The Managing Difficult Customers course has an average rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars
Encountering difficult situations is an intrinsic part of dealing with customers & clients – whether they are internal or external to your business.
And with the frustrations of lockdowns and other COVID restrictions, there has been a noticeable increase in the stress levels of both customers and staff who are all learning to navigate in a new world filled with restrictions and mental health challenges that we’ve never experienced before.
But how many of us are truly equipped and have been trained to handle those situations?
It takes a lot of confidence and skill to effectively manage angry or upset customers and yet most people have never been taught the skills and are left to learn by trial and error that often results in a poor outcome for the staff member, the customer and the business.
It’s also not uncommon for staff to fall back on their own internal viewpoints and belief systems and to take things personally that again, leads to a poor outcome for all parties.
Whilst equipping your staff with the right skills to handle these situations and taking care of their mental health has always been important, there really has never been a more critical time to provide your staff with the skills and confidence they need to handle a range of difficult customer situations.
This March 2022 Managing Difficult Customers course does just that – empowering your employees with the skills and confidence to handle any difficult customer situation.
Learn how to handle any difficult customer situation
Our May 2022 Managing Difficult Customers training courses teaches staff how to identify the different types of difficult customers and situations, and then how to identify and apply the correct solutions with confidence.
From learning how to negotiate or how to say NO! effectively and with professionalism, the Managing Difficult Customers Training Course is the ideal program to help you or your team members handle difficult situations with grace and style.
This course isn’t just a few words and phrases to use – it’s a comprehensive, high-quality program delivered over 2 x 4-hour sessions that will make a lasting lifetime impact.
As with all our CX Skills courses, this online course involves workshop exercises, quizzes, role-plays, videos, examples and more to make the course both enjoyable and, of course, to enable the learnings to be applied.
This is one of our most popular courses and it’s run both publicly (great for smaller numbers) and privately if you need to train larger groups, need more flexibility in the timing and would like to keep all the discussions ‘in-house’.
May 2022 Managing Difficult Customers Course Quick Highlights
Who should do this course?
The May 2022 Managing Difficult Customers training course is designed to equip course participants with the skills and confidence to manage any difficult situation when dealing with customers or colleagues regardless of the industries, products or services.
The course is suitable for anyone who deals with customers with typical roles including:
- Contact Centre agents (sales or service)
- Customer service staff
- Retail/counter staff
- Administration/Office staff
- Education/Teachers
- Small Business owners
- Sales/Account Management
- Complaints teams
- Team Leaders
- Managers
Please note this entire course is specifically focused on dealing with difficult customers and situations. If you also need to learn more generic customer service skills, check out our customer service training programs >
Now optimised for online training!
Whilst we’d been teaching this course for over 20 years face to face in a classroom setting (in a pre-COVID world!) we have now fully adapted this course to be delivered online and have been successfully doing so for the past two years. So don’t worry, it’s still just as effective as you can read in the customer testimonials.
Our May 2022 Managing Difficult Customers course teaches course participants how to identify and manage difficult customers and situations with confidence.
This isn’t just boring textbook and video training – this course is delivered over 2 x 4-hour comprehensive sessions with a total of 8 hours of live training by world-renowned customer experience trainer Daniel Ord.
Short breaks are included to ensure our training is delivered effectively.
Four Powerful Customer Complaint Handling Modules
The May 2022 Managing Difficult Customers course comprises of four key modules delivered over two 4-hour sessions on separate days.
Session 1
Module 1. Considering Human Behaviour
- Using Transactional Analysis to understand Customer behaviour and our own behaviour
- The issue of changing someone else’s character
- The issue of ‘satisfying’ an Unhappy Customer
Module 2. Classifying the Classic Types of Difficult Situations
Learn the differences between them all the different types of difficult customers and how to handle them including:
- The Abusive Customer
- The Irritating Customer
- The Unhappy Customer
Module 3. Service Skills Requirements
The Classic use of Listening:
- Deciding whether to use Empathy or Affirmation
- What are the 5 levels of Empathy?
- What you must do when interacting with someone who is upset
Session 2
Module 4. Understanding your solution options
We’ll teach our proprietary UNER (R) model that will guide you on:
- How to Say YES
- How to say NO
- How to explain WHY
- How to provide a Conditional or Creative YES
- How and when to Escalate
Looking for other suitable training courses?
