GREAT empathy – How to challenge with empathy

An interactive half-day, face-to-face workshop or a 90-minute virtual session

There are times when your people will need to challenge their customer, not in a rude or disrespectful way, but in a way that helps the customer see a situation in a different light. This session will help your people to challenge with tact and with empathy, protecting the relationship with their customer.

How will it help?

This workshop will help your people to:

  • Describe the balance between courage and consideration, with the focus on remaining empathic
  • Apply a strategy for empathic challenge, helping the customer see a new perspective
  • Show their customers they are acting in their best interests

Who should attend?

Anyone in a customer-facing role who has attended the GREAT customer service workshop.

What happens in it?

A highly interactive and practical session, using real scenarios relevant to your people in their role. Your people will learn three key strategies that will help them to challenge customers in an empathic and tactful way, and have the opportunity to practise the strategies in the context of their everyday customer interactions.

How’s it delivered?

Option 1 – Face-to-face
A half-day session for a group of up to 12. The session is approximately 3-hours and each participant will receive a printed take-away summarising the three strategies.

Option 2 – Virtual
A 90-minute session for a group of up to 12. The virtual option is just as interactive and each participant will receive a PDF take-away summarising the three strategies.

Session outline

This is the overview for the half-day, face-to-face session. Timings are approximate and will flex depending on the needs of the group. Virtual delivery follows the same content and sequence but with different timings and excludes the additional practise section.

1 Welcome to GREAT empathy (35 mins)

  • What will you learn? Session overview and objectives
  • Activity: Getting pushy – an insight into assertiveness
  • When might you need to challenge a customer in an empathic way?

2 Three strategies (90 mins)

  • Strike the balance – courage and consideration
    • The Courage vs Consideration model
    • Activity: Aggression, Passive aggression, Passive, Assertive – what each looks like in customer interactions and the impact each has
  • Reveal a new perspective
    • Three simple steps to challenging with empathy
    • Activity: Challenge with empathy
  • Warmth + Competence = Trust
    • A reminder of the Trust formula
    • Activity: Building trust

BREAK (10 mins)

3 Practise (F2F only – 30 minutes)

  • Activity: Practise in pairs – apply your learning in situations that you face every day

4 Action plan and close (15 mins)

  • Reflect and prepare actions
  • Activity: surprise!
  • Close

To check that this is the right programme for you, just give us a call on 01582 463464 and we’ll be happy to talk it through with you – we’re here to help!