Does anyone have any 'tried and tested' experience of having designed and delivered 'Customer Rage' training to customer-facing staff (face-to-face and call centre-based)? The training would aim to educate staff in ways to avoid and defuse potentially difficult situations and/or aggressive customers. Any particularly novel or creative approaches to what is an increasingly common problem would be gratefully received. Alternatively, if anyone can recommend any effective off-the-shelf packages that could possibly be adapted or bespoked, I'd be interested to hear about these too.
Andy Lowe
6 Responses
Dealing with violent customers…
I worked for a multimedia training company that delivered a module or two of computer based training for aggressive / violent customers – not how to be one… how to deal with them. This was delivered on a cd rom for retail organisations and also for building societies. I am sure that if you got in touch with them they could help you further if not tailor the training for you. Check out http://www.fullard.co.uk/
Blended Approach
Our approach has been to first provide background knowledge via e-learning into why customers complain and get angry, etc. and help learners to analyse each specific situation first, before adopting the most appropriate resolution. In addition to focusing on “parent/adult/child” behaviours, we also provide tuition in the specific communication skills required to manage a customer’s anger.
With a solid grounding in the theory, a one-day skills workshop then follows where the participants can learn and practise the associated skills.
This is then followed up by reminders in the workplace and opportunities to put the learning into practice throug a series of work-related transfer of learning activities.
Video Training
I have used a vidoe that was called The Difficult Guest (approx £700 but available for rental from Video Arts)
It’s quite tongue in cheek and cheesy (form USA) but it really gets across the idea of how and what makes customers become difficult and gives practical advice on how to address these issues very well. It discusses Flight or Fight and Bolt or Blame syndromes that we are all likely to have encountered and gives a 4 step technique L.A.S.T. – listen, acknowledge, solve and thank to address the initial problem. Any questions about how I ran the session please mail me.
Good luck
Training Video for Phone Rage
Hi Andy
We invested in a training video called Phone Rage (produced by The Industrial Society – now Capita).
It’s excellent – very comprehensive trainer notes to follow and definitely worth investing in.
If you need any more info, let me know.
Regards,
Lucy
try using the SDI
You may like to look at a tool like the SDI (strength deployment inventory), which measures behaviour both under normal circumstances, and then when in conflict. It also provides a very useful 3 stage conflict model which would definitely assist with what you are after. Various activities can be built around this – I used it successfully with a customer service organisation prior to the Sydney Olympics and it worked well. Feel free top contact me for more info.
Cheers
Pete Swanson
peter.swanson@right.co.nz
Aggression Matters
I’d recommend a book by Robert Agar-Hutton, titled “How to Deal With Verbal Aggression” published by Matador. Down to earth, practical and covers both face to face and phone issues. The author also provides training in aggression, violence and stress management.
There is also a website you can vist http://www.verbal-aggression.com , which you may find of use.