Crime prevention series

Personal contact

Published in:
Protecting counter and interviewing staff from client agression
Bruce Swanton and Daryl Webber
Canberra : Australian Institute of Criminology, 1990
ISBN 0 642 14974 7 ; ISSN 1031-5330
(Crime prevention series) ; pp. 39-47

Eventually, client and counter and interviewing officer come into personal contact; each bringing to the interaction their respective antecedent experiences. It is at this stage the professionalism of interviewing officers should be employed to maintain control of interactions so as to ensure pleasant and productive meetings.

The degree of pleasantness and productiveness achievable in any particular interaction is, of course, strongly influenced by the popularity of the policies and services provided by particular agencies and, the degree of anxiety experienced by clients. Trainers and managers need to take such factors into account when inducting interviewing officers.

Strategies for dealing with clients fall into two basic categories: product/service knowledge, and interpersonal skills. These two strategies are collectively known as customer service. The former are largely agency specific depending on the services provided, whether they be financial institutions, airlines or welfare offices. The latter are mostly universal although a few are specific to particular industries.

Product/service knowledge

The level of service provided to clients by interviewing officers reflects in part the knowledge those officers possess concerning agency products and procedures. It cannot be stressed too strongly that all interviewing officers must be adequately trained in this regard. Degrees of training vary according to industry/service. Some industries, such as the financial industry, take such needs seriously whereas others do not. One study undertaken on behalf of the National Training Council (1988) suggests government agencies are largely deficient in this regard, partly due to the fact they are often engaged in non-competitive services.

It is essential all interviewing officers are adequately trained to provide sound service to clients. This requirement is discussed in, "Training".

Interpersonal skills

Oddly, the same National Training Council study showed that virtually no interviewing staff were selected on the basis of their interpersonal skills. Nine core interpersonal skills are said to apply to virtually every interviewer. These are:

• presentation;
• courtesy/politeness;
• perceiving client requirements (listening);
• clear expression;
• efficiency/promptness;
• willingness/helpfulness;
• friendliness/warmth;
• projecting congruent non-verbal cues; and
• satisfying client while maintaining loyalty to organisation.

Situation specific skills In addition to these core skills, a range of desirable situation specific skills or attributes was also identified, including:

• individualising (flexibility to different clients);
• sensitivity;
• discretion/tact/unobtrusiveness;
• handling difficult clients;
• handling complaints;
• superior oral communication;
• tolerance to pressure/resilience;
• understanding and handling cross-cultural differences and needs;
• questioning techniques;
• presenting the organisation; and
• establishing rapport/depth.

The list is not exhaustive and supervisors and trainers may well be able to identify others within their specific areas.

A further need identified in relation to interviewing/personal contact skills, is the necessity of service workers to possess current knowledge of products/services. In some government offices in particular, in which policies, procedures and program content constantly change, staff often are unable to advise clients effectively. In addition to irritating clients, lack of necessary knowledge reduces clients' respect for the organisation as a whole. Managers of officers experiencing such difficulties need to work hard at keeping s their officers totally up-to-date (see O'Keefe 1989).

Non-verbal cues are important in all human interactions. About 75 per cent of non-verbal cues or message sending is done with the head, mostly facial muscles. A smile conveys warmth and sincerity: a frown communicates disinterest and coldness. Non-verbal cues expressed by interviewing officers should be consistent with their utterances as well as encourage a positive relationship with clients. Lists of positive and negative non-verbal skills are shown at Figure 4. The lists illustrate some of the more critical cues that can be transmitted in interviewing officer-client interactions.

Figure 4 : Non-verbal Cues

	positive	negative
1.	Keeping a respectable professional distance from client	Positioning too close/far conveys intrusion or unavailability/inattentiveness
2.	Turning side on to a client encourages joint problem solving, cooperation, helpfulness	Facing a client square on can convey aggression/confrontation. Physically turning away conveys avoidance, preoccupation with another task, inattentiveness.
3.	Maintaining good eye contact is non-threatening yet attentive (strong/solid)	Maintaining poor eye contact, failing to look levelly at client, glaring, brief or sharp glances, convey disinterest, shiftiness, hostility
4.	Smiling genuinely, conveys real feelings	Artificial smiling disguises real feelings
5.	Complementing/mirroring a client's movements, leaning forward and backward appropriately	Overzealous gestures patronise and denigrate a client's intelligence (especially with females and minority groups)
6.	Lifting head attentively, shoulders back and nodding, conveys positive, confident, alert appearance	Shrugging and headshaking convey disinterest and apathy
7.	Open palm gestures and raised eyebrows convey attentiveness, interest and welcome to client	Sneering, pouting, tapping fingers, looking at watch, short, harsh, pointing, movements convey impatience and make clients feel they are intruding, interfering or, are a nuisance.
Source: National Training Council 1988, Interpersonal Skills as a Critical Component in Customer Service, AGPS, Canberra.

Hints for interviewing officers

Ideally counter and interviewing officers are instructed by their respective agencies in the basic "do's" and "don'ts" of client interactions. The following lists of the more obvious points selected from a range of customer service courses are of interest to trainers.

DO

• Greet clients by name (when known);
• Be polite, always say "please" and "thank you";
• Smile;
• Treat each client as an individual;
• Listen;
• Ask questions to remove ambiguities and obtain facts;
• Act expeditiously;
• Gain client's confidence;
• Be helpful;
• Be tactful;
• Remain neutral;
• Maintain eye contact;
• Be firm;
• Be decisive; and
• Obtain advice from supervisors when you do not know an answer.

