Effective Communication In Health And Social Care

Effective Communication

Having effective communication skills is essential when processing customer complaints. Customers can be internal and external to an organisation–they can be people from a range of social, cultural or ethnic backgrounds and people with varying physical and mental abilities. Sometimes customers can appear unwell or emotionally distressed which may be the reason for their distress or anger.

Effective communication means:

Giving customers your full attention.

Actively listening to the customer.

Maintaining eye contact (for face-to-face interactions), except where eye contact may be culturally inappropriate.

Speaking clearly and concisely.

Using appropriate language and tone of voice.

Using clear written information/communication.

You need to show the ability to empathise with customers at their level when dealing with complaints and so remove any feeling that the complaint is annoying or that the customer is silly or stupid for raising the complaint.

Strategies for Neutralising a Difficult Situation

Some customers with complaints will become angry and abusive. Abusive customers can be verbally threatening, use foul language, be emotionally out of control and, in serious incidents, be physically threatening. In general terms, management experts suggest that the best course of action toward resolving customer conflict is to listen, stay in control, keep emotions at bay and use positive language. How you treat them while they are complaining will ultimately determine the outcome of the situation.

Responding to angry customers can eat up huge amounts of staff time and resources. Angry and difficult customers also elevate stress levels, reduce productivity and increase sick leave.

There are a number of strategies you can use to neutralise the situation and reduce your own stress.

Practice resolving customer complaints with your work mates to improve skills and confidence.

Work as a team to check knowledge of procedures and strategies for dealing with customer complaints.

Work with team members to develop questioning skills and listening skills to ensure your communication skills are effective.

Writing

When processing complaints you need to be aware of how these are to be done in accordance with your organisation’s policies and procedures and in compliance with legislation and industry codes of practice. This includes all codes of practice, applicable laws and your organisation’s policies and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). You need to be able to apply procedural processes effectively when deciding how the customer complaint will be resolved.

Complaints could be handled effectively by:

Having a policy of welcoming customer complaints.

Setting up a system to handle complaints effectively.

Training staff to handle complaints well.

Dealing with the complaints immediately.

Ensuring the process for making complaints is easy for customers.

Regularly Review Complaint