Overview
The Handling difficult situations and customers course teaches you, in 2 days, to respond to complaints and to handle difficulties in order to recreate customer satisfaction, whether you are a front-line manager or in direct contact with customers.
The course is commissioned by your organisation, in-company and on quotation, from Excelia Business School's Executive Education Centre.
Why choose the Handling difficult situations and customers course?
An unhappy customer first poses a relationship problem, before posing a procedural one. That is why the course starts from customers' emotional expectations and from the emotional mechanisms of customer relations, so that you learn to respond to them rather than endure the tension.
It gives you communication tools to prevent conflicts or deal with them, and teaches you to recognise your communication style as well as that of customers, in order to move towards greater assertiveness.
You can take it with your colleagues
With no prerequisites, the course is open to all front-line managers as well as to all staff in direct contact with customers. Taken with your colleagues, it sends a whole department away with the same reflexes.
Two days to practise in realistic situations
These two days, or 14 hours face-to-face, follow an immersive theatrical approach: staged scenes, exercises, quizzes and a test make up a participatory and playful pedagogy. The practical exercises are led by a specialist guest lecturer and an actor. There, you play out delicate situations before having to face them, then you leave with concrete tools to strengthen your interpersonal ease and handle these situations. The detail of the pathway appears in the Curriculum tab.
The skills targeted
The course aims to:
- Identify and respond to customers' emotional expectations
- Understand and practise using the communication tools that make it possible to prevent conflicts or deal with them
- Know your communication style and identify those of customers in order to move towards greater assertiveness
It covers the relationship with customers, and that alone. Tensions within a team fall under the Resolving conflicts and asserting yourself at work course, just as sales stance falls under the Selling better and more course.
Curriculum
The Handling difficult situations and customers course takes place over 2 days, or 14 hours, face-to-face, and is delivered in-company.
How you learn
Over the 2 days, several methods combine to help you practise in realistic situations:
- A participatory and playful pedagogy
- Exercises
- Quizzes and a test
- Staged scenes
- An immersive theatrical approach to customer relations
- Practical exercises led by a specialist guest lecturer and an actor
Three sequences, from emotion to lasting satisfaction
The pathway is organised into three sequences: first the customer's emotion, then your communication style when faced with complaints, and finally the complaint that has become a lever for lasting satisfaction. Each sequence unfolds below.
The emotional mechanisms of customer relations
Explore the emotional mechanisms of customer relations, understand the importance of assertive communication and take part in concrete practical scenarios to prevent or defuse conflicts.
Understanding the customer's emotion helps to prevent conflict, and the practical scenarios teach you to defuse it.
Module titles
- The emotional mechanisms of customer relations
- Assertive communication
- Concrete practical scenarios
- Prevent or defuse conflicts
Communication style and complaint handling
Deepen your interpersonal skills by working on your communication style, complaint handling and the adaptation of your stance in the face of complex behaviours.
When faced with a customer with complex behaviour, you adjust your stance and your communication style.
Module titles
- Your communication style
- Complaint handling
- The adaptation of your stance in the face of complex behaviours
From complaint to a lever for satisfaction
You will learn to respond to customers' emotional expectations, to turn complaints into levers for lasting satisfaction and to strengthen your professional impact through practical exercises led by a specialist guest lecturer and an actor.
The complaint, read as an emotional expectation, becomes the starting point for lasting satisfaction.
Module titles
- Respond to customers' emotional expectations
- Turn complaints into levers for lasting satisfaction
- Strengthen your professional impact
Funding
The Handling difficult situations and customers course is delivered in-company, on quotation, for 2 days, or 14 hours, face-to-face.
How to fund it
Two schemes make it possible to fund it:
- The skills development plan, drawn on by your company
- An OPCO (skills operator), approached by your company
What your company gains from it
Trained teams know what to do with a complaint instead of enduring it: they respond to customers' emotional expectations rather than letting the tension rise, and leave with concrete tools to recreate customer satisfaction after an incident. Excelia Business School also offers tailor-made in-company training, pathways designed entirely around your organisation.
At Excelia Executive Education, we offer personalised support to help every profile — company, employee, self-employed person or public sector employee — to make their training projects a reality by drawing on the most suitable funding schemes.
FAQ
What does the theatrical approach of the Handling difficult situations and customers course bring?
The immersive theatrical approach works on customer relations in realistic situations, through staged scenes, exercises, quizzes and a test, within a participatory and playful pedagogy. The practical exercises are led by a specialist guest lecturer and an actor, to strengthen the professional impact of each participant.
Is the Handling difficult situations and customers course reserved for managers?
No. It is aimed at all front-line managers, but also at all staff in direct contact with customers, and no prerequisites are required.
How does the Handling difficult situations and customers course deal with complaints?
Complaint handling is one of the strands worked on, along with each person's communication style and the adaptation of stance in the face of complex behaviours. The challenge is to turn complaints into levers for lasting satisfaction.
Why work on assertiveness when facing a difficult customer?
When facing a difficult customer, assertiveness helps to prevent conflicts or deal with them: it means staying firm while respecting the person you are speaking with. Knowing your communication style and identifying the customer's makes it possible to move towards greater assertiveness. The Handling difficult situations and customers course makes its importance clear.
Does the Handling difficult situations and customers course also cover conflicts between colleagues?
No, it covers the relationship with customers. Tensions within a team fall under the Resolving conflicts and asserting yourself at work course.
Admissions
Target audience
- All front-line managers;
- All staff in direct contact with customers.
Prerequisites
- No prerequisites required.
