Staff Empowerment Keeping Our Staff and Customers Safe – West Sussex

The training included staff dealing with customers on a regular basis that have very complex situations around registrar bookings or bereavement, those working in libraries and across wider services.

Training covered the following areas:

• Customer Service – what is good customer service?
• Managing Aggressive members of the public - how?
• Knowing your boundaries and responsibilities - i.e. it is OK to phone the police
• Assertiveness
• Saying No effectively
• What is unacceptable behaviour?
• If staff are working alone/managing a smaller site how do you handle difficult customers i.e. Customer with Autism / Asperger Syndrome
• Recognise different stages of conflict escalation
• Recognise the signs of conflict and aggression
• Maintain composure when responding to conflict and aggression
• Use skills to manage their words, phrases and body language
• Demonstrate skills to stay calm and manage angry customer behaviour
• Structuring and controlling the conversation
• Listening and calming the situation
• Acknowledging difficulties and customer emotions
• Managing unpredictability (drugs, alcohol, mental illness, etc.)
• Handling abusive behaviour
• Solving the problem