Over the last few years people seem to have got angrier and more aggressive. Historically, people were more likely to give it to staff with both barrels over the phone as you were a faceless person telling someone that they cannot have what they want, when they want. When we have no choice in supplier – councils and water companies for example, this tends to heighten people’s aggression as they feel trapped and frustrated.

Now face to face abuse, violence and aggression is on the increase across several sectors. From GP surgeries to hairdressers, the parents of children at schools and even towards children’s sports referees who recently staged a strike because of the violent reactions they were experiencing from parents.

Research from the Institute of Customer Service reports that 45% of service staff experienced hostility from the public in the 2^nd half of 2022, a rise of 10%. Criminal violence in GP surgeries has doubled in five-years and more generally, those interacting with the public have seen a 6% rise in abuse and 27% increase in assault.

Why?

• Prior to the pandemic people felt  isolated and a reliance on technology led to less social interaction
• The lockdowns heightened this feeling of isolation
• The media – bad news sells!
• Expectations are greater – if I can get a home delivery when I want, why can’t I see my hairdresser, GP, or dentist exactly when I want?
• We moved straight from a global pandemic to petrol  shortages/recession/cost of living crisis and war

Change triggers loneliness, mental health issues and stress all of which increases anger, and frustration – cast your minds back to when supermarkets had one-way systems which they would change overnight, in pubs – when you could/could not stand up, had to eat a meal /didn’t have to have a meal /what constituted a meal?

There is no excuse for aggression but anything that increases stress increases anger and frustration.

When the good times roll, it is easy to be nice

How can we defuse this……

It is worth considering what the other person may be experiencing – this can be split into four distinct areas to help your staff.

Frenzy – this maybe mental health issues or drug / alcohol dependency and, generally, once the person has let off steam, they will not remember the event

Fear – when people are frightened, it can often manifest itself as aggression

Criminal – this is where the person knows they are in the wrong but try to justify their own mistake by being rude to someone else

Tantrum – where it has nothing to do with you, but you are the straw that broke the camel’s back during a bad day/week/month

To lessen the chances of challenging customers

• Ensure there is transparency in what you do – make it easy, no hidden clauses in terms and conditions
• Provide a consistently good service so when things do go wrong, the customer is more likely to forgive
• Explain and communicate changes – adults are more likely to accept when they know why changes are taking place

Remember LARA

Listen – actively and empathically!

Acknowledge – do not deny the person feels there is a problem, appreciate what they are saying

Respond – using ‘magic’ rather than ‘tragic’ language by focusing on what we can do rather than what we cannot and taking out negative phrases

Action – do what you said you would, and if you can’t, let the person know

To support your staff in diffusing challenging customers, contact us to arrange a workshop designed to meet your specific business needs.

This time last year I published an article about the advantages and disadvantages of on-line/virtual training. Now with many Zoom training sessions under my belt, experience allows a more considered opinion.

I miss face-to-face interaction (like many over the last 12 months). However, on-line training has its advantages and potential cost savings for the client – particularly when participants are spread out geographically.

The stress of travelling (and getting up at dawn) has been replaced with crossing fingers and toes for strong broadband. Lugging training materials up 4 flights of stairs and re-arranging furniture in the training room has been replaced with working out the array of Zoom functions.

What subjects have worked virtually?

• Effective Communication Skills
• Dealing with Difficult People
• Welcome to a Management Role
• Positive Appraisals
• Managing Change

Why?

• Using imagination to bring training to life online for different learning styles
• Breakout rooms allow sharing experiences and practising exercises
• Participants appear less anxious about group interaction by being able use the ‘chat’ facility rather than speaking to the whole group
• Short, sharp 3hr sessions as a one off or with modules delivered over a period of time, ensure participants are not overwhelmed and learning is imbedded

Now, more than ever, your greatest asset, your people, will benefit from training/development. Rather than wait for the ‘new normal’ why not discuss your needs either on-line or face to face – my details are below:

Email: annie@muladysolutions.co.uk or Call: 01628 475988/07920 104940

Def:  An idiom for a truth that is either being ignored or going unaddressed.