Looking for other suitable training courses?
We have a range of other courses suitable for customer service employees including How to Manage Difficult Customers, Customer Service Booster, Customer Service Phone Professional, Customer Service Excellence, Email Customer Service, Live Chat Customer Service and lots more!
View all our Customer Service courses or Health & Wellbeing courses for frontline employees.
About Your Trainer, Daniel Ord
The trainer for the May 2022 Managing Difficult Customers training course is Daniel Ord from OmniTouch International – recognised as one of the leading customer experience and contact centre trainers in the world.
Daniel has trained over 50,000 participants across over 40 countries and is regularly featured in leading customer management publications and he has been a regular visitor to Australia for over 20 years.
Credentials-wise, Dan is a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP), one of only a handful of recognised CXPA trainers in the world, an International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) Certified Associate, a Call Centre Industry Advisory Council Training Partner (CIAC), Net Promoter Certified and Daniel was the first to bring professional management level Contact Centre certification to Asia back in the early 00s (he was based in Singapore for 20 years).
Daniel is consistently regarded as the best trainer in the industry with his incredible subject matter expertise, excellent storytelling with real-world examples, a great sense of humour and a clear passion for the industry and helping people excel.
So it’s not surprising to note that despite all the numerous industry accolades and recognition, it’s the Customer Testimonials Daniel is most proud of and you can read a selection of his recent testimonials below.
Course Testimonials
Interesting and in depth
2 November 2021
September 2021 Managing Difficult Customers
The course was interesting and in depth. Some very interesting discussions. Would like facilitators in the breakout groups to encourage participation however was still good.
Dietitians Australia
Highly Recommended!
3 March 2021
Managing Difficult Customers (Private class)
Justin and the team at CX Skills have gone over and above the call of duty to deliver great Customer Service training to our entire Service Centre team. The Managing Difficult Customers training has been high quality, delivered remotely, and Justin has been extremely flexible with necessary changes to attendees due to operational requirements. I highly recommend CX Skills to assist with your training needs.
Operational Change Manager
QLD Corrective Services
Highly Recommended
23 January 2021
February 2021 Managing Difficult Customers
Thank you team! It has certainly changed the whole perspective on how I used to see and handle the issues not just at the workplace but also in day to day life. Very practical and informative course content delivered in a very professional way. Highly recommended!
SDA Service Delivery Manager
Multiple Sclerosis Ltd
Great tools for work and life
2 December 2020
November 2020 Managing Difficult Customers
Really enjoyed the course on handling difficult customers. I came away with a number of tools that I can use not only with customers, but also day to day life.
Media and Marketing Officer
Education Department
Learn more about the course (video)
We recorded a short video with the CEO of CX Skills, Justin Tippett and course facilitator Daniel Ord providing some additional insight about the course.
More Customer Testimonials
“This course was really engaging and very well organised. Daniel was amazing, and I didn’t ‘zone out’ once, a sign of an excellent trainer. Really enjoyed the course and learnt lots, particularly liked the examples of situations where certain vocabulary is acceptable. Made the course sink in.”
“I just wanted to email you in thanks as I have found your recent training session very helpful! I have been able to use UNER(R) very effectively, where previously I had problems saying ‘no’, generally going into far too much detail on my explanation. This has helped stop at least two complaints and I‘ve also been using the Human Touch in more of my emails 😀 .”
“Hi Daniel, just wanted to say thanks for the brilliant workshop. Was lovely to meet you and it’s always a pleasure to learn new techniques, perspectives and ways of working.”
“It was a really fun and exciting training course and I will be able to apply all these methods now and in my future career. Loved the tips on how to deal with the especially fussy guests!”.
“Very good and interactive – fun but full of knowledge.”
“The training was really fun but more importantly I learned a lot of techniques that I’ve been able to use on lots of my calls which has made my job a lot easier – thanks!”
About CX Skills
CX Skills is a specialist training business that only delivers contact centre, customer experience, customer service and leadership related courses facilitated exclusively by industry professionals. We’re one of the founding members of the Australian Customer Experience Professionals Association (ACXPA) and we are committed to helping Australia to be recognised as global leaders in Customer Experience.
We’ve trained thousands of staff across a diverse range of businesses and we’re proud of the amazing customer testimonials we’ve received directly and on Google reviews (the most recent listed below) so you can rest assured your Managing Difficult Customers training is in good hands.
