Changing Gears

Strengthening Support for Vulnerable Members

Aligned with ASIC Report 806, 'Superannuation Complaints: Resolving issues for members', this 12 month training program has been designed to upskill superannuation teams to support vulnerable members - especially around communication, empathy, and fair complaint resolution. This structured, plug-and-play program addresses every soft skill gap raised in the report. 

Write your awesome label here.
Month 1

Month 2

Month 3

Month 4

Month 5

Month 6

Managing Your Mindset

ASIC PAIN POINT:
 • Dismissing queries and failing to return calls can contribute to members feeling unheard.
 
LEARNING OUTCOMES ADDRESSED:
• Helps staff reduce biases and manage frustration.
• Builds an empathetic workplace culture to improve customer interactions.
Write your awesome label here.

1.  Ego, Judgement and Frustration - mindsets that get in the way 

Write your awesome label here.

2.  The Cobra customer - How to deal with an angry customer

Write your awesome label here.

3.   Internal Curiosity - how to sidestep your ego, judgement & frustration

Write your awesome label here.

4.  Dumping your potatoes - how complaining becomes part of team culture

Active Listening & Engagement

ASIC PAIN POINT:
• Lack of human connection and poor communication skills contribute to members feeling judged and unheard.

LEARNING OUTCOMES ADDRESSED:
• Teaches trust building strategies and how to overcome unconscious biases.

Write your awesome label here.

1.   Connect With Your Customer – How to build trust and likeability

Write your awesome label here.

2.   Acknowledging Customer Effort – Know how to say thank you


Write your awesome label here.

3.   Pre-judging the Customer – The psychology behind why we do it


Write your awesome label here.

4.   Stranger Danger – Customers are ready for battle

Write your awesome label here.

5.   Humanising the ID Process – How to appeal to customers

Empowering Staff Through Language

ASIC PAIN POINT:
• Rigid processes and language that distances customers from support.

LEARNING OUTCOMES ADDRESSED:
• Encourages respectful and concise communication to build trust and cooperation.
Write your awesome label here.

1.  Avoiding accountability – Passively and actively

Write your awesome label here.

2.  T’s and C’s – Why no-one reads them

Write your awesome label here.

3.  Blaming Others – Why it is a problem

Write your awesome label here.

4. Neutral Language – You, me and blame

Write your awesome label here.

5.  Overtalking – Don’t steamroll your customers

Write your awesome label here.
6. Chicken Salt – Season your language

Supporting Vulnerable Members 

ASIC PAIN POINT:
• Vulnerable customers often face barriers to accessing support due to poor communication and rigid processes.

LEARNING OUTCOMES ADDRESSED:
• Encourages respectful and concise communication to build trust and cooperation.
Write your awesome label here.

1.   Flipping Your Lid - How to stay in control

Write your awesome label here.

2.   Top Tips – When working with vulnerable customers

Write your awesome label here.

3.   Vulnerability Call Breakdown – Spot the triggers

Write your awesome label here.

4.   Ask Izzy - A support tool for your customers

Vulnerability Awareness

ASIC PAIN POINT:
• Customers who are financially distressed or vulnerable.

LEARNING OUTCOMES ADDRESSED:
• Teaches staff to adapt communication to meet the needs of vulnerable customers.

Write your awesome label here.

1.   What is Vulnerability? – To be human is to be vulnerable

Write your awesome label here.

2. The Customer’s Backpack – What can impact a conversation

Write your awesome label here.

3.  Customers with Poor Mental Health – How can we adapt 

Write your awesome label here.

4.   Customers with a Disability – How can we adapt?
Write your awesome label here.

5.   Low Literacy in Australia – How it can impact our customer
Write your awesome label here.

6.  Low Literacy Levels – How to adjust your conversation

Language Carries Energy 

ASIC PAIN POINT:

• Customers struggle with complex language and processes.

LEARNING OUTCOMES ADDRESSED:
• Promotes respectful and clear communication to reduce customer frustration.


Write your awesome label here.

1.   Dirty Words – Using words customers don’t understand

Write your awesome label here.

2. Impact of Dirty Words – How it can make someone feel stupid

Write your awesome label here.

3.  Internal Language – How it creates a power imbalance 

Write your awesome label here.

4.   Negative Language – Put it in the bin
Write your awesome label here.

5.  Language Thermometer – Finding the balance with customers

Write your awesome label here.

6.  Our Go-To’s – Language that gets us in trouble

Month 7

Month 8

Month 9

Month 10

Month 11

Month 12

Engaging Through Your Keyboard

ASIC PAIN POINT:
 • Lack of compassion shown in communications with customers.
 
LEARNING OUTCOMES ADDRESSED:
• How to plan and structure an email to a customer, stakeholder and manager.
• Learn to use plain English in writing and humanise your email when respond to ‘challenging’ emails.
• Work through the top 10 clangers.
Write your awesome label here.

1. Uncovering the Issue – Why framing is important

Write your awesome label here.

2. Collections Conversations – The Art of questioning techniques

Write your awesome label here.

3.  Negotiations – Understanding the payment hierarchy

Write your awesome label here.

