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Customer Service vocabulary · Requests & Complaints

Irate

Meaning in customer service, with examples

/aɪˈreɪt/adjectiveCommon term

In customer service, irate means: Very angry, usually about something that seems unfair or badly handled.

In Turkish: çok öfkeli, sinirli, kızgın

How it is used

A slightly formal word used a lot in customer service training and reports: "an irate customer", "an irate caller". Agents use it about customers, not to them; on the call they would say the customer is upset or frustrated.

Example sentences

  1. I had an irate caller who had been waiting three weeks for a refund.

  2. The training covers how to deal with irate customers without taking it personally.

Common collocations

  • irate customer
  • irate caller
  • deal with an irate customer
  • become irate
  • de-escalateTo make a tense or angry situation calmer and less serious, for example during a difficult call.
  • complaintA statement that someone is unhappy or not satisfied with a product, a service or the way they were treated.
  • empathyThe ability to understand and share another person's feelings, and to show them that you understand.
  • escalateTo pass a problem or complaint to a more senior person or a more specialised team because the first person cannot solve it.

More terms: Requests & Complaints

Practise with graded reading

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