MANAGING AGGRESSIVE AND CHALLENGING CUSTOMER BEHAVIOUR Communicorp Group

Transcription

1 MANAGING AGGRESSIVE AND CHALLENGING CUSTOMER BEHAVIOUR 2016 Communicorp Group

2 Anecdotally, there appears to be an escalating rate of aggressive and distressed customer behaviour being reported across many customer service domains. The causes of aggressive client/customer behaviour can be quite broad, but the impact on staff can frequently be profound. While there is national legislation to help prevent aggressive behaviour internally among employees, organisations often have limited control over the type of behaviour that clients/customers present within the workplace or over the phone. Often we find work areas regularly exposed to challenging customer/client behaviour are associated with higher levels of psychological injury, higher level of absenteeism, and higher level of staff turnover. Largely this is due to the particular psychosocial demands of these roles, and the more specialised capabilities required to not only de-escalate, manage and even prevent aggressive behaviour from occurring, but also maintaining personal resilience when this is a regular factor in the work environment. CommuniCorp has developed a range of courses specifically for those in customer facing, contact centre, and customer service support roles to assist them in managing aggressive client/customer behaviour. Our courses have been designed to ensure a top-down, bottomup approach to meet the learning needs of both staff and people leaders in this domain to ensure a psychologically healthy workplace is maintained. All our courses are highly practical and applied, delivered on-site at times that suit operational requirements, and are able to be modified to ensure they include workplace policies, procedures and escalation pathways that are critical for enabling a systemic and sustainable approach that is specific to individual workplace requirements. Our courses in this area have achieved national recognition and industry awards and have been delivered across a number of banking, finance, government, contact centre, debt collection, and sales areas nationally. They have been designed to address the specific psychosocial risk associated with aggressive customer situations, to assist organisations meet their WHS/OH&S responsibilities in this area and improve the nature of client/ customer interactions

3 MANAGING AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOUR - All Staff Workshop (up to 2 hours) This highly practical and applied course builds the knowledge, confidence and capabilities for staff who encounter aggressive customer/client behaviour in the workplace. It focuses on the practical steps they can take to keep themselves and colleagues both mentally and physically safe in the event of an aggressive customer incident. This is not a course specific to critical incidents such as armed hold up, but rather designed to address the more common, day to day aggressive client/customer behaviour that staff encounter. De-escalating high emotion using practical evidence-based techniques Victim posturing and exit strategies for when de-escalation strategies are insufficient Utilising the physical space to keep safe Self-care strategies for post-incident MANAGING AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOUR - People Leaders Workshop (3 hours) People leaders have a critical role to play in managing the psychosocial workspace and in supporting the needs of staff who regularly encounter difficult customer situations. The actions of people leaders during and after aggressive client/customer events can have a profound impact on the psychological wellbeing of staff and on team functioning overall. This training is designed to help people leaders ensure the psychological health and safety of their team, and give them the confidence and capability to manage aggressive client/customer situations, provide supportive leadership behaviour to staff and help reinforce staff capabilities in this domain. De-escalating high emotion using practical evidence-based techniques Victim posturing and exit strategies for when de-escalation strategies are insufficient Supporting self- and staff-care post critical incident Reporting and escalation procedures Raising awareness of other strategies for managing aggressive behaviours, including workplace protocols and resources to support staff in managing aggressive behaviour Train-the-Trainer tips for helping people leaders train their staff in practical de-escalation and management techniques, including how to refer staff for additional support if required

4 HANDLING CHALLENGING CALLERS All Staff Workshop (3 hours) Although aggressive customer behaviours in face-to-face customer services environments pose great risk to the physical and psychological safety of employees, aggressive callers can also create distress and psychological harm for contact centre employees. Equally, distressed and threatening callers can have an emotional impact on employees working in an environment in which they are regularly faced with managing different forms of challenging behaviours from clients/customers. This highly practical course builds the confidence and capabilities for contact centre staff who encounter aggressive, distressed, and potentially at risk callers. It focuses on the practical steps they can take to de-escalate behaviours over the phone, and how to escalate the call if such behaviours do not subside. De-escalating phone-based aggression using practical evidence-based techniques Terminating the call for when de-escalation strategies are insufficient Responding to distressed callers using practical phone-based techniques Addressing and escalating calls involving threats of self-harm or suicide Self-care strategies for post-incident MANAGING CHALLENGING CALLERS People Leaders Workshop (4 hours) The critical role that people leaders play is even more substantial in a contact centre environment, where a number of work-related pressures have the potential to impact on the psychological health of employees. Ensuring leaders have the confidence and capability to support staff both during and postchallenging customer incident can have a significant impact on the outcome and recovery for employees involved. This training is designed to help people leaders ensure the psychological health and safety of their team, and give them the confidence and capability to manage aggressive, distressed and threating callers, provide post-incident support to staff, and help reinforce staff capabilities in this domain. De-escalating phone-based aggression using practical evidence-based techniques Terminating the call for when de-escalation strategies are insufficient Responding to distressed callers using practical phone-based techniques Addressing and escalating calls involving threats of self-harm or suicide Handling escalated calls Raising awareness of other strategies for managing challenging callers, including workplace protocols and resources to support staff in managing behaviours Train-the-Trainer tips for helping people leaders train their staff in practical de-escalation and management techniques, including how to refer staff for additional support if required

5 2016 Communicorp Group