Assessing and Intervening

Name: Assessing and Intervening
Author: KnowledgeCity

Learn how to assess abusive situations and respond appropriately.

Preview the first lesson free — get full access to all 6 lessons.

Course: On-Demand

(upbeat music) Let's explore how to assess abusive customer behavior and effective ways to intervene. In these lessons, we'll look at how to evaluate a potentially difficult situation and learn when it's best to extend empathy to a customer or escalate the issue if necessary. It started out just like any other day at work, but now a customer is acting abusive toward you and you're paralyzed with fear, but there's no need to panic. If you stay calm and work through the correct steps, you will be able to deescalate the situation. The first thing to consider before taking any sort of responsive action is to assess the scene. This allows you to understand what's going on, who's involved, and other specifics to help you decide how to best approach the abusive customer. Let's go over some questions that you can use as a guide to get started. What is the situation? Ask yourself, why is the customer upset? Is the customer just being difficult or are they acting in a way that could be considered abusive? How safe do you feel in this situation? Is the customer's complaint something that you can resolve easily? And is the customer's behavior disturbing others? Another important aspect of any negative customer interaction is knowing what your job is and how much authority you have in a particular situation. This is important to know for two reasons. To gauge your ability or authority to solve the issue that originally incited the customer's anger, and to know who you need to report to if you begin to feel unsafe or cannot solve the problem yourself. It's possible that the customer's complaint falls entirely within your scope of responsibility. If this is the case, it's probably up to you alone to deescalate the situation and attempt to resolve the customer's issue. If the problem is out of your control, you may have to contact a supervisor. It's important to know where to go for help ahead of time in case you find yourself in a position where you feel unsafe. If you were working alone, make sure you know how to reach your manager or the local authorities. Another important thing to assess is the specific context of the situation, because certain circumstances may determine how best to respond. Here are some examples of context that could be important in a customer interaction. Under staffing and other inconveniences. Often, a customer will become angry because there are long wait time, equipment is broken, or a product is out of stock. These are mostly unexpected occurrences that are often out of staff members control. Expect customers to be disappointed and apologize for the inconvenience. Holidays and sales. Events like holidays and sales can be stressful, especially if you work in retail. Customers may be more stressed, aggressive, or may act entitled during these times. It helps to try your best to be understanding. Ask yourself what the company policy is when it comes to abusive customers. This may have been something you learned about during training or it could be in your employee handbook. A responsible company will have standards in place for how to resolve customer issues. It's best to follow these as closely as possible with one exception. If you feel that the stated company policy is failing to keep you safe, that may be reason enough to take a different approach. But generally, to avoid any repercussions, it's best to follow the policy your company laid out. By taking a moment to step back, think critically, and understand the context of the situation, you can ensure that you're making the right choice when responding to an abusive customer.

Beginner Provider : KnowledgeCity 6 Lessons · 16m in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Urdu, Chinese

Course Description

You can’t respond to every negative interaction in the same way. Careful assessment is required before responding to an abusive situation. But abusive interactions don’t end after you’ve assessed them. Once you understand a situation, you’ll need to know how to intervene. You can learn how to gauge abusive interactions and react accordingly by taking this course. In these lessons, you’ll explore how to assess and respond to abusive situations and how to identify whether a situation should be escalated or handled with empathy. You’ll also learn the best way to react in each circumstance, how to resolve abusive situations and the importance of following up with customers and supervisors.

What You'll Learn

Assess abusive situations before deciding how to respond
Show customers empathy when handling difficult interactions
Attempt to resolve conflicts and abusive situations
Identify when a situation should be escalated
Follow up with customers and supervisors after an incident

Key Takeaways

Careful assessment is required before responding to an abusive situation, since not every negative interaction can be handled the same way.
After assessing a situation, you need to know how to intervene and react appropriately.
Some situations should be escalated, while others should be handled with empathy.
Resolving abusive situations and following up with customers and supervisors are important parts of the process.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does this course cover?

This course covers how to assess and respond to abusive situations, how to identify whether a situation should be escalated or handled with empathy, the best way to react in each circumstance, how to resolve abusive situations, and the importance of following up with customers and supervisors.

What will I learn by the end of the course?

By the end, you will learn how to assess abusive situations, identify how to respond, and understand how to resolve conflicts.

What skills does this course help develop?

It helps develop skills in handling confrontation, ABA intervention, aggression replacement training, situation analysis, verbal and physical intervention, and case assessment.

What lessons are included?

The lessons are Assess the Scene, Show the Customer Empathy, Attempt Resolution, Know When to Escalate, Follow Up, and Test Your Knowledge.