know-it-all customers.

When a customer feels acknowledged for their attention to detail, they’re more likely to feel respected and open to hearing your expertise. Simple, authentic compliments help maintain a positive tone and reinforce mutual respect.

Using small acknowledgements like these costs nothing. It shows the customer that their input is valued.

2. Avoid Contradicting the Customer

When dealing with know-it-all customers, it’s important to avoid direct contradictions. Pushing back too firmly can come across as dismissive and may create unnecessary tension.

Instead, gently guide the conversation by acknowledging their perspective and suggesting alternative options in a way that feels supportive.

3. Own Any Mistakes That Have Been Made

The key message to give the advisor is to own it. The mistake will come out in the long run anyway.

If an advisor slips up, is not totally clear on a process, or simply misspoke, the key message to give them is to own it. The mistake will come out in the long run anyway.

Come straight out and say it. Making excuses will just drag out the call.

Offer a genuine apology to the customer and, if it’s a significant mistake, the advisor should look to reassure them that they are confident in their ability to answer the customer’s queries, in a humble way.

For more examples of ways to offer a genuine apology, read our article: “Sorry for the Inconvenience” – How to Offer a Genuine Apology

4. Walk the Customer Through the Situation

Now the air has been cleared, the advisor can start to regain the customer’s trust. To do this, an advisor can refocus the call and walk through the situation as they see it.

When an advisor does this, they can think about:

• What does the customer see as the key outcomes?
• What does the customer believe is the best path forward?
• Why do they believe that?

5. Understand the Last Resorts

When the advisor has made a mistake and the customer just won’t let it go, the conversation becomes very difficult.

If the advisor doesn’t know their last-resort option, they will panic, the conversation will drag on and it becomes a problematic situation for the person on both ends of the line.

A call-escalation policy is a classic last resort. Drawing this out and giving it to advisors as a nice visual aid makes it easy for them to understand their fallback options.

For more on creating a call-escalation policy, read our article: How to Handle Call Escalations

6. Acknowledge and Compliment

It is also important that the advisor does not become passive and submissive…

It is important that advisors don’t damage rapport by directly telling the customer that they are wrong. Yet it is also important that the advisor does not become passive and submissive just because “they’re a customer”.

A better approach is to acknowledge the customer’s point and compliment them on being:

• Attentive to the key details
• Proactive in their research
• Observant in spotting the mistake

Just make sure that advisors say this in a way that sounds authentic.

For more on giving good compliments in the contact centre, read our article: 100 Great Complimentary Words to Use in Customer Service

7. Present Your Knowledge as “Insider Information”

Once the customer is on a pedestal, respond assertively. Share your knowledge and expertise, before linking back to what the customer has previously stated.

Advisors have dealt with many of these queries before. So what they can do is position their advice to the customer so it seems like they are sharing inside information.

8. Keep Calm and Manage Your Emotional Response

It’s hard for an advisor to stay calm and manage their emotions when a customer implies that they are wrong, when they are confident they are right.

Of course, there are many things that you could do in the contact centre to improve your team’s emotional intelligence, including:

• Providing resilience training
• Coaching advisors to control their breathing patterns
• Holding open conversations within the team, discussing how they are feeling

One tip from Sangeeta, one of our readers, is to: “Embed your emotional intelligence in your talent screening and include emotional intelligence elements in your interviewing.”

Remind the advisor that the customer must value what they offer, otherwise they wouldn’t be engaging in a conversation with them.

Yet, in these situations, the most important thing to do is remind the advisor that the customer must value what they offer, otherwise they wouldn’t be engaging in a conversation with them.

Also, reassure advisors that it is easy to react to the negative tone of voice. But if they can stay calm and professional, customers will find out for themselves that the advisor’s knowledge is superior.

Printable – 23 Example Phrases to Deal With a Know-It-All Customer

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Some Final Quick Tips

99% of the time, a customer only becomes a know-it-all once they have lost confidence in the advisor’s ability.

We have shared some great tips for helping to restore this trust – such as walking the customer back through the interaction and sharing “insider information” – but there are other ways to do this.

So, here are some final key pieces of advice to share with your teams who struggle to deal with know-it-all customers.

For more advice for handling specific types of difficult customers, read our articles:

• Dealing with Angry Customers
• How to Deal With a Customer Who Can’t Stop Talking
• How To Deal With Vulnerable Customers

Reviewed by: Robyn Coppell