Question

what strengths do you have personality wise to diffuse situations where a project stakeholer-with considerable interest is angry with you? How can you use those strengths to turn things around? How can you work directly with the stakeholder and through others to change direction? Think of an example in life where someone was mad at you and how you dealt with in such a way as both parties left the interaction feeling like understanding occured. Write a post describing the scenario and how you worked through it

Answer 1

In my views, 2 strengths which I feel can help in diffusing situations and pacifying an angry stakeholder are:

• Active listening: I feel active listening is the most important quality for a good company. Active listening helps in identifying the customer’s complaints, issues and inhibitions and accordingly come up with strategies and interventions. When a company or employee is actively listening to the customer, the customer feels valued and his anger subsides.
• Problem solving: The employee or the company must be a proactive problem solver. If an angry customer comes up with a problem or complaint, the employee must have the proactiveness to come up with quick solutions to solve the problem. This pacifies the customer and his relationship with the company enhances.

I used to work as a customer relationship manager in a bank. There was a customer who was a major client of the bank. One day the customer had come to bank and was shouting on the staff. I saw the confusion and came to address the customer. The customer was bad-mouthing and threatening to take the bank to courts. I tried to handle the customer. I took the customer to my cabin and offered him water and tea. Then I asked him to calmly discuss about the situation which he is angry about. The customer explained that $50000 was debited from his credit card without his knowledge as well as consent. I actively listened to the circumstances in which the transaction had happened. After the customer was done sharing the details, I asked the customer to first block the card from his banking app. Then I did some formalities and raised a critical ticket which helped in tracing the fraud transaction. I assured the customer that he would not have to face the brunt of a fraud transaction. I had pacified the customer and solved his tussle with the bank. My active listening and problem solving skills helped in solving this issue quite comprehensively.