Customer Service Training

𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑 𝐑𝐮𝐠𝐛𝐲 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐂𝐮𝐩 In this video, South African Rugby Union (SA Rugby) head coach Rassie Erasmus walks around playing the French national anthem during training. This was in preparation for the quarter-final match against the FFR - Fédération Française de Rugby— during the Rugby World Cup France 2023. This was to prepare the players for the loud noise and the home crowd, and is a form of stress exposure training. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴? According to Driskell et al. (2008), this form of training involves exposing individuals to demands that may be present in a given task setting: ✅Noise ✅ Threat ✅ Time pressure ✅ Fatigue ✅ Other environmental demands 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗗𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲? Driskell and Johnston (1998) stated that this form of training involves 3 distinct phases: 1️⃣ 𝙀𝙣𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙁𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙒𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙏𝙖𝙨𝙠 𝙀𝙣𝙫𝙞𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 During this part of training, individuals are provided with information on what stress is, common symptoms that people can experience when experiencing stress, and the effects of stress on performance in a pressurised setting. We 2️⃣ 𝙄𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙃𝙞𝙜𝙝-𝙋𝙚𝙧𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙎𝙠𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙨 During Phase 2, individuals learn the skills that are required in the specific task setting (i.e., rugby match, military, law enforcement). 3️⃣ 𝙋𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙎𝙠𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘽𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙛𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 Practice should involve exposure to realistic conditions to build the confidence of individuals. This is what we can see in the video. The South African team are training under noisy conditions to enhance their confidence at performing under such conditions. 𝗗𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸? Driskell et al. (2001) found that stress exposure training enhanced performance during stressful settings and reduced stress perceptions. The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (2004) has also used stress exposure training to simulate stress among law enforcement officers and improve decision-making under stress (Norris & Wollert, 2011). 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀? In addition to exposing individuals to demanding situations, I think it's very important to teach coping strategies that can be deployed and practised under stressful training conditions because we know that coping is associated with performance across many sports (Nicholls et al., 2016). That is, give athletes the tools to be able to cope when they are exposed to different demanding environments and allow them time to practice these coping strategies because we know it can take time for coping to develop and become more effective (Nicholls, 2007).

In high-stakes interviews, knowledge is useless if you can’t access it under pressure. You know that moment.. Your brain goes blank. Your palms sweat. And instead of solving, you start surviving. But here’s the truth → Problem-solving under stress is not a “talent.” It’s a trainable skill. And the candidates I coach who master it often walk out with multiple job offers. Let me break it down with no-fluff, expert-backed techniques that actually work: 1️⃣ Rewire Your Stress Response with the 4-7-8 Reset When your nervous system panics, your prefrontal cortex (the problem-solving part of your brain) shuts down. Before answering, use the 4-7-8 breathing method: Inhale for 4 sec Hold for 7 sec Exhale for 8 sec This activates the parasympathetic system → instantly reduces cortisol and gives you back cognitive control. 2️⃣ Switch from “Answering” to “Framing” Research from Harvard Business Review shows that candidates who frame the problem out loud sound more confident and buy time to think. Instead of jumping straight in, say: “Let me structure my approach — first I’ll identify the constraints, then I’ll evaluate possible solutions, and finally I’ll recommend the most practical one.” This shows clarity under stress, even before the solution lands. 3️⃣ Use the MECE Method (Consulting’s Secret Weapon) Top consulting firms like McKinsey train candidates to solve under pressure using MECE → Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive. Break the problem into 2–3 distinct, non-overlapping buckets. Example: If asked how to improve a delivery app → Think in “User Experience,” “Logistics,” and “Revenue Streams.” This keeps you structured and avoids rambling. 4️⃣ Apply the 30-70 Rule Neuroscience research shows stress reduces working memory. So don’t aim for perfection. Spend 30% of time defining the problem clearly and 70% generating practical solutions. Most candidates flip this and over-explain, which backfires. 5️⃣ Rehearse with Deliberate Discomfort Candidates who only practice “easy” questions crash in high-pressure moments. I make my students solve case studies with distractions, timers, or sudden curveballs. Why? Because your brain learns to adapt under chaos and that resilience shows in interviews. 👉 Remember: Interviewers aren’t hunting for perfect answers. They’re hunting for calm thinkers. The ones who don’t crumble under the weight of uncertainty. That’s how my students at Google, Deloitte, and Amazon got noticed → not by being geniuses, but by staying structured under stress. Would you like me to share a step-by-step mock interview framework for practicing these techniques? Comment “Framework” and I’ll drop it in my next post. #interviewtips #careerdevelopment #problemsolving #dreamjob #interviewcoach

