The importance of calm in these challenging times

We all know that it has been a tough time to be in business, with everyone dealing with the significant impacts of COVID-19. At last, we’re heading towards a new ‘normal’ now that the South Australian borders have reopened. And most encouragingly, business confidence is up according to our latest Business SA William Buck Survey of Business Expectations.

On a day to day basis, we’ve been working with SA Health to support businesses to comply with the COVID-19 requirements when it comes to masks and QR checks ins. The new ‘TTIQ’ risk assessment and management process can only be successful if we are getting testing (the first ‘T’), if we check in to enable the tracing of contacts (the second ‘T’), and that we isolate and quarantine under the right conditions (the final ‘I’ and ‘Q’). The reality is that wearing masks continues to be an effective way to reduce the spread amongst the community. These measures help manage the cases of COVID-19, which is critical if you are in business because it keeps your doors open.

We have seen across the entire global pandemic a real sense of community spirit here in South Australia. Unfortunately, what we are hearing from our members now at Business SA is this emerging concept of ‘covid-anger’. Poor customer behaviour is confronting our business owners and their frontline employees. While most of us are doing the right thing, some people are frustrated with the ongoing compliance requirements. ?This behaviour all makes sense given the uncertainty and fear of the unknown, especially with borders reopening.

As a former business owner, I can tell you that the best thing you can do right now is invest in training. To tackle this ‘covid-anger’, you can train your staff to understand critical de-escalation strategies. Anecdotally, we all know how vital non-verbal cues are in communication, such as your body language and the tone of your voice. While it isn’t an acceptable condition of employment for your staff to be treated poorly, it is invaluable to train them to understand how they’re presenting themselves to a customer.

So we’ve teamed up with SA Health to bring you a free introductory ‘dealing with challenging customers’ webinar. This webinar will highlight some of the most effective customer service strategies for you to implement in your workplace. We will explore the tools your staff need to deal with challenging customer behaviour and tactics to de-escalate conflict through understanding how behaviour, tone and body language can inflame or minimise a situation.

We will also hear from the SA Health compliance team, who have practical solutions to assist your business with being proactive and hopefully maximise the uptake of compliance by your customers.

Visit the webinars page on our website at www.business-sa.com. See you tomorrow, Wednesday 1 December 2021, 10.30am.