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What to do about abusive callers

Are your customers much nastier on the phone than face to face? Here’s how to put a stop to their behaviour.

Be clear about your company’s policy

Your employer has a duty of care. You should be protected from being bullied or harassed. This means having a policy on how abusive customers are handled. A good policy should outline how you can respond to abuse, when you should transfer a caller to someone more senior and how to end a call if abuse is unreasonable. Make sure you’re familiar with your company’s policy. If they don’t have one, draft one and propose it to management.

12/10/2016 By Eleanor Shakiba COMMUNICATION assertive communication • assertiveness • communication skills • confident communication • customer service • customer service trainers • customer service training • handling upset customers 0 Comments

Handling irate customers

Nobody likes dealing with angry customers. But if you work in customer service, it’s part of your job.

Here are four tips that make talking to angry customers easier.

Remember that customers aren’t always right

No. The old saying isn’t true – customers aren’t always right. But they are always customers. Without them, you wouldn’t be in business. So treat all customers respectfully, even when they’re wrong. Never say “you’re wrong,” “that’s wrong” or “you’ve made a mistake.” Words like this trigger a shame reaction – which many customers deal with by becoming angry. Instead say “I’m sorry you got that impression,” “I’ll talk you through what happened” or “I’d like to clarify something.” Quickly move on to solving the problem, rather than dwelling on what caused it.

12/10/2016 By Eleanor Shakiba COMMUNICATION assertiveness • assertiveness training • bullying at work • conflict at work • dealing with difficult people • difficult people • handling bullies • workplace bullying • workplace conflict 0 Comments

Workplace mobbing

Chris and Ross are furious. They’ve both applied for the team leader role. But the job has been given to Brett.

Brett is the youngest member of the team. To Chris and Ross, this means he wasn’t entitled to a promotion. Rather than expressing their anger openly, they resort to passive aggressive tactics. These include deliberately making mistakes, pretending to forget important deadlines and muttering ‘care factor zero’ when Brett talks to the team.

12/10/2016 By Eleanor Shakiba COMMUNICATION assertive communication • assertiveness • assertiveness trainers • assertiveness training • communication skills • communication skills trainers • communication skills training • confident communication • dealing with difficult people • giving feedback • passive-aggression • passive-aggressive people • presentation skills • public speaking 0 Comments

How to ‘call’ bad behaviour

Psychologists recommend ‘calling out’ passive aggressive people on their tactics. How can you do this without creating conflict?

There are four steps involved in calling out poor behaviour assertively and calmly.

12/10/2016 By Eleanor Shakiba COMMUNICATION assertiveness trainers • assertiveness training • conflict resolution • dealing with difficult people • difficult people • handling passive-aggression • passive-aggression • passive-aggressive people 0 Comments

Get active about passive-aggression

Passive aggression is way of covertly expressing anger. It involves using incongruent words, tones and body language to convey contempt. For example, someone might say the words “I don’t have a problem.” The meaning of these words might be totally undermined by the speaker’s voice-tone. This is a passive aggressive way of raising a problem.

12/10/2016 By Eleanor Shakiba COMMUNICATION communication skills trainers • communication skills training • how to be persuasive • persuasion • presentation skills • presentation skills trainers • presentation skills training • public speaking 0 Comments

How to convince a critical audience

Mina was nervous. She was presenting a change plan to a team of auditors. She knew the change wouldn’t be popular. And she was facing a highly critical audience.

Here’s how we’d help Mina deal with this problem. You can use the same strategies to sell your ideas to resistant audiences – whether you’re presenting at a meeting, giving a formal speech or seeking to change one person’s mind.

Ancient wisdom for modern presenters

Aristotle developed a theory of persuasive speech writing in 320 B.C. His theory is still used by master speech writers today.

You, too, can tap into Aristotle’s wisdom by using the three forms of ‘rhetoric’ he described. These were ethos, logos and pathos.

Ethos

Ethos means ‘character.’ If you’re speaking to people who value expertise, ethos is your key to success. Your ethos builds even before you walk on stage. For example, when your photo is included in promotional material, it starts to build ethos. Invest in a professional head shot if you present a lot. The way you’re introduced also impacts on your ethos. Don’t leave your introduction to chance – prepare an introductory spiel for the MC. Make sure this highlights your qualifications, achievements and current job title.

12/10/2016 By Eleanor Shakiba COMMUNICATION conflict resolution • negotiation • negotiation skills • negotiation skills course • negotiation skills for women • negotiation skills trainers • negotiation skills training • women and negotiation 0 Comments

Three steps to a persuasive argument

To persuade, you need to create a compelling argument.

You need to convince others to change their beliefs or actions. Here are three ways to build an argument which will do this.

Set strong foundations

Persuasive arguments are robustly constructed. You wouldn’t build a house without deep foundations. Nor should you build a case without depth of knowledge. To persuade effectively, you need to do your research. Talk to experts. Read academic articles. Find real examples related to your topic area. Depth of research creates depth of argument.

10/09/2016 By Eleanor Shakiba COMMUNICATION communication skills • conflict management • conflict resolution • conflict resolution training • mediation skills • mediation skills training • team conflict • team dynamics • workplace conflict 0 Comments

Sorting out team conflict

Kym had made an informal complaint about Antony ‘bullying’ her. Now Michael, their supervisor, had to sort out the situation. Michael had done the right thing by taking Kym’s complaint seriously. But he wasn’t quite sure what to do next. He called me for advice. Here’s what I explained about taking on a mediation role when you’re a manager.

10/09/2016 By Eleanor Shakiba COMMUNICATION boundary setting • communication skills • conflict resolution • difficult people • emotional intelligence • influencing skills • leadership • negotiation skills • persuasion • setting boundaries • team conflict • team dynamics • workplace conflict 0 Comments

Managing Irrational People

Stella’s performance just wasn’t up to scratch. Kath, her supervisor, was keen to help Stella improve. But whenever Kath gave Stella feedback, the conversation got out of control.

Stella seemed unable to accept any form of feedback without becoming defensive. No matter how Kath worded her message, it triggered tirades and tears. Feeling at a loss about what to do next, Kath came to my course on Dealing with Difficult People.

Category: COMMUNICATION