This expression also applies to an obvious problem or risk no one wants to discuss. It is based on the idea that an elephant being in a room would be impossible to overlook, hence the greatest stealer of time – procrastination.

A study from a YouGov survey of 2,000 adults revealed that we spend on average 55 days procrastinating each year. Employees spend 43 minutes daily doing non-work-related activities like making tea or surfing the web.

Over the last 10 months in particular, more staff are working from home, perhaps for the first time, or more than previously, and may struggle to motivate themselves. We all have elements of a job that we do not like or feel overwhelming and we sometimes will do anything not to do that task.

When this has happened to me I:

• Re-designed training to make the workshops appropriate for Zoom.
• Wrote this article and considered other marketing ideas.
• Cleaned the kitchen floor!

Anything other than the job sitting beside me – the elephant in my room.

Whilst being productive, the downside was that I ended up working silly hours to meet the deadline and put unnecessary stress on myself.

Some tips on dealing with procrastination – why not think about

• Realistically prioritise what needs to be done – list all the things you need to do.
• Baby steps – if it is a big task, break it down into manageable chunks.
• Create a productive environment – maybe turn off your phone or email notifications, have a tidy desk and try to remove distractions.
• Ascertain when you are most productive – when you are at your best you get through tasks quicker and more efficiently.
• Treat yourself – allocate time to do things you enjoy, for example ‘when I’ve done this, I will have a cup of coffee’.

And finally think about why you are procrastinating – Don’t over think it but by recognizing behaviours enables us to do something about it.

We can support you with 3hr online sessions, one-to-one or in small groups. If you would like support in managing your time, contact Annie Mulady on 01628 475988 or annie@muladysolutions.co.uk

Obviously, staff manning the shops able to stay open during lock down have been working under considerably stressful circumstances and we thank them in keeping the nation watered and fed. Without a doubt, working in the retail sector under the current conditions is stressful. Whilst we are all grateful to those shops I wonder how well the staff are managing.

I have heard, and indeed experienced scenarios, where the language used fired up situations with customers and could have been avoided with staff understanding the impact of their choice of words and tone:

• A lady asking for help from a member of staff and promptly being (incorrectly) accused of shop lifting
• A customer being asked for proof of purchase by just having the word ‘receipt’ barked at them
• A gentleman being told to ‘hurry up and move out of the way’ whilst trying to find the correct medication in a pharmacy
• A lady being shouted to ‘stand back and wait for me to say when you can move’ and then told ‘come forward now’ less than a second later
• A member of staff not listening to the customer saying ‘is there anything else I can help you with’ the customer responding ‘you haven’t helped me with this so no’ the staff member then said ‘lovely, thank you, bye’!

I am sure these are isolated incidents but using more positive language and tone would have made staff’s lives easier, and avoided stressed customers rising up and in one instance vowing to never return to the store again!

In my experience, people do not appreciate the impact they have in ‘firing up’ or ‘defusing’ a situation.

TRAGIC – Negative language

Focuses the customer on what cannot be done and can have a subtle tone of blame. It includes words like can’t, won’t, unable.

• You say that…
• You should/must
• Why didn’t you…….

MAGIC – Positive language

Suggests alternatives and choices available to the customer sounding helpful and encouraging rather than bureaucratic. It stresses positive actions and consequences.

• I understand…..
• Here is what we can do…
• If you could do this, we can…

This approach together with active listening, make even the trickiest of interactions more effective. It encourages a positive two-way interaction and prevents situations spiralling into avoidable complaints.

To find out more about communication skills for your staff, we can offer you virtual sessions via power hours for teams or on a one-to-one basis. To organise a session contact Annie Mulady at Mulady Solutions Ltd on:

Call: 01628 475988 or email: annie@muladysolutions.co.uk

I heard a piece on Radio 4 back in 2014 about whether on-line learning was going to replace face to face training.

Events over the last couple of months have dragged me out of my ‘normal’ to providing one to one Zoom sessions for participants who are completing a management development programme. My conclusion is that both training formats have their place.

