Dealing with challenging customers (In-House)

Use broad open questions to give the customer a platform for their opinions or issues

Improve listening skills to really understand what's behind the customer's challenging style

Probe specific phrases to show listening and earn deeper disclosure

Use silence to let challenging customers 'blow off steam'

Understand the negative impact of certain phrases on a challenging customer

Summarise effectively and reassure the customer of our understanding of their needs

Recognise the 'behaviour cycle' and avoid emotional escalation

Understand 'transactional analysis' and how to bring people from 'child' to 'adult' state

Create loyalty in customers who are slow to give trust

Why customers challenge us - understanding their drivers

'Wearing their shoes' - seeing things from their perspective

Understanding our own personality style

How to flex with a style that is different from our own

Ways to quickly recognise a customer's style

The benefits of flexing with a challenging customer's style

Participants take it in turns to deal with the trainer (who plays the role of the challenging customer)

Observers stop the action when they hear or see something they deem wrong

The participant in the seat gets a chance to use a suggested alternative line

The participant who makes the suggestion has the chance to occupy the seat and deliver it themselves

Frequent feedback from the trainer as to how the participant's words are making him feel

Opportunities to rewind the action if an ill-advised line is suggested and delivered

Flipchart for capturing what worked, what didn't work and why

Mehrabian principle - the importance of body language and tone over words used

How to use open questions to get the customer talking

What questions to avoid and why

The use of pauses and silence to reduce tension and build trust

What listening is and what it isn't

Question funnelling - how to earn deeper disclosure through probing

The power of summary

What is transactional analysis (TA)?

Exploring the TA states and why people behave in that way under pressure

How to bring challenging customers to 'adult' state to reduce tension

How 'parent' or 'child' behaviours can be inadvertently triggered

Understanding the 'behavioural cycle' and how to break it

Mini-role play 'vignettes' to demonstrate real time impact of ill-chosen words

Techniques for placating current challenging customers

Methods that the participants have already used effectively - understanding why those methods worked and how other participants can model them

Participants' experiences of trust having been lost - understanding why those experiences had that negative outcome

How to 'go the extra mile' with challenging customers

Participants give the trainer a brief profile of a specific challenging customer of theirs

5-10 minute roleplay in which the trainer brings that individual to life

Observing participants - without interrupting - make notes on what is and isn't working

Trainer stops the action half-way through to give feedback on how he is feeling

Participant goes back into the roleplay having recalibrated their approach based on feedback

Observers give feedback on what did and didn't work

Trainer comes out of character to explain the impact of the participant's words and behaviours

Key learnings from each participant

Individual action planning - steps that can and will be implemented in the workplace