Closing The Gap
Month 2
Month 3
Month 4
Month 5
Managing Your Mindset
• Customers feel judged and unheard
LEARNING OUTCOMES ADDRESSED:
• Helps staff reduce biases and manage frustration.
• Builds an empathetic workplace culture to improve customer interactions.
1. Ego, Judgement and Frustration - mindsets that get in the way
2. The Cobra customer - How to deal with an angry customer
3. Internal Curiosity - how to sidestep your ego, judgement & frustration
4. Dumping your potatoes - how complaining becomes part of team culture
Building Trust
ASIC PAIN POINT:
• Customers fear being judged and face barriers
to accessing support.
LEARNING OUTCOMES ADDRESSED:
• Teaches trust building strategies and how to
overcome unconscious biases
1. Connect With Your Customer – How to build trust and likeability
2. Acknowledging Customer Effort – Know how to say thank you
3. Pre-judging the Customer – The psychology behind why we do it
4. Stranger Danger – Customers are ready for battle
5. Humanising the ID Process – How to appeal to customers
Empathy & Emotional Cues
• Staff struggle to recognise and respond effectively to emotional cues.
LEARNING OUTCOMES ADDRESSED:
• Builds empathy and trust to handle emotional conversations effectively
1. Strategic Empathy – The centrepiece for managing conflict and emotion
2. Sympathy Rabbit Hole – Why you’re drowning in customer problems
3. Intent Statements – Why they build trust
4. Building an Empathy Statement – The formula to acknowledging customer emotion
5. Verbal nods and paraphrasing – The bread and butter of customer communications
Asking For The Money
• Lack of staff empowerment in navigating difficult conversations around payments.
LEARNING OUTCOMES ADDRESSED:
• Equips staff with effective negotiation tools while remaining empathetic
1. Asking for the Money - Role playing the power of the pause
2. Collections and Negotiations – Kick starting the process
3. Confident Collections – Opening call killers that are a giveaway
4. We rely on customers - a strategy for telling without telling
Hardship & Vulnerability
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
1. What is Vulnerability? – To be human is to be vulnerable
2. The Customer’s Backpack – What can impact a conversation
3. Customers with Poor Mental Health – How can
we adapt
5. 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
1. Dirty Words – Using words customers don’t understand
2. Impact of Dirty Words – How it can make someone feel stupid
3. Internal Language – How it creates a power
imbalance
5. Language Thermometer – Finding the balance with customers
6. Our Go-To’s – Language that gets us in trouble
Month 7
Month 8
Month 9
Month 11
Month 12
Questioning Techniques
• Ineffective conversations lead to missed opportunities to uncover the root cause of hardship.
LEARNING OUTCOMES ADDRESSED:
• Teaches effective questioning to identify and address customer needs
1. Uncovering the Issue – Why framing is important
2. Collections Conversations – The Art of questioning techniques
3. Negotiations – Understanding the payment hierarchy
4. Collections Questions Menu – Choosing the questions that best fit the scenario
Objection Handling
ASIC PAIN POINT:
• Missed opportunities in managing emotionally
distressed customers.
LEARNING OUTCOMES ADDRESSED:
• Equips staff with tools to manage complaints
and de-escalate emotional situations.
1. 7 Spices of Complaint Handling – Steps to handle customer complaints
2. Handling the Emotional Customer – Which spices are best to use?
3. Handling the Customer Who Blames – Which spices are best to use?
4. If You Continue the Language - There are better strategies than terminating the call
5. The Reset Technique – Managing the conversation that escalates
Empowering Staff Through Language
• Rigid processes and language that distances customers from support.
LEARNING OUTCOMES ADDRESSED:
• Encourages respectful and concise communication to build trust and cooperation
1. Avoiding accountability – Passively and actively
2. T’s and C’s – Why no-one reads them
3. Blaming Others – Why it is a problem
4. Neutral Language – You, me and blame
5. Overtalking – Don’t steamroll your customers
Workplace Wellbeing
• Staff burnout impacts their ability to handle vulnerable customers.
LEARNING OUTCOMES ADDRESSED:
• Provides stress-management tools to enhance resilience and improve interactions.
1. Workplace Wellbeing – Influences and impacts
2. Circle of Control – Where to focus your energy
3. Flipping Your Lid – How to stay in control
4. The Stress Bucket – How to stop it from overflowing
5. Creating Good Habits – Support worklife balance and wellbeing
Maximising Payments
ASIC PAIN POINT:
• Lack of clarity in customer options can create
resistance.
LEARNING OUTCOMES ADDRESSED:
• Provides tools for clear and empowering
customer discussions around payment
options
1. Maximising Payments - Using timelines
2.The payment Default - How to handle multiple unpaid arrangements
3. Willingness Vs Capacity - Why does it matter
5. No Capacity to Pay – Where to from here?
The Solution + Consequences
ASIC PAIN POINT:
• Customers often feel overwhelmed by
solutions and consequences.
LEARNING OUTCOMES ADDRESSED:
• Teaches strategies for presenting solutions
clearly and truthfully, reducing resistance and
building trust
1. Social Norms - How to normalise things for a customer
2. The Solution - Why to slow play it
3. Options - Give the customer a sense of choice
5. Explaining Consequences - Why using truthful language is the best strategy
Created by
Jodie Bedoya
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.
Alex Daniel
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.
Kaelia Cockington
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.
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61 438 391 500
We help organisations strike the right balance between organisational performance, regulatory obligations, and human connection.