On-line training has its advantages, potential cost savings – particularly when participants are spread out geographically and it can also reduce the amount of administration in producing materials and organisation of training sessions. It is self-paced and more individual – on a one to one basis, delegates can focus on the training content they specifically need support in and subjects not necessarily on the original agenda can be covered. For example, in one session a participant requested advice on how to support a member of staff with a very specific and unusual issue which I was able to help with.

What subjects are best suited to on-line learning?

Process and technology/systems-based training suits E-learning and my experience so far has highlighted that subjects that work particularly well on-line are:

• Setting and Managing Goals
• Positive Appraisals
• Managing Change
• Pragmatic Problem Solving

Some subjects are better suited to the format of face to face. Group discussions and facilitated learning is more powerful than informing or telling. It creates an environment that encourages open discussion and learning from others. You can bring different organisations/departments together resulting in the bonus of sharing knowledge and best practice and training can be ‘high energy’ to facilitate different learning styles and get the blood circulating and energy levels high.

What subjects are best suited to face to face sessions?

• Customer Service Skills
• Effective Communication Skills
• Presenting with Panache
• Building Top Teams

Both on-line and face to face training have their place, but the question should be asked – which forum will meet our participants needs the best before embarking on possibly costly mistakes.

To discuss your training and development needs, contact Annie Mulady on 01628 475988 or annie@muladysolutions.co.uk

There seems to be a myth that there is a world of difference between customer service in the private and public sector and I ask the question – is there?

True, in the public sector you may have customers who have no choice but to interact with you whereas in the private sector your customers can generally choose their supplier. True, in the public sector you may be interacting with customers who are vulnerable but particularly in these difficult times, that could also be said for customers of the private sector. Whilst the public sector is generally non profit making, both sectors are working to budgets and are accountable for their costs.

Surely the skills required to serve customers in both the private and public sectors are the same. Research over the years has come up with the top requirements from customers:

• Effective problem solving
• Efficiency
• Timeliness
• Professionalism
• Easy to do business with

The public sector seems to be increasingly striving to focus and improve their customer service. But in some areas of the private sector the focus is on the bottom line and cost cutting rather than investing in their service and meeting the basic needs of their customers.

There are lessons to be learnt from both the private and public sector – the needs of your customers are not going to be fundamentally different so take a step back and ask yourselves are you meeting the five customer requirements? If the answer is no to any of these, consider your experience of being a customer – from which organisations do you experience service excellence? They may not be within your sector or industry but there could be lessons of best practice which can benefit your organisation.

Annie Mulady

Director of Mulady Solutions

annie@muladysolutions.co.uk

As a customer, it is not my problem if you or your staff, are having a bad day. A recent event highlighted to me why consistent service is critical to any organisation and how having a bad day can have dire consequences.

I am a regular traveller on my local railway line and know by sight most of the conductors. On this day a couple of business people were sitting next to me in the carriage and clearly visitors to the town and not sure of what train changes they needed to make. The conductor appeared and the ladies asked him several questions about how they should proceed with their journey. This conductor is usually very cheerful and incredibly helpful but was clearly having a bad day as he barked at the passengers and seemed quite put out that they did not know what to do to get the right train.

I sat there and watched the whole incident and my immediate thought was ‘oh dear he is having a bad day’. Once he had moved on the two ladies expressed their dismay at being treated so badly and still not being clear on where they needed to go – I intervened and whilst not being an expert on railways, was able to tell them where they needed to change trains and which platforms to use.

However, they left the train with what can only be described as a bad taste in their mouths – their experience had not been good, and they are likely to tell everyone who is prepared to listen of the poor service.

Now I obviously do not know what put the conductor in such a bad mood that day but frankly it is not my problem, as a customer we do not care if the cat has been run over or you have had a row with your partner, we just want to be treated in a polite, professional manner.

The cloak of good service is critical – leave your problems at home, in the car or in your locker and continue your day with a genuine smile on your face and a positive attitude or you will create issues that do not need to exist.

So, take a moment to consider the consistency of service in your organisation. Do your people appreciate the impact they have on your customers? Are they motivated to want to give good service even on a bad day?