Training with CX Skills is always engaging and worth every cent. The team are helpful and the lessons are practical and easy to translate into the workplace.
Sheree Laursen
21:15 08 Dec 21
Attended the Introduction to Contact Centre Management course – found it extremely informative and left with a much better understanding of the world I'm about to step into! The course was well structured and Justin was a great teacher. His wealth of knowledge (and passion) absolutely shone through. Am keen to learn more!
Keira Smith
02:55 29 Nov 21
I did the management of contact centres four day workshop, it was fantastic! The facilitator was really engaging and explained everything from WFM to forecasting in a easy to understand manner. Highly recommend to anyone working in a contact centre environment!
Jamie Leonard
05:13 15 Oct 21
I had a fantastic learning experience with the half day Journey Mapping course. Shane was our trainer and explained things thoroughly, used great practical examples and helped through the exercise when needed. He was very knowledgeable and engaging. The group size was not too big so everyone was able to contribute online. I feel confident to 'give a journey map a go' now, thank you. Helen
GVW Intranet
04:48 15 Oct 21
The Introduction to Contact Centre Management is an excellent course for those looking to understand contact centres from a helicopter view and benchmark their operations. From the fundamental pillars to critical KPIs and performance metrics that underpin almost every contact centre globally, Justin is personable and professional and speaks with authority on a topic he knows intimately.
Jim Rodd
00:00 14 Sep 21
Justin offers such a wealth of knowledge and skills that can be applied to leaders in any business. Thank you Justin!
Sam Petroulias
04:45 16 Jul 21
We have done a few training courses now through Justin and the CX Group.In these sessions the facilitator has been Dan Ord and Dans knowledge of the Contact Centre world is second to none. This was great for us as we attended as a team to ensure that the training that we received was able to be applied across my entire management team and also allowed me to drive the right outcomes based on Dan, Marcus and Justins advice and guidance.The best thing about this is that this was not one of those courses that you attend and then nothing more is said or done with this. . . Dan/Justin offer their email address so if you come up with additional questions later that you want guidance on you can ask and they are more than willing to assist.Dan, Marcus and Justin thanks for facilitating this training and we will sure be intouch for other training courses that we would like to run through the CX Group.Bec Goss
Rebecca Goss
21:20 26 Apr 21
This course is absolutely fundamental to anyone dealing with customer experience, the customer journey and also customer service departments. The course is packed with real life examples illustrating the 6 pillars of customer experience! Dan shares all his knowledge and expertise freely and with great love and enthusiasm for the subject matter!
Marianne Rutz
11:06 26 Apr 21
The CX Management Fundamentals course was exceptional, a balanced blend of best in-class examples and theory . Daniel was the utmost professional, sharing his wealth of knowledge in customer experience and contact centre management. Content was relevant and covered an array of business examples. A course that exemplifies two-way participation (no death by PowerPoint). The diverse group of attendees had the opportunity to share their experiences and knowledge, which was priceless. I highly recommend this course for anyone in the customer experience realm, even beginners like me.
Rachael Lowe
22:30 25 Apr 21
I learnt a lot about CX and the course gave me clarity on the 6 main competencies. The training was fun, enjoyable, I can recommend to anyone who is passionate about the "Customer" subject. Daniel is very knowledgeable and experienced, he used real life business examples to understand both the strategic and tactical elements of CX. He also involved us which generated even more credibility.
Eva P
16:53 25 Apr 21
I could not recommend this Company highly enough, I have now done two courses with the Fantastic Dan & Marcus and have taken so much away. I want to thank everybody involved with CX Skills.
Rory Lynch
04:45 29 Mar 21
Game-changing training and insight. Highly recommend CX Skills training program.
Lee Siefken
22:57 15 Mar 21
An absolutely fun and engaging learning session presented by Daniel. Would definitely recommend.
Vanessa Gralton
22:17 15 Mar 21
Another great course put together by Justin presented by their partners at Omnitouch, Daniel and Marcus.The "How to Design a Quality Assurance Program for Contact Centres" was extremely fitting for our organisation as we transition to a new telephony system.The course was not one of those courses where they give you the answer and a few templates sending you on your way. Daniel and Marcus take you through why an appropriate framework should take into consideration the Organisations, Mission Statement, Values and Customer Service Charter.As the session was run via Zoom, it enabled and encouraged networking opportunities not only across Australia but also with International attendees. This was a fantastic benefit as it allowed us to draw on each others lived experiences.I really encourage you all to check out the courses and information that CX Skills has to offer as they are the best place to not only continue but to also start your learning and development!
