Dealing with
difficult people
The organisation had concerns regarding the overall impact, on its image,
of the way its front-line staff dealt with stressed and difficult customers.
Amicas worked with potential participants, the organisation’s security
team, and managers, to identify the precise needs and design the appropriate
training. During this process, it was agreed that managers too would benefit
from learning how to deal with stressed staff, and that the Executive
team would gain from listening to the concerns of front-line staff.
Consequently, a member of the Executive team opened each programme. At
the end of each two-day event, they returned to hear what issues had arisen,
and the suggestions of participants for improving their capacity to improve
the service they provided. The Executive member then emailed all participants,
from each event, with the actions that had resulted from their suggestions.
As a result of experiencing their personal power to deal with previously
difficult situations, staff were better motivated and able to present
a positive image to customers, and managers were more effectively able
to deal with difficult performance issues.
Because key messages were communicated in a simple way, and skills were
the focus of the training, participants were able to put their learning
to work immediately. One manager, as a result, reduced customer complaints
from an average of 12 per month to one. Another reduced three complaints
per week to no more than three per month. |
