Wendie’s Weekly Diary – Influencing Skills

Influencing Skills

“I wish all your family were dead”.

So said a less than satisfied caller as she slammed the phone down on a lovely Helpline assistant that I worked with this week. The Helpline assistant had been politely and patiently trying to explain that the caller would not be entitled to receive a payout from her late ex-husband’s insurance policy.

It’s hard not to react when another person attacks. We’re hard-wired with a ‘fight or flight’ trigger when we come under fire.

There are, however some basic things to remember, when dealing with ‘difficult’ customers:

• There is no such thing as a ‘difficult customer’ – only a customer who is in a difficult situation.
• We have all been someone else’s difficult customer at some point – it doesn’t mean we’re not nice people the rest of the time – someone, somewhere loves us!
• People in difficult situations do not always behave in the way we’d prefer – they make the best choice they can at the time – which might not be the choice we’d make in the same situation.
• There is always an underlying reason for the way a person behaves. Even if we can’t accept their behaviour, we can usually empathise with the cause (in this case; shock, confusion, grief and mourning – the lady’s ex-husband had tragically been murdered abroad).

Dealing with difficult customer situations on the telephone requires skill and resilience and I greatly admire those who do this well.

The telephone is a ‘barrier’ that makes people braver and sometimes more tactless than if they were face to face.

It’s a bit like when you’re in the car. Someone cuts you up and you hurl abuse, whereas if you bump into them while you’re walking along the pavement, you’re more likely to say ‘sorry’ – even if it wasn’t your fault. Car or telephone – you’re one step removed from seeing the other party as another human being.

As a telephone operative, there are many things you can do to overcome this ‘barrier’ and influence the call to a successful outcome.

If you’d like to know how to do it, check out our Influencing Skills courses which are packed with tips on rapport building, communication skills and questioning and listening techniques.