Page 80 - Effective Communication Skills by Dalton Kehoe

feedback to show understanding. Remember to allow the person to
speak without interruption. Then acknowledge the customer’s concerns
(e.g., “I understand that you’ve been extremely inconvenienced by this
delay”), give a blameless apology (e.g., “I’m very sorry this happened”)
and acknowledge his or her truth. Ask open-ended questions (who, what,
where, when, how, and how much) to fully understand the problem, and
then come up with a way to solve it.

2. Again in a customer service scenario, what should you do when the
customer escalates the situation? Usually after a couple of rounds of
“repeat as needed,” the customer ¿nally hears your offer of a solution.

However, in a very few cases, the customer seems to think that he
will somehow get more by yelling or swearing. Here is a three-tier
termination process you can use to avoid further escalation. When the
customer starts to lose it, begin with tier 1: “I really want to help you,
but I can’t do that if raise your voice (or swear at me).” Say this in your
Lecture 23: Dialogue and Appreciation—Engaged Employees
calm, well-modulated adult voice, and the customer may calm him- or
herself. However, if the customer raises his or her voice again, go to
tier 2: “As I said before, I want to help you, but raising your voice (or

swearing at me) makes it dif¿cult for me to help. If you continue, I’ll
have to call my supervisor.” If he or she continues to yell, go to tier
3: “I have said twice now that I can’t have you raising your voice (or
swearing at me). I’m going to call my supervisor. Please wait, and I’ll
be right back.” This is a no-surprise, dialogue talk way of asking for
change, repeatedly describing the consequences if the person doesn’t
change, and smoothly handing off the situation when he or she won’t.
And if you’ve discussed this previously with your supervisor, he or she
will know exactly what’s happened when you forward the call and say,
“This is a tier 3 call.”

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