Customer support training
Handling Difficult Customers with Confidence
For customer-support teams
Agents are taught product facts, then freeze — or flare up — when a customer raises their voice, because nobody ever trained the first five seconds of a hard call.
Built on Steady + LACE. Agents first steady themselves, then Listen, Acknowledge, Calm & Control, and Execute — practised on realistic calls with consequences, not slides.
After this course, agents can: stay composed under shouting, separate facts from feelings and need, set a respectful boundary when language turns abusive, and close with a clear promise — or escalate cleanly.
5 lessons · about 28 minutes · scored final call, pass 80% · one-page Playbook · Sample course
The problem
My years in customer support showed me the same pattern — training covers the product, never the moment an angry customer is shouting and the agent's own heart is pounding. This course trains that moment first.
Key design decisions
- A self-regulation lesson comes before all technique — an agent who is flooded cannot listen.
- Every skill is practised inside realistic calls where choices have visible consequences.
- The final assessment is a complete scored call, not a quiz about calls.
What was built
5 lessons in a steady rhythm — short narrated scenario, key points, practice, quick check — plus a two-part final assessment and a one-page Difficult Customer Playbook learners keep.
After the course
Agents can run the full sequence — steady themselves, listen, acknowledge, calm and control, execute and close — on a live difficult call.