Conflict Resolution Skills: Customer Service Training Series, #3

By Kimberly Peters

Conflict is a part of life and it often plays a major role in business as well. No matter how hard you might try, you will never eliminate all conflict.

But conflict in itself is not always bad. In fact, many customers have become customers for life because of how a conflict or problem was handled by the business or individual.

Conflict Resolution Skills will give you the information and skills you need to resolve conflicts quickly and easily and help you create customers for life.

The Customer Service Training Institute has been creating Customer Service Training manuals and materials for over 25 years and their manuals have been used by individuals and businesses of all sizes.

Their manuals are easy and enjoyable to read and require no specialized knowledge or background. Let us put our experience and expertise to work for you!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kimberly Peters
• Release date: Jul 23, 2015
• ISBN: 9781516354016

Book preview

Table of Contents

Conflict Resolution!

Knowledge is King!

Why You Can’t Eliminate All Conflict

What Causes Conflicts?

Possible Restrictions Placed on People

Diffuse Don't Abuse!

Resolving Conflicts

Avoiding or Minimizing a Conflict

Choosing Your Words and Approach

Deflecting Blame and Being Non-Confrontational

Is Conflict Always Bad?

Knowing Your Limitations

When Your Can’t Resolve A Conflict

You Have To Believe!

Making Conflict Personal

You are NOT Paid to Take Abuse!

Dealing With Your Emotional Baggage

Encouraging Free Thinking

Learning to be Pro-Active

Legal Issues

Conclusion

Conflict Resolution!

A conflict occurs when two or more people disagree on how to resolve a situation or problem.

It is important to understand that everyone can agree that there is a problem, have a sincere desire to resolve the problem, and still have a conflict.

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It's been a great day at work! You've sold a lot of product, caught up on some long overdue paperwork or inventory, and your phone rings. You answer it and begin a conversation with the Customer from hell! For the next few minutes you are assaulted with a barrage of negative comments about your company, your products, and maybe a personal comment or two thrown in. How do you react to this situation?

Maybe it's not over the phone. Maybe the customer is standing right in front of you! What do you do? What is your first reaction? Do you get involved or do you try and deflect the person to someone else? If you do get involved, what should your first step be?

These questions, and many others, will be discussed in these pages. We will talk about what a conflict is, how it begins, and some effective techniques on how to deal with them. We will explore different factors that contribute to the intensity of conflicts and other factors that will tend to minimize or reduce the magnitude of the conflict. Before we get into that, we need to understand just what a conflict is.

A conflict occurs when two or more people cannot agree on a particular course of action. There does not need to be opposing viewpoints or lack of cooperation in order to have a conflict. Both parties can have a sincere desire to resolve a situation but differ on the particular course of action that should be taken

Very few situations have only one solution. In most cases there can be several appropriate resolutions to a particular problem. A conflict can occur when you want to choose resolution A, and the other party demands resolution B.  For example, a customer has a defective product. The defect is reported to the company. The company wants to repair the product but the customer wants to have the product replaced.

Note that both parties wish to resolve the problem. They agree that the problem is real. They agree that action must be taken. They agree on who will take the action. They do not agree on the particular action to be taken. No one is working against solving the problem or avoiding responsibility. No one is being adversarial. No one is trying to shift blame. Yet, there is a conflict.

Conflict Resolution is also an exercise in human psychology.  In order to be successful at resolving conflict, we must have the ability and desire to get to the root of the problem. This is done by determining what emotional issues have become part of the problem and dealing with them first. The ability to separate the emotions from the problem is a key element of conflict resolution.

Knowledge is King!

When dealing with a conflict, your success or failure will often hinge on the information you have available to you. This information may take the form of experience, specific education or product skills, and interpersonal skills. The information you give to the people involved in the conflict must be accurate and appropriate for the situation.

Think about that. The only way you can successfully resolve a conflict is to make absolutely certain that the information you present to the other party is accurate and appropriate. By accurate we mean that the information is true and factual. It should not be based on a guess or a generality. Every attempt must be made to provide correct information.

Appropriate information means that the information you provide to the other party must pertain to the problem at hand. For example, if a person has a problem with the headlights on their car, you should not give them information on how the horn is connected! Any information