The call is not the skill. The call is made up of 10s of individual skills. But then when it comes to practice… We have real practice the WHOLE call. This is not how you develop skills. Or even worse. Your reps aren’t practicing with you… Your reps have been practicing on your customers this whole time. So when it comes to practice and feedback remember. The discovery call is not the skill. The QBR is not the skill. The onboarding is not the skill. There are skills WITHIN those calls. And if you're practicing the whole call — your reps only get one repetition per session. That's not skill development. That's a slow crawl. Here's the shift: Chunk it down. Pick ONE skill. Set the context, who they're talking to, where the deal is, what's already been said. Then practice JUST that. If I'm working with a rep on second-layer questions, we're not running a full mock call. We're running the moment. Five times. Then ten. That's where skill actually forms. Y'all want to know why your reps go into calls and forget the playbook? Because you're trying to remember everything at once. And so are they. One skill at a time. High repetition. With feedback limited to 1-3 things max. If you're giving feedback on filler words before the rep has mastered pain connection — your priorities are backwards. Pick the most important thing. Build that. Move to the next. That's the mechanical difference between a team that gets better and a team that stays stuck. Skills scale. Master the skills and watch results fly

Have you ever found yourself trapped on a call with a customer who just won't accept your answer? You've explained the policy three times, but they're still there, pushing back, asking the same questions, and your call queue keeps growing. I recently worked with a utility company facing this exact challenge. Their agents were stuck on calls for nearly 20 minutes when delivering unwelcome news about debt payments. Customers would get shocked, ask multiple clarifying questions, escalate emotionally, and demand supervisors. Sound familiar? Here's what changed everything: strategic word choice through psychological priming. Instead of saying: "The debt is attached to the meter, regardless of who accrued the debt. ABC Utility won't turn on water until the bill is paid." We rewrote it as: "As a solution, I have two suggestions. First, you need to talk to your landlord, tell them there's a debt on the meter and that you can't turn on water service. See if they'll work something out for you. The second option, and I would do this immediately, is look carefully at your lease to see if there's any clause that protects you in this situation." Notice the difference? Every word was intentionally chosen to guide the customer's response. The results were remarkable. Average call times dropped from 19 minutes and 38 seconds to under 5 minutes. That's a 75% reduction simply by changing how we communicated the same information. The key primers that made this work: "Solution" and "suggestions" made customers feel supported, not rejected "You need to talk to your landlord" directly guided them to disconnect and contact someone who could actually help "Immediately" created urgency to take action "Protects you" reinforced that we were on their side This isn't about manipulation. It's about using language that naturally guides people toward productive outcomes while preserving the relationship. Remember, when customers aren't accepting your word as final, it's often not what you're saying - it's how you're saying it. The right words can transform resistance into cooperation. Would you be interested in more psychological tips for conversation control?

Role-playing isn't just for athletes; it's for sales pros too. Here's how practice builds confidence. Sales calls can feel like stepping onto an unfamiliar field. You face objections, rejections, and even moments where someone tells you exactly where you can go (you know what I mean). But here's what separates sales pros from salespeople: preparation. Before any call, I focus on these steps: 1️⃣ Mindset Work ↳ Detach from outcomes. Rejection isn’t personal—it’s about timing, not you. ↳ Get your energy right. If athletes warm up before games, why shouldn’t you? 2️⃣ Framework Development ↳ Every call needs structure: intro, body, conclusion. ↳ Anticipation is key. Think about objections before they arise. During Locomote days, we flipped objections like “no one’s traveling” and turned them *into* reasons for engagement. 3️⃣ Research ↳ Spend one minute on LinkedIn. Find three things about your prospect. ↳ Earn your spot on their calendar by showing you understand their business. 4️⃣ Role-Play ↳ Practice objections with colleagues or on Zoom. ↳ Test your tone, language, and approach. Adjust based on feedback. Role-playing isn’t about memorizing scripts. It's about refining your framework so you’re ready for anything. (𝘠𝘦𝘴, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 “𝘣𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦” 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘴.) 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗲: → If I catch someone at an off moment, I acknowledge their position. “Sounds like I’ve caught you at an inconvenient time—can we reschedule?” → I lower my tone, slow my pace, and *never* argue. Empathy turns tension down. And sometimes, even after all this, you'll get pushback. That's okay. Not every call leads somewhere. But every practice session builds confidence for your next one. What’s your favorite objection-handling strategy? Have you tried role-playing before? Would love your thoughts!