Adrian Powell
11:34 15 Mar 21
Justin and the team at CX Skills have gone over and above the call of duty to deliver great Customer Service training to our entire Service Centre team. The training has been high quality, delivered remotely, and Justin has been extremely flexible with necessary changes to attendees due to operational requirements. I highly recommend CX Skills to assist with your training needs.
Monica Malgarini
06:29 03 Mar 21
The training provided manages to take complex sales strategies and make them easy to understand and implicate in a sales call. It provides a structure that isn’t stifled by wordy scripts and pitches, and guides consultants towards a successful outcome for both the customer and consultant.This training took efficient, tried and tested sales concepts and expand on them to not only generate higher conversion, but a more positive customer experience.Aside from the training, which was amazing, Simon - the trainer - was a pleasure to work with. He was attentive and showed a real passion and desire to enhance the trainee’s sales expertise.I would recommend CX Group to anyone who will listen!
Chris Remnant
03:58 25 Feb 21
A very well structured training course. The trainer was very knowledgeable and a very good presenter.
Elena Prenner
22:06 03 Feb 21
I recently attended the Contact Centre Management Fundamentals course and found it extremely useful and relevant. Daniel was extremely knowledgeable on all topics and handled questions with ease. He was a great trainer and i found the session had a great mix to suit all learning styles. I have taken so much from this course, the networking opportunities as well as the CX website and associated resources. I highly recommend attending if you are looking to better understand contact centre management regardless of what level you work at.
Nicole Field
05:25 02 Feb 21
Thank you team-It has certainly changed the whole perspective on how I used to see and handle the issues not just at the workplace but also in day to day life. Very practical and informative course content delivered in a very professional way. I truely recomend everyone out there to use this platform.
Badri Pokhrel
05:52 21 Jan 21
Justin created a great call centre fundamentals program for our organisation, based on the skill gaps needed filling. Although it was at the height of the Melbourne lockdown the session was still interactive, interesting and achieved the desired result.
Sarsha S
23:39 22 Dec 20
Really enjoyed course on handling difficult customers. I came away with a number of tools that I can use not only with customers, but also day to day life.
Katherine Robshaw Ed Dept
04:06 30 Nov 20
Justin from CX responded promptly to my training enquiry. He heard what we wanted and we discussed best way to present this during Melbourne Lockdown. He conducted the introduction to contact centre leadership remotely with a small group. He weaved his contact centre experience with humour and activities that were appropriate and engaging. At the end each person agreed that they learnt lots and were going to apply at least one thing back in their role. I would highly recommend CX and Justin for training and support.
Kaylee Gerbes
23:43 21 Sep 20
Are your employees feeling a little overwhelmed?
Are your employees feeling a little overwhelmed?
We have two 3-hour courses specifically designed to help improve the mental and physical wellbeing for customer-facing employees:
How and when it’s delivered
The May 2022 Managing Difficult Customers course is delivered via Zoom Teleconferencing and users will be sent an electronic workbook (PDF) and Zoom link prior to the course commencing. This is a public course meaning it is available for anyone to book and the dates and times are fixed to enable you to plan ahead.
If you have large numbers to train or would like to have more flexibility on the dates, times and content refer to our private options.
The May 2022 Managing Difficult Customers Course will be conducted on:
- Session 1 – Thursday 9th May 2022, 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm AEDT
- Session 2 – Friday 10th May 2022, 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm AEDT
Dates don’t suit? Search for other available dates >
Pricing and Payment Options
The May 2022 Managing Difficult Customers Training course is $497 per person ex GST for 8 hours of facilitated learning (2 x 4-hour sessions) delivered by global CX training expert Daniel Ord as well as a course workbook (delivered electronically).
Need to train more than 3 staff?
- Save 15% when booking for 3 to 5 staff in the same transaction (note: the discount will be applied on the final checkout page).
- Save 20% if you register 6 or more staff in the same transaction (note: the discount will be applied on the final checkout page).
- Need to train more than 10 people? Contact us about a private course just for your team(s).
Tickets can be purchased via credit card or invoice – just select your preferred option on checkout.
