This morning Ava was interviwed by Sarah Gillman on ABC Hobart radio for her expertise on what companies need to do in order to better manage angry customers and improve their customer service.
Whilst customer service is becoming increasingly important in these competitive times, call centre employees are often at the receiving end of intense anger from customers and companies are not sure how to deal with this. There is an increasing trend of call centre employees resigning from their jobs or asking to reduce their working days due to stress.
Ava recommends that what companies need to do is value their employees, identify and build on their strengths, and offer them more customer service training and more regular breaks, as well as counselling services when required. Training should include the use of empathy to help defuse angry customers, appropriate tone of voice, and the words that are used. Ava has found in working with her clients in both call centres, government organisations, and small to medium business, that when employees receive the appropriate upskilling from their company they become more confident and experience less angry customers.
It can pay more than it costs to contract an external consultant to deliver training, as often the team leaders have not been not skilled to coach or train their staff effectively. She says that happy employees result in happy customers, reduced stress and increased productivity.
