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Seb Anthony

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Difficult Customers

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I would prefer not to use roleplay if possible but would like to make it informative but fun. The more interactive the better.
katy seigel

3 Responses

  1. A few hints
    Hi Katy,

    Something that I’ve tried out after attending a session by Dram through Training recently is getting the group into groups of three or four and asking them to set a ‘freeze’ scene set around irate/difficult customers. So they all assume positions and freeze. Then ask the group to talk about what everyone is feeling why they might be feeling like that and what we can do to move the situation on. This takes the fear of the roleplay away and stays interactive. If everyone gets something out of it move it to teh next stage by asking them to act out the scene and ask members of the session to freeze the action and step in if they know what to do to sort the situation out. Again no dreaded roleplay. I had a group last week that were dead against roleplays as soon as they started the session but after the ‘freeze’ etc they were loving it and asked if the session could be extended so they could act out more situations.

    As a formula to follow I use ASAP:

    Apologise
    Sympathise
    Accept Responsibilty
    Prepare to take action.

    Please let me know if this helps.

  2. role play it at the front
    I have done a lot of these type of courses and i find that if you role play the situation at the front it works better. Many delegates hate role play so what i did was divise a scenario with a fellow trainer that was comfortable with ad libbing and then we would start it off at the front. One as the complainant one as the member of staff and then when we got so far and stop and turn to the audience and say “what should i do now?” and then ad lib it from their response. once yuo have finished you can then analyse why things happend and bring uot many learning points

  3. Customer Care
    I deliver training around this subject and have found that the delegates dread Role Play and the threat of it can be disruptive to learning. I ask the delegates to bring with them to the course an anecdote of when an exchange with a customer went wrong, describing what happened. Having delivered the course and dealt with effective communication etc and how to deal with difficult customers I then ask the delegates to reveal the experience they brought with them. As an individual and a group they can see where the communication broke down and state what they could now do to stop it happening again (taking care NOT to dump the blame for the exchange on the delegate).

    Paul Abbott
    http://www.paulabbottassociates.com
    ‘Delivering Training throughout the Criminal Justice System’

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