4. Collections Questions Menu – Choosing the questions that best fit the scenario

Complaint Handling

ASIC PAIN POINT:

• Gaps in complaint resolution, including poor communication and a lack of empathy.

LEARNING OUTCOMES ADDRESSED:
• Equips staff with tools to manage complaints and de-escalate emotional situations.


Write your awesome label here.

1.  7 Spices of Complaint Handling – Steps to handle customer complaints

Write your awesome label here.

2.  Handling the Emotional Customer – Which spices are best to use?


Write your awesome label here.

3.  Handling the Customer Who Blames – Which spices are best to use?


Write your awesome label here.

4. If You Continue the Language - There are better strategies than terminating the call

Write your awesome label here.

5.  The Reset Technique – Managing the conversation that escalates

Empathy & Emotional Cues

ASIC PAIN POINT:
• Missed opportunities in managing emotionally distressed customers.

LEARNING OUTCOMES ADDRESSED:
• Builds empathy and trust to handle emotional conversations effectively.
Write your awesome label here.

1. Strategic Empathy – The centrepiece for managing conflict and emotion

Write your awesome label here.

2.  Sympathy Rabbit Hole – Why you’re drowning in customer problems

Write your awesome label here.

3.  Intent Statements – Why they build trust

Write your awesome label here.

4.   Building an Empathy Statement – The formula to acknowledging customer emotion

Workplace Wellbeing

PAIN POINT:
• Poor handling of claims is linked to systemic issues like staff burnout, which affects their ability to assist vulnerable members effectively.

LEARNING OUTCOMES ADDRESSED:
• Provides stress-management tools to enhance resilience and improve interactions.
Write your awesome label here.

1.  Workplace Wellbeing – Influences and impacts

Write your awesome label here.

2. Circle of Control – Where to focus your energy

Write your awesome label here.

3. Flipping Your Lid – How to stay in control

Write your awesome label here.

4. The Stress Bucket – How to stop it from overflowing

Write your awesome label here.

5. Creating Good Habits – Support worklife balance and wellbeing

Indigenous Cultural Awareness for Frontline Staff 

ASIC PAIN POINT:

• Lack of cultural awareness in supporting First Nations customers.

LEARNING OUTCOMES ADDRESSED:
• Encourages respectful communications when having conversations with indigenous customers.


Write your awesome label here.

1.Respectful Interactions

Write your awesome label here.

2. Sharing and Humbugging

Write your awesome label here.

3.  Flora and Fauna

Write your awesome label here.

4. Experience with Money
Write your awesome label here.

5. The Yarning Circle

Write your awesome label here.

6. Mother-In-Law Rule

Write your awesome label here.
7. Top Tips for Frontline Staff
Write your awesome label here.

8. Cultural Roles Family & Domestic Violence

Solutions & Consequences

ASIC PAIN POINT:

• Members often feel overwhelmed by the complexity of solutions presented, leading to resistance or confusion.

LEARNING OUTCOMES ADDRESSED:
• Teaches strategies for presenting solutions clearly and truthfully, reducing resistance and building trust.

Write your awesome label here.

1. Social Norms - How to normalise things for a customer

Write your awesome label here.

2. The Solution - Why to slow play it

Write your awesome label here.

3. Options - Give the customer a sense of choice

Write your awesome label here.

4. The Decoy Effect - How to influence customer decisions
Write your awesome label here.

5. Explaining Consequences - Why using truthful language is the best strategy

Write your awesome label here.
6. Benefits vs Consequences - Balancing them out

Created By

Jodie Bedoya

Director
Jodie Bedoya is the Founder and director of the Melbourne based training company, eMatrix, which she began after identifying a gap in practical training and guidance for frontline staff, team leaders and managers in the art of communication.

Jodie is one of Australia's leading collections, vulnerability and customer engagement specialists, who has trained best practice in the energy sector and held key executive, operational and training management roles, including as CEO of one of Australia's largest collection agencies.

Alex Daniel

Operations Manager
Alex's expertise within dispute resolution, call quality, hardship and process improvement has enabled him to find a unique balance in facilitation customer engagement, eliminating conflict and debt collection.

Alex has a background leading Complaints and Ombudsman teams for the energy sector, specialising in managing complex cases and assisting customers experiencing financial hardship. Alex's specialty is the art of communication, in particular understanding and applying strategic empathy, coaching programs for leaders, call calibration and business writing for the digital world we live in.

Kaelia Cockington

Training Consultant
With a background in psychology, developmental trauma and homelessness, Kaelia brings awareness to organisations about vulnerability and how best to navigate conversations for people with complexity.

Having managed teams in South Australian Housing responsible for managing both risk and vulnerability, including debt collection, Kaelia helps staff by creating context and understanding about what is happening for a customer, whilst teaching staff how to manage their own headspace and wellbeing.

Dr Paul Harrison

Consultant
Dr Paul Harrison is a Senior Lecturer and the Unit Chair of Consumer Behaviour in the Department of Marketing in Deakin Business School. Paul's research is focused on emotional and rational behaviour, and how our biology and the environment interact to influence the way we make decisions. His work has been published in a wide range of international journals and conference proceedings and has informed policy and business practice in Australia and internationally.