OODA Loops and Emergency Management How a fighter pilot changed the way I think about disasters. When I first read about Col. John Boyd’s OODA Loop—Observe, Orient, Decide, Act—it immediately made sense. https://lnkd.in/gScxzt-g Not just for fighter pilots, but for emergency managers. We deal with chaos. Limited info. High stakes. Sound familiar? The OODA Loop gave me a framework to do what I’d been trying to do all along: Outpace the disaster. Make decisions faster than the problem can grow. Here’s the breakdown: Observe Get real-time awareness. Weather forecast, hazard models, Radar, 911 calls, social media, sensors, reports. Bad data = bad decisions. If you can’t observe clearly, nothing else works. Orient Make sense of what you’re seeing. Context is everything. This is the hardest part—and the most important. Orientation is where your planning, training, and experience come together. You’re not just reacting. You’re interpreting. You’re asking: Where are the greatest threats to life right now? What do we need to do immediately to save lives? What’s required to sustain life over the next 12–24 hours—water, shelter, medical care? What systems must we stabilize to prevent cascading failures—power, hospitals, transportation, communications? What decisions will have the biggest impact on survivor outcomes? What assumptions just broke? What’s the second-order consequence we haven’t seen yet? This isn’t about checking the boxes—it’s about seeing clearly under pressure and acting on what matters most. Orientation drives everything that follows. Get this wrong, and everything else falls behind. When you train teams beyond their comfort zones—into uncertainty, time pressure, and friction—you’re shaping their ability to orient under stress. “By the time you have all the information to make the best decision, it’s usually too late to change the outcome.” That’s why orientation matters. It gives you the confidence to act without perfect clarity—and the flexibility to adjust when things change. You can’t shortcut orientation. It’s what turns chaos into clarity. Decide Don’t wait for perfect. Make the best call with what you have. Then be ready to adjust. Speed beats perfection. Act Execute. Then immediately start the loop again. Acting without feedback isn’t leadership—it’s guessing. Disasters don’t give you time to be slow. The faster you can loop, the more lives you save. “Friction is what separates real disasters from exercises.” Politics, fear, failure, chaos—this is the climate of disaster. The OODA Loop is how you move through it. Train fast. Decide faster. Stay ahead of the disaster. #EmergencyManagement #Leadership #DisasterResponse #OODA #JohnBoyd #DecisionMaking #CrisisLeadership #CraigFugate

A few years ago, I lost a golden opportunity simply because of how I spoke on the phone. I was tired, distracted and I picked up a stranger’s call with a dull “Hello, who’s this?” 📌Turns out, it was a potential client who’d been referred by someone I deeply respected. 📌By the time I realized, the tone had already closed a door I didn’t even know existed. 📌That day, I learned something powerful: your phone voice can introduce you long before your resume does. Since then, I’ve developed what I call the “Etiquette First” approach: ✅ Answer with energy and clarity. Your tone should say, I’m glad you called. ✅ Identify yourself immediately. “Hello, this is Leilah speaking.” It builds confidence and respect. ✅ If you’re busy, own it gracefully: “Hi, I’m currently in a meeting. Are you in position to talk briefly or can I call you back in 15 minutes? ✅ End with gratitude. A simple “Thank you for reaching out” leaves a lasting impression. 📌In a world of texts and DMs, voice still carries value. The next time your phone rings, remember you’re not just answering a call,you might be answering an opportunity. #ProfessionalGrowth #CommunicationSkills #PersonalDevelopment #EtiquetteMatters #LeadershipVoice #NetworkingTips

