This bite size training covers some skills and tactics for difficult situations you may come across on reception – for example upset clients, and clients who are unhappy with the service.
It should take less than 30 minutes to work through on screen.
99% of clients present no problem for reception workers, but it is easy to be thrown when you first get a client who is angry or upset or difficult to understand.
In this session we have taken some situations that you might meet and drawn on suggestions from reception workers on how to deal with them. The issues mainly apply to face to face reception, but some of the techniques are appropriate for telephone reception.
There are four essentials that underpin dealing with problematic situations.
99% of clients present no problem for reception workers, but it is easy to be thrown when you first get a client who is angry or upset or difficult to understand.
In this session we have taken some situations that you might meet and drawn on suggestions from reception workers on how to deal with them. The issues mainly apply to face to face reception, but some of the techniques are appropriate for telephone reception.
There are four essentials that underpin dealing with problematic situations.
You always need to show understanding towards clients and remember the kind of situations that have resulted them in coming to your agency. This was covered in the bite size ‘Understanding clients’.
Knowing what the purpose of your role is helps you understand what you need to achieve in any difficult situation. You are not on your own, you are part of a team, so don’t feel that you always have to resolve problems without help.
It is very helpful to have a clear policy framework and clear procedures to work within. This also includes when you should talk to your supervisor about making an exception to a policy or rule.
If you feel some policies or procedures are missing, talk to other reception workers and raise the issue with your supervisor (but don’t be surprised if they ask you to suggest the new procedures!)
Reception is a professional role and you need a degree of detachment for it.
Angry clients may appear to be angry with you, but in reality they are angry about their situation and what they feel has been done to them.
Distressed clients can be upsetting, but you have to find the best way of helping them get through their feelings, so they can get the service they need.
You sometimes need to be assertive. You are ‘in charge’ of the reception process and if clients want to get advice, they have to go through agreed processes. These processes have a purpose and are not designed to frustrate clients’ needs.
A client starts to explain with a shaky voice that his partner has had an accident at work and then he stops and starts to cry.
What can you do?
If the client’s emotional state is unsettling other people in the waiting area, you may want to consider asking your supervisor if they can be seen quickly. Many agencies have a system of alerting advisers that a client is in a very upset state.
You may very occasionally find it difficult to understand some clients. This may be to do with a speech impairment or a lack of fluency in English. An example:
The client has some kind of problem with money, but because of her strong accent, you cannot identify why she has come to your agency.
What can you do?
If it is still impossible to understand the client, you may need to ask them to wait and ask your supervisor how to handle the situation.
Some clients may find it difficult to understand you. This may be to do with a hearing impairment of a lack of fluency in English. An example:
The client is clearly not fluent in English and is having great difficulty in understanding what you are saying about the procedure for getting advice from your agency.
What can you do?
Complaints from clients are rare. When they occur your aim should be to acknowledge the problem and try to resolve it wherever you can. You want the client to go away feeling that they have been listened to and dealt with fairly.
Be careful not to react defensively to clients who complain; they don’t always express their feelings in the most diplomatic way! There are four ways of responding to clients with complaints.
Even if you think the client is being less than reasonable it costs nothing to apologise, and sometimes that is all that people want. You can say something like:
“I am sorry that you feel we didn’t ….”
Be careful about detailed explanations why something did or didn’t happen – it can just come over as making excuses – by and large people are not interested in why they got a bad service, they just want an apology or something sorting out.
Ask the client to explain the problem, listen to what they are saying (remember your active listening skills), ask questions and make notes. Check that you have understood the problem.
If you can provide the client with what they want (and it is within your role) it is an ideal outcome. It may be that you can’t resolve it there and then, but you may be able to promise action later in the day (only do this if you know it is possible).
If you feel that you are getting out of your depth or the client is becoming irritable, tell the client that you need to talk to your supervisor about the issue and leave the reception area.
It may be that in view of previous mistakes, the client needs to fast track the system and be seen straight away, but your supervisor would have to make this decision.
You can invite the client to make their complaint through your agency’s complaints procedure.
