"Your service sucks! Can't you do anything right?" shouted Jeff, his voice laced with frustration. He had demanded to have a new water dispenser sent over to replace the one that had malfunctioned, but was told that a technician would arrive to fix the existing one instead. On the other end of the line, Lisa, a seasoned call center agent, took a deep breath and quickly concocted an "angry customer narrative" before calmly responding.

In the high-stress environment of a call center, dealing with angry and frustrated customers is a daily occurrence that can take a hefty toll on service providers' emotional resilience and health. Even though service providers understand that customers usually are not angry with them personally, but rather at the company they represent—angry customers can often make their anger feel very personal to the service provider who took their call. In addition to the personal emotional hardship to service providers, difficult customers........

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