Managing Difficult Customers Training Course
(discounts available)
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.
Managing Difficult Customers Training Course Highlights
Now optimised for online training!
The Managing Difficult Customers course has been adapted to be delivered exclusively for online training.
Whilst we’d been teaching this class onsite for over 20 years, our customers tell us they love the online format and a read of the customer testimonials confirms that this course doesn’t lose any effectiveness being delivered in an online environment.
Our Managing Difficult Customers Training Courses teach students how to identify and manage difficult customers and situations with newfound confidence.
This isn’t just boring textbook and video training where you log in and tick a few boxes. All our courses use facilitated live training meaning there is a real trainer with you the entire course to teach, facilitate discussion, answer questions and so on.
And for this course, it’s not just any trainer! World-renowned customer experience trainer Daniel Ord delivers all our courses on how to manage angry and difficult customers.
Who should do this course?
The 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 8-hour 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 >
What you’ll learn:
This isn’t just a tick and flick course where you learn a few tips regurgitated from a textbook.
You’ll benefit from over 20 years experience in delivering this course learning all the critical components to empower you to manage difficult customers to deliver better customer and business outcomes along with your mental health.
The course is delivered over two half-day sessions of 4 hours duration each day (total of 8 hours across the two 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 you 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 options?
Looking for other options?
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 our 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.
Learn more about the Managing Difficult Customers course
We recorded a short video with the CEO of CX Skills, Justin Tippett and the trainer, Daniel Ord, providing some additional insight about the course.
Course Testimonials
Best trainer I have ever come across!
Daniel was absolutely amazing! He makes everyone feel comfortable and inclusive. Thoroughly enjoyed the training.
Fantastic insight!
Daniel was very insightful and enthusiastic about what he was taking about. I learned a lot regarding how to treat others.
Fantastic, A great course for anyone who is customer serving.
The course is a great overview in managing difficult situations/customers. Daniel is highly engaging and passionate in delivering the content and he provides great examples and effectively guides/demonstrates these for participants, ensuring they are taking on each topic.
The team have really obtained great knowledge to put to action in their day to day roles. In addition, the techniques are very simple and realistic which will enable a quick refresh for teams down the track with the content provided.
A great two days of helpful insights and new ways of thinking
I thoroughly enjoyed attending the training course. The host was very easy to listen to, always had a smile and provided some really helpful insights on how best to respond and not respond to a customer.
I highly recommend this course and think no matter what level you are at, everyone can take something away from it.
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.
How and when it’s delivered
The Managing Difficult Customers training courses are delivered via Zoom Teleconferencing and particpants will be sent an electronic workbook and Zoom link the day prior to the course commencing. Our courses are offed both publicly and privately with the differences outlined below:
Public Courses
Our public Managing Difficult Customers training courses have the dates and times fixed to enable you to plan ahead around rosters, annual leave, induction dates etc.
Being public, it’s a great opportunity to hear and learn from others in the course and you can send as little as one person making it a cost-effective method of training small numbers of people.
If you would like to have more flexibility on the dates, times and content or have larger groups that need training refer to our private training options.
Private Courses
Whilst the public courses can be a great way to interact with others and are perfect for small numbers, sometimes you need more flexibility with the dates and times or you’d like the benefits of training larger groups of agents exclusively just for your business.
Our private courses can deliver the same course with dates and times to suit you and being private, it can be easier to focus on real examples and scenarios encountered by your employees rather than in a public setting.
Private classes can also be more cost-effective for larger groups!
Pricing and Payment Options
All our courses can be booked directly online with a list of all the upcoming public course dates and times at the bottom of this page.
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.
Course tickets can be purchased by selecting your preferred dates below. You can pay by credit card (instant purchase) or request an invoice on checkout (the invoice must be paid in full prior to the course commencing).
Purchase tickets now to the Managing Difficult Customers Training Courses below.
Click on your preferred dates below to purchase tickets or contact us about a private class for your team(s) if you have a minimum of 8 people.
July 2022 Managing Difficult Customers
Learn how to manage angry, upset and difficult customers with confidence in this 2 x 4-hour July 2022 online course suitable for all customer-facing employees.