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VERBAL DE-ESCALATION

Client Communications

Addressing violations while preserving client relations

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How to have challenging conversations with clients to de-escalate, gain their cooperation, and ensure everyone's safety and that they have a satisfied guest experience to keep them coming back to your organization.

Why De-Escalation Training?

Words can get you fired, sued, or hurt. This may seem like a bold statement but our communication is directly related to our success and our personal safety, so learning how to communicate effectively in challenging situations is vital.

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  • How do you say "no" to a client without escalating them?

  • How do you ask them to stop breaking a policy without further agitating them?

  • How do you get their cooperation while maintaining a good relationship with them?

 

In this day and age, it doesn't take much for the average person to get escalated. Mental health episodes and impairment add an additional level of unpredictability and potential risk to the situation. The world has less and less patience, and demands more and more from your organization. But sometimes you can't give them what they want because it breaks a corporate policy. Or perhaps they have broken a corporate policy, bylaw or law, and you need to have a conversation with them to change their behaviour, especially if it's jeopardizing the safety of staff, other clients or assets. So, how do you de-escalate the situation and come to a resolution if they’re starting to be or are already escalated? This course covers exactly how to handle these scenarios tactfully, in a way that encourages good relationships and ensures a satisfied guest experience, to keep them coming back to your organization.

 

This course has been proven to reduce the number of incidents

that end up escalating out of control

while keeping patrons satisfied with their guest experience.

Course Contents

This program has been specially designed to equip those working in a customer-facing role to understand the mindset, physical positioning, and communication framework to have a kind but firm conversation to get buy-in and cooperation from your client. It begins with recognizing your current skill level, understanding our own triggers and how to de-escalate ourselves through self-regulation. It touches on the basics of situational awareness to recognize and address agitated behaviour as early as possible, as well as basic self-defence concepts to stay physically safe. Build confidence by role-playing with real scenarios and immersion-based learning.

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This courses teaches:

  • Self-awareness of current communication skillsets

  • Understanding how stress and fear affects you physically and mentally

  • Maintaining self-control under stress and fear (self-regulation)

  • Customer service mindset and building rapport

  • De-escalation techniques

  • Understanding and explaining the different types of rules or laws that may be broken at your workplace

  • Understanding what you can, can't and are obligated to do in various situations

  • Recognition of threat indicators

  • Escalation factors

  • Physical positioning with the client

  • Tools to limit assaultive subject behavior, including basic self-defence (distance, hands, basic blocks)

  • Framework for addressing the issue to gain the most cooperation

  • Incident management from beginning to end of incident

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"I have figured out how today was so different from every other training session on difficult customers. Having someone watch how you handle situations and inadvertently escalate is an invaluable tool. For the first time I feel that I can enter a negative situation with a framework and tools to get what I need from customers with minimal pushback. There is such a difference between theory and practice and this was the perfect balance. This is what our staff have been asking for. Thank you."

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- Rebecca W.

About the Course

This exclusive Tip of Spear course has been developed from decades of personal experiences from numerous professionals in many different environments such as: healthcare, corrections, corporate, special events, hospitality, in military, peace officer and security roles. This course is unique compared to other communications courses in that it take a holistic view of communication (mental, physical, verbal, paraverbal), and reinforces the concept of gaining cooperation with a customer service and human perspective in mind. This is one of our top-requested courses from our corporate clients and all have seen huge improvements in their staff's ability to deal with difficult clients.

 

We have several instructors who teach this course. They are current and former peace officers, security staff or customer service experts who have worked in a wide variety of functions and roles over decades.

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Exclusive corporate classes are also available by request. Please contact us for more information.

Register or Request

Duration: 16 hours
Tuition: $199 + GST
Certification: Issued by Tip of Spear, valid for 2 years

Register for the waiting list below to be notified when Tip of Spear opens registration for an "open class".
Exclusive corporate classes are also available by request. Please contact us for more information.

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