The client may want to make their complaint straight away in writing or verbally. If this happens, check with your supervisor, as the client may need somewhere confidential to make the complaint.
If you have a leaflet about the complaints procedure, give this to the client for information.
Angry clients are uncommon, but they can be unsettling when you have to deal with them. A client’s journey to your agency may have involved several frustrating encounters with other agencies, so they may not be in a positive frame of mind!
Techniques for defusing anger
If the defusing techniques don’t work, you are not expected to put up with what amounts to aggressive behaviour. In this situation, you might adopt a more challenging approach.
If the client cannot or will not calm down you are unable to conduct a sensible dialogue, so you can indicate to the client that the dialogue will stop if they don’t get control.
If you feel at all threatened, you should press the panic button or leave to go and get help. Hopefully safety issues will have been covered as part of your induction programme.
Most clients behave well, but you might experience clients who make offensive remarks or whose behaviour upsets other people waiting.
By ‘challenge’ we do not mean starting an out and out argument or conflict in the waiting room, we mean calmly making it clear that the client’s behaviour is not considered acceptable by your agency.
Your waiting room may have a poster that makes it clear that aggressive or discriminatory behaviour will not be tolerated. This is a useful tool because you can point it out to the client.
If the client’s behaviour is clearly unsettling waiting clients, you have to intervene, but sometimes it is less clear.
What do you think the implications are if you say nothing in the following situation?
A client makes a derogatory remark about Polish people taking over the country – loud enough for other waiting clients to hear.
If you say nothing, you are tacitly agreeing with what the client has said and ‘giving them permission’ to go on saying it.
This could make the waiting room atmosphere uncomfortable for everyone, especially if there are clients of Polish origin who are waiting.
The client may also take your silence as agreement and feel that they have your (and your agency’s) backing for their views – “That lady at the advice place, she didn’t say anything but I could tell she agreed with me – well they must see it all the time…”
By challenging in a constructive way you can make your agency’s position clear, and maybe even get the client thinking. You could say something very simple like:
“Actually, most of the Polish people we see are doing badly paid jobs that local people don’t want.”
Every agency has its regular clients. Some come back regularly because they have a lot of problems or who don’t understand official letters for one reason or another.
Others may come in for the warmth or for company or because they still have an unsolvable problem. Your colleagues will probably alert you to clients like this.
Although you have to manage the space in the waiting area and protect advisers’ time, the regular client may have a new problem that does need dealing with so you should always listen to what they have to say.
You should always give a ‘regular’ a chance to say why they have come (again), but if there seems to be nothing new, you can then finish the exchange.
Occasionally you get clients who have seen an adviser and the issue has been dealt with, but they seem reluctant to leave.
Where this happens, check if the client needs anything else or ask if they are waiting for anything.
It may sound rude, but sometimes you have to ask people to leave, especially if the agency is busy and there is pressure on space in the waiting area.
Here are some examples of phrases to use when you want a ‘regular’ or ‘stayer’ to leave – What do you think of them?
1. “You’ve been in a lot of times, and there are other people wanting to get advice.”
2. “You’ve been in several times about this, and we cannot do anymore. It is OK for you to come in again if you have another problem, but not about this. We need you to leave now. Goodbye.”
3. “I’m afraid that there is nothing that we can do. Please come in again if you have something else that we can help you with.”
4. “It’s really nice to see you again. I’m afraid that we are really busy at the moment. I think we’ve already discussed this issue as much as we can – if anything changes do come in again. Thanks for calling in.”
1. This one makes the point, but is very abrupt, disrespectful and will probably not maintain a good relationship with the client.
2. This is better than the previous one, but is still a little abrupt. You may be able to use this if you have a gentle tone of voice and have a good relationship with the client.
3. This phrase would be OK to use.
4. Possibly a little insincere, but makes the point in a clear but gentle manner. It may be better to use this without the first sentence.
If you have the time, then recognise that some clients are lonely, so do need to talk and use your agency as a place where they can come and have human contact.
That’s the end of this bite size training. We hope you found it useful.
The other bite size training in this series include:
