Looking for someone to help your team resolve customer complaints?
Not equipping your team with the skill sets and processes needed to effectively handle customer escalations can be incredibly damaging to your business. Lack of training in this area can not only hurt your customer retention and damage your company’s reputation, but it’s also a quick way to burn out your best employees, thus increasing employee turnover.
In our experience, de-escalation training is one of the most commonly overlooked elements of customer service training, despite being such an integral part of relationship management.
It's also important to note that we are operating in a post-Covid era when customer behavior is more assertive and aggressive than ever. This makes conflict resolution skill sets more impactful than ever.
Our De-escalation Training & Coaching Services target the following outcomes:
Proactive prevention of escalations
Faster resolution of escalations at the employee level to minimize the risk that customers with concerns will need to speak with management or escalate further to posting negative online reviews, charging back, etc.
Higher customer retention
Higher customer lifetime value, due to your team’s ability to resolve issues in a way that builds trust with customers and increases their loyalty to your brand
Improved brand reputation
Improved team efficiency
Improved employee satisfaction & retention
Improved internal communication skills & conflict resolution among teams
Our de-escalation & conflict resolution training, coaching & consulting services include:
Personalized team training & coaching on de-escalation and resolution tactics. Training sessions for new, incoming employees can be held monthly, quarterly, or recorded for future new hires. We provide a group or one-on-one format.
Training & coaching for leaders who receive 2nd-tier escalations from their team.
Real-time support & consulting for particularly difficult escalations.
Standardized phrasing & scripts created in your specific brand voice that employees can use for responding to common customer questions or concerns. (No need to make your employees reinvent the wheel for common concerns.)
Analysis of customer feedback (surveys, support tickets, online reviews, etc.) to help identify common customer concerns. Implementation of customer satisfaction surveys & reporting can be provided if those elements don’t already exist.
Analysis of company processes & communication to identify changes that can be implemented to PREVENT customer concerns.
Creation of employee or team contests and/or reward systems for exceptional performance in this area.
Recommendations for technological integrations that can run in the background, keeping tabs on customer satisfaction and proactively identifying concerns before they become an escalation.
Analysis or creation of customer loyalty programs. More on that here.
Why trust Orca Business Consulting with this very important aspect of your business?
You’ll work directly with our Founder & CEO, Rachel, who was the Chief Customer Officer for nine years for one of the nation’s fastest-growing marketing and technology companies. She personally created & ran the company’s de-escalation training program, which was based on the real-life expertise she had from taking thousands of escalations during her time in management. She has been recognized by several organizations over the years for her achievements in customer service and leadership spaces. Awards include:
Business Innovation Group’s 2021 Excellence in Customer Service Executive of the Year among national nominees
2021 Silver Stevie Award Winner amongst international nominees for Female Executive of the Year, Business Products
2018 Bronze Stevie Award Winner amongst international nominees for Female Executive of the Year, Computer Software
2017 Bronze Stevie Award Winner amongst international nominees for Female Exec of the Year, Business Products
The unique value and perspective Rachel brings is rooted in:
B2B Consulting Experience: Rachel has advised hundreds of small and medium businesses from many different industries on how they can better serve their customers.
Expertise as a De-escalation Trainer & Coach: Rachel’s experience and ability to provide resolve customer concerns led to her training every incoming customer-facing employee for one of the fastest-growing technology companies in the US over the last ten years. Thousands of customer-facing employees and leaders, ranging from account representatives to onboarding specialists, social media managers, and support representatives went through group training and/or one-on-one de-escalation coaching with Rachel.
Personal De-escalation Experience & Philosophy: During her time in customer service & leadership Rachel has handled thousands of escalations, yielding real-world expertise. She was lovingly given titles such as The Angry Client Whisperer and Lion Tamer by her team. Rachel credits her success in this area to her desire to genuinely help people and the perspective that every complaint is really a compliment. Communicating directly is a sign that customers respect or, at the very least, have confidence in your ability to address their complaints. If customers aren’t bringing their concerns directly to you, there is also no opportunity for you to resolve the issue. Therefore, every complaint should be viewed as an opportunity to increase customer loyalty and retention.
LET'S GET STARTED!
Whether it's resolving customer escalations or handling internal conflict, not having the skill set to effectively de-escalate a situation can be one of the most damaging inadequacies to have as an organization. It leads to negative impacts on your business' reputation and burns out employees, leading to high employee turnover which in turn negatively impacts customer retention. Let us help your team level up in this area!
RACHEL TAUGHT ME MORE ABOUT LEADERSHIP, PROFESSIONALISM, AND DE-ESCALATION THAN ANY OTHER ONE PERSON HAS TO DATE.
I had the pleasure of working with Rachel for over 7 years. Although she was a C title the entire time and I encompassed several roles, in every single position she was like an unofficial role model and mentor to me. Rachel is so approachable, she can make anyone feel right at home and comfortable, which is very valuable for quickly addressing tough situations.
Despite coming into the organization with years of leadership experience from the military, I have no doubt in my mind that Rachel taught me more about leadership, professionalism, and de-escalation than any other one person has to date. It seemed that whatever I came to Rachel with, big or small, she could give me direction in handling it with truly one of a kind perspective.
One of the things I loved the most was that she didn't just give me an answer or direction, but gave me a deeper understanding of the 'why' so I could grow with all of her coaching as well. These lessons are ones that I have worked on passing down to those below me and I have no doubt will continue to benefit the organization for years to come.
- Dustin B, Lead Marketing Success Manager
I LEARNED INVALUABLE SKILLS IN CLIENT RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT AND DE-ESCALATION TECHNIQUES
Rachel is among the most dedicated and skilled business professionals I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. She provided the customer service and de-escalation training for the last company I worked for. Over two years I learned invaluable skills in client relationship management and de-escalation techniques. She is a professional, confident leader who always puts the client and their needs first. With years of experience in managing marketing campaigns, she is never afraid to take an assertive approach to steering the marketing and branding strategy. Her experience is apparent in every training I’ve attended with her. I have worked in a variety of industries over the years, from TV news to public relations and marketing. I can confidently say that I would trust Rachel’s advice on any client strategy. I’ve also learned many valuable techniques for dealing with challenging situations with clients that have helped me to grow my career as a digital marketing and branding expert. I would highly recommend her to anyone who wants to take their business or career to the next level.
-Sarah M, Marketing and Public Relations Manager