Positive positioning is delivering a message in a positive way, and in such a way that minimizes a negative reaction. Positive Positioning is easy to do when you focus on three things.
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Category: De-escalation
5 Comebacks for the Customer Who Tries to Intimidate You
Some people use bait tactics to try to get what they want. They’ll say something just to get you to react. They’re trying to take your power so that they’re in control. A lot of […]
Enhance Your De-escalation Skills During Your Lunch Break!
How to Handle Difficult Customers (with a focus on de-escalation) Training Length: 30 minutes, with knowledge checks and simulations Thanks to the Internet and social media, customers are savvier now than ever before. Although this sounds […]
How to Get Angry, Irate or Unreasonable Customers to Back Down (3 Steps)
Imagine your next phone call is from an angry, irate customer, and you’ve only got a few seconds to gain control. Are you 100% confident you can handle it? If not, I’ve got the perfect […]
When a Customers Asks For Your Manager, Here’s What You Say
What Viewers of This Video Are Saying Get More Ideas Like This Now you can give your representatives even more great skills for delivering the best customer experience and for handling difficult customer situations. Sign […]
Three Ways To Fix the Escalation Problem
Escalated calls are frustrating for everybody – the employee who knows she could’ve done the exact same thing the supervisor did, the supervisor whose hair is on fire, and for the customer who has lost time. It’s time to fix the escalation problem. Here are three ways you can prepare your employees to de-escalate so you can take a little stress out of everybody’s life.
1. See How Much It Costs You To Resolve Most Customer Issues
3 Steps to Reducing Stress and Escalations With Customer Service Teams
Back in my call center days, I paid a consultant a wad to tell me to, “Give your employees time after each call to debrief with their co-workers, and create a culture where they can turn to each other for advice and guidance for how to navigate a tough call.” Here are the top three things my consultant advised me to do immediately to achieve the goals she set for me.
1. Create a spider web type layout where all of your employees can see and interact with one another at once.
2. Encourage employees to place callers on hold while they seek advice from the team on how to manage tough situations.
3. Build in time after calls for employees to cool-down after a particularly grilling interaction, and to talk the situation through with colleagues.
I took the consultant’s advice, and here’s what happened.
Take Challenging Customers From a Boil to a Simmer Using the Reframe Method (Step 2 of My De-escalation Strategy)
When you need to pre-empt an escalation in aggression with a customer, reframe the conversation using the three steps politicians and CEOs use for damage control and to control the message.
Explain:
The 3-Prong Method To Get Customers Who Think They Need a Manager To Calm Down and Let You Help Them
Let’s say have a customer who right out of the gate demands to talk to a supervisor. You can take the three easy steps I teach in my workshops to keep some customers from escalating.
1. Recognize/Acknowledge
When a customer immediately asks to speak to a supervisor, not wanting to give you a chance to assist, you can Recognize emotions like this.
“I can certainly understand why you’d want to speak to my manager. I want to get to the bottom of this just as much as you do.”
By saying this, or something similar, you acknowledge the customer’s perceived need to talk to someone else.
2. Reframe
The First Step to De-escalating Is to Recognize The Customer’s Emotional Reaction
Let me ask you something. If you’re pissed off at your partner, and you’re yelling,
maybe even cursing, and in response they say…
nothing.
How do you react?
Do you calm down?
Or does their silence make you more intense?
Me? I talk more. Louder. My attitude gets fierce.
What I don’t do is back down or tranquilize.
Turns out, if you give your customers the silent treatment when they’re going off on you, they can get fierce, too.
Here’s why.