DON'T

• Lose temper;
• Lose patience;
• Lose professional perspective;
• Forget you represent your agency;
• Keep clients waiting;
• Interview clients out of turn;
• Allow clients to be passed from one officer to another;
• Guess answers to clients' questions.

Nature of client aggression

Aggression is behaviour manifested by a client toward a counter and interviewing officer that physically injures an officer, causes an officer to fear for personal safety and/or imposes unacceptable levels of stress upon an officer.

Client aggression may be manifested in any of the following forms or combinations thereof:

• loud, hectoring voice and manner;
• swearing and other objectionable oral behaviour such as rude noises;
• questioning an officer's competence;
• threatening to complain to an officer's supervisor;
• threatening physical harm;
• physical assault, ranging from spitting to stabbing;
• damaging property; and
• sexual harassment.

Aggressors' motivations

Aggressors' motivations range from intense to mild and from rational to irrational. Some aggressive clients may be desperate for money, shelter or food. Others might be outraged at having to wait for half an hour for no apparent reason. Drunken clients, neurotic and psychotic clients are all capable of random aggression. On the other hand, some calculating clients shrewdly employ aggression in order to hasten service or intimidate an interviewing officer. In short, motivations of aggressors vary greatly, including:

• altered states of consciousness; neurotics, psychotics, drunks and other drug abusers;
• high anxiety with regard to personal affairs and welfare;
• irritation arising from cultural differences;
• irritation arising from officers' manner and associated factors; and
• irritation arising from environment and client control systems obtaining in the public contact area generally.

Cues to impending aggression

Interviews may either get off to a bad start or, conversely, start well and then deteriorate. In the former instance an interviewing officer has to initiate salvage strategies straight away. In the latter case, sensitivity to cues of rising irritation and impending aggression is a great advantage. The earlier cues are detected the sooner an employee can attempt to retrieve a situation.

Competent interviewers improve their skills with experience. Unfortunately, the trend in large agencies appears to be one of rapid turnover and rotation. Thus, many counter staff do not have the time to build up a large repertoire of interpersonal skills over time.

Cues of rising irritation are usually manifested in a client's behaviour and appearance. They include:

• flushing of face and neck, sometimes including protruding and pulsing blood vessels in forehead, temples and neck;
• rising voice;
• grimacing, frowning;
• grinding teeth and clenching of jaw muscles;
• flaring of nostrils;
• increasing excitability and gesticulation;
• rapid, shallow breathing;
• sweating on forehead, hairline;
• trembling of limbs;
• increasing coarseness of language;
• pounding table or counter with hand; and
• standing up in the course of a seated interview, including pacing to and fro.

These various cues should be interpreted in context as individually each could be an indication of a medical condition, ranging from piles to Parkinson's disease. Nevertheless, sensitive and aware public contact staff will note such cues, consider their significance and, if appropriate, act to reduce their client's irritation.

Conduct of interviews

Interviewing officers are responsible for conducting professional and productive interviews. They should make full use of the interviewing and other customer service skills taught them during induction and in-service training, as well as adhering to prescribed procedures.

It is particularly important interviewing officers do not exceed their limits of competence, including knowledge. Answers should not be guessed; supervisors should be consulted without hesitation. Staff should be encouraged to seek advice but not excessively.

Fast, considerate, professional and courteous treatment of a client coupled with acute observation of the client's demeanour are normally sufficient to ensure a productive interview. Interviews that involve the conveying of adverse decisions to clients are best conducted in interview rooms rather than at counters. The motivation for an aggrieved client to "play to the gallery" is avoided in such circumstances. Ideally, persons making adverse decisions should be the ones who convey them to the clients.

Interviewing officers should set clients at ease as soon as possible in the course of an interview. Client reactions to initial impressions are sometimes sufficient to shape the tenor of a routine interview. Thus, a relaxed and cooperative taxpayer will interpret much that follows, for example, decor of interview room, in positive terms. Commonly, a client faced with a hostile or cold interviewing officer will tend to interpret things negatively and an interviewing room will assume the proportions of an interrogation chamber.

Standardised training in people skills, interview techniques and public relations are highly desirable for interviewing officers engaged in stressful interviews.

Managers should not assume in their planning and administration that ethnic based tensions will be one way only, that is, a Caucasian counter or interviewing officer interacting with an ethnic client. Often in government agencies the situation is reversed nowadays, with a Caucasian/Anglo-Saxon client being interviewed by an officer of ethnic origin, that is, non-Caucasian. On occasion, both parties may be ethnics and tension can occur based on ethnic discord.

Responding to emotional clients

On occasion, counter and interviewing officers will encounter emotional clients, such as the angry and the grief stricken. If symptoms of a client's emotional state are clearly apparent, counter and interviewing officers should acknowledge rather than ignore the fact.

To ignore a client's emotional state may increase its intensity, whereas recognition, such as "you seem to feel ...", is sometimes sufficient to retrieve a situation. Officers must ensure they do not get themselves involved in the emotion. Where extreme emotion is the product of an agency's shortcomings, such as the non-arrival of a welfare cheque on time, officers should acknowledge the error and remedy it in a positive manner.

General advice offered by the Federal Department of Social Services to officers faced with emotional clients who have not yet reached a stage where an interview requires aborting include:

• maintain a professional attitude;
• do not share a client's emotion;
• keep calm and speak in a soft tone;
• use body language to indicate concern and intent; and
• listen carefully.