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If you are in the health or medical sectors, you know that the issues of conflict, arguments, hostility and cooperation are major factors in your work environment. In fact the medical sector is one of the most difficult because of two reasons. First, stress levels are often high...mistakes are serious and speed is often, literally, life. That increases the chances of friction occurring among staff.

Second clientele involved in the health sector are often not at their best. Most people are interacting with health systems because they are ill or have major difficulties. The same with their families and friends. We know that the more difficult the situation, the more likely it is that clients, clientele, etc will exhibit hostile behavior. Often that behavior on the part of patients or family makes it more difficult to help in a time of great difficulty.

It's not fun. The more time you spend dealing with conflict and hostility at work, the less time is available to truly help people in need.
And, for those of you who work in non-publicly funded health systems, you know that customer service IS an issue even the health and medical sectors.

Dealing with this challenges is difficult, whether you are involved in direct patient care in hospitals, working with families of people who are ill, involved in the prescription drug industry, or involved in the care of the elderly. It takes commitment and effort. But it also takes:
 

• staff skilled in conflict prevention with clients and customers
• staff skilled in "recovery" what you do when things go wrong with service (complaints)
• staff who don't waste time in internal squabbling and conflict with coworkers
• teamwork

Conflict Prevention With Clients and Customers 

Many staff (people) communicate with customers in ways that put them off. It's not that they do it intentionally--they just use language in ways that offend people or throw gasoline on the fire. In some cases, staff can create customer problems when none exist. Imagine the effect of the health care worker who responds to a complaint by saying "Sorry,  Sir, there is nothing I can do, you'll have to wait for the doctor", and then walks away. Heck, it's polite, it may even be accurate, but it's more than likely that approach is going to end up costing people time if the patient gets difficult. And now there's a problem that could have been avoided with proper handling -- with the use of what we call COOPERATIVE COMMUNICATION. 

Through our book, Conflict Prevention In the Workplace we teach people the difference between language that causes confrontations and language that encourages cooperation, either with customers or co-workers. 

We also design and deliver custom-designed seminars on this topic. No canned stuff. We teach people the use of conflict prevention techniques using examples from THEIR workplace and company. We can do that in various time spans--half-day, 1 day or two day, depending on needs. For details call us at (204) 888-9290. 

What's the bottom line with conflict prevention? With respect to customers, it SAVES time because it prevents escalation of conflict, disagreement, etc. It saves stress, by keeping things in control. Everybody wins. Customers feel they are being treated well, and come back. Oh, and managers don't have to get involved as often with customer disputes. 

Recovery - When Things Get Buggered UP 

It's impossible to get things perfect. Stuff happens...mistakes get made. What KEEPS customers from giving up on you is how your staff and company recovers, or treats the angry customer when there is a problem. How  do your staff deal with an angry customer? Are they defensive (that's big trouble)? Do they get aggressive (kiss your customer goodbye)? Are they helpful and supportive? Do they know what to do and say even if they CAN'T fix the customers problem? 

They'd better be able to do this right. 

How can we help.? First we can design and deliver custom-designed seminars on defusing hostile customers. We do it your way, consistent with your company policies. Send us email for more information at rbacal@escape.ca 

We have produces several books and workbooks on defusing hostile customers (see left hand side of this page). At the moment we don't have a version for the health care sector sector, but may do one in the future. However, the principles are the same. 

Bottom Line: We teach you and staff how to deal with the difficult, the ornery, the offended, the angry, and the manipulative customer . 

Teamwork & Internal Conflict Among Personnel 

Still with us? It's impossible to provide effective customer service if staff don't work in concert and in harmony. They need to be harnessed and pulling in the same direction, not in different ones. And, yes, there's an art to it, and people can learn to handle internal conflict much more effectively, and to prevent it from occurring in the first place. 

We can consult with you to create a plan to help staff work together. We can work with you to teach those "ole" conflict prevention techniques. Or we can provide multiple copies of Conflict Prevention In The Workplace at a significant discount. 

Enough Already! 

OK. I could go on and on and you have better things to do than read more. Here's the summary: 

We provide training, publications and do motivational speaking on the subject of conflict, communication and customer service for the health and medical sectors.

Contact us by email at rbacal@escape.ca, by phone at (204) 888-9290 or fax at (204) 888-2056