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Guide to Handling Difficult Customers

To help you get the most from your training materials, you’ll also receive a copy of the Leader’s Guide. It will show you how to introduce the materials to your staff in a positive and motivating way. How to reinforce important points in the booklet with a group training session. Plus techniques and refreshers to keep the message fresh long after the booklets have been distributed.

To learn more about the Leader’s Guide, you may read the sample section below.

Activity 2: Empathizing and agreeing.

A skill related to apologizing is empathizing and agreeing. As noted in the booklet, this is one of the most powerful ways to calm a difficult customer, but it can also be a difficult skill to master. For this activity, you can use the sample “problems” you created for Activity 1, or develop new problems. Write these on a white board or poster board. Next, ask your team to brainstorm strategies for showing empathy and agreement. Introduce the activity with language such as: “It’s difficult to continue to argue or be upset with someone who understands and agrees with you. If you’ve ever been in this situation, you know how quick and effective it is, so let’s brainstorm how we can show empathy and agreement with each of these statements, all without disparaging the company or a colleague.”

Also keep in mind that apologizing, empathizing and agreeing can often be wrapped into the same sentence. For example, “I’m so sorry, I had a similar situation myself, and we certainly could have handled this better.” That’s a lot of good stuff in one sentence!

 

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