Dealing with Aggressive Callers

Duration 1 day

Unfortunately clients seldom seem to call to tell you what a great job your organisation is doing. However, they do call to complain when they feel that the service your organisation provides is not meeting with their expectations. Sometimes they are just downright frustrated and angry and you become the target for their annoyance.

This one-day course will provide you with practical techniques to help you to develop your skills with hostile clients and will present you with methods for controlling telephone conversations and deal effectively with more ‘challenging’ callers and their sometimes difficult behaviour.

At the end of the course, participants will:

- Be able to deal with callers effectively on the telephone
- Be able to use assertive telephone techniques in order to control the call
- Gain confidence in dealing with a wide variety of telephone calls and difficult situations
- Dealing with distressed and anxious callers
- Dealing with different demographic types eg. the elderly, the disabled etc
- How to deal with angry and threatening callers
- How to handle large volumes of calls
- Giving and receiving information
- Staying calm and professional on the phone through stressful and busy periods
- Role plays to include specific situations regarding flood issues

Course Content

Defining aggression
    - verbal and non-verbal behaviour

Causes of aggression
    - Dealing with the client’s perceptions and expectations

Acceptable and non-acceptable levels of behaviour
    - Terminating the call

Understanding our own behaviour and its effect on others

The role of listening when dealing with angry customers
    - empathetic listening skills

Developing an assertive communication style

Strategies that effectively diffuse difficult client situations and the angry or complaining caller

Options instead of saying ‘NO’

Essential skills for not getting emotionally hooked with the difficult or angry client

Assertiveness
The course was just the right length; my attention was kept throughout the course. Carolyn is a very good trainer who is interested in delegates own situation

Port of Felixstowe

Corporate Telephone Techniques
Very Knoweldgeable. Brought group out of their shell.

Prospects Training Solutions

Introduction to HR
Very interesting course. I enjoyed discussing some of the case studies and subjects. Carolyn (the trainer) was very informative.

Anglia Care Trust