Difficult clients

Re: Difficult clients

Nichola Healey — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 19:42:07 GMT

I always encourage people to wire stuff down as soon as they can so the incident is recorded while the memory is fresh. Just in case.....

Re: Difficult clients

Charlotte K — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 13:51:48 GMT

OK thanks for your inputs guys. Best to get everyone at work together I think

Re: Difficult clients

Sal the 1st — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 02:41:40 GMT

my experience has been that it is absolutely pointless allowing a disgruntled client to wind you up - it just feeds their attitude. The fastest way to diffuse a verbal assault for me is to keep my voice clear, low and slow ( dont mumble) that way they have to lower their voice to hear what you are saying, to let them say all they need to say and get it off their chest with minimal interruption BUT away from the main waiting area where they aren't playing to an audience- if it means taking them into a consult room/ office then so be it and if you dont feel safe alone then take another member of staff with you ( which may also help if you need a witness at a later date). Encourage them to sit down if you can, it really helps. Recognise that high volume, high speed interactions are pretty stressful to both sides so take the lead and take some of the heat away, drop the volume and slow the delivery. At the end of the day you are dealing with a MOP who is probably very worried about their pet or their ability to be able to pay the bill or both, dont take it personally. Concern has a strange way of showing itself sometimes. All of this of course is dependant on your particular practice policy.

Re: Difficult clients

Ems — Thu, 10 Jul 2014 22:58:47 GMT

I work at an OOH triage clinic and I know that if they become abusive over the phone your legally allowed to terminate the call. I'm with Sal though, when it's face-to-face abuse I'm not sure where we stand. I've experienced a lot of this in the past and it's quite frustrating, I'm always scared of saying too much or the wrong thing and getting myself into trouble. Luckily I've never experienced physical abusive as I would really have no idea what to do in this situation except defend myself!

Re: Difficult clients

Sal the 1st — Thu, 10 Jul 2014 09:02:43 GMT

unless its physical abuse its pretty much down to practice policy - maybe discussing it with people you work with and between you come up with a way of handling the situation differently will help prevent it happening again in future?