Ever wonder what separates a good call from a great one? Here are the 8 essential techniques that transform conversations, even the tough ones. 1. Lead with Empathy, Always. -> It’s more than a nice-to-have—starting with empathy puts clients at ease, even under stress. Pausing and listening carefully signals that you’re genuinely invested in their needs. 2. Smile, Even if They Can’t See You. -> It might sound odd, but smiling on calls changes your tone. It adds warmth to your voice and often softens the conversation, even in difficult situations. Clients can “hear” that smile, and it works wonders! 3. Match Their Pace—Naturally. -> When you align your speech with the client’s speed, the call flows better. It’s subtle, but mirroring their pace and energy shows you’re in sync, building trust faster. 4. Use Strategic Pauses to Let Points Sink In. -> Sometimes, saying less speaks volumes. A brief pause emphasizes key points, giving clients a moment to process. It’s a game-changer for clarity. 5. Stick to Short Sentences. -> Short sentences are clear and powerful, especially for complex topics. Avoid filler words like "um" or "like" by practicing pauses and recording yourself to track improvements. 6. End with Calm Confidence. -> A calm close leaves a lasting impression. It shows confidence and signals that you’re both engaged and attentive right to the end, even in high-stakes calls. 7. Emphasize Key Points Naturally. -> Pausing before and after critical points highlights your message without sounding rehearsed. This technique works in training, presentations, and even public speaking. 8. Friendly Tone, Lasting Connection. -> People respond to warmth, especially on first calls. A friendly tone opens the door to a real conversation, turning a typical call into a memorable experience. Each of these strategies can turn calls into meaningful connections, creating a solid foundation for long-term relationships. Give them a try and see the difference in your next client conversation! #CustomerSuccess #SalesTips #EffectiveCommunication

As I stood in the center of the room, surrounded by my pilot training classmates and our instructor pilots, the weight of the moment pressed down on me. We were presented with a scenario where our aircraft faced an emergency, and I was called on to “Stand-Up” in front of everyone and go through, in detail, every step I would take.  The stakes were high - failure meant I did not get to fly that day…I would be grounded.   Ask any Air Force pilot, “Stand-Ups,” as they are called, are one of the most stress inducing activities in pilot training.   As a young lieutenant in my early twenties, I didn’t truly understand the power of the “Stand-Up.” At the time, they seemed like mere hazing rituals. While I understood the importance of learning emergency procedures, I questioned the necessity of the public performance aspect.   I was wrong. As I look back and analyze this technique as a mental performance coach I recognize the profound value of the "Stand-Up" from a mindset perspective. Facing an aircraft emergency carries genuine fear for one's life. Mistakes in such situations can be fatal. Instructors can’t give real emergencies in the air, but at the same time they need to know you can perform under pressure. While simulator training provides a degree of preparation, the reality is we all know we are physically safe in a simulator.   “Stand-ups,” although also physically safe, are NOT socially safe, you are very exposed and vulnerable. Putting this in one sentence on a LinkedIn post minimizes it, but we all know the gravity of social situations. They can be extremely stress inducing, especially when it comes to our reputation at work.   The bottom line is this technique was a brilliant way of putting us under intense pressure, challenging us to maintain composure while accessing critical information. It taught us to maintain the proper mindset under stress, all while validating that we could still intellectually access the information needed to deal with an aircraft emergency.   How does this translate beyond aviation? It stresses the importance of not only mastering technical skills, but also preparing mentally for challenging situations. When preparing for challenging situations, consider not only the steps you'll take, but also how you want to feel and react during those moments. This preparation will enhance your readiness to any adversity.

“Positive thinking doesn’t help under pressure.” That’s not a hot take. It’s neuroscience. I’ve worked with elite performers at NASA, the Cleveland Clinic, the NBA, NFL, and special ops military units. And here’s what the best do differently when the stakes couldn’t be higher: They don’t try to suppress their emotions. Instead, they train for moments when emotions spike. Because trying to “calm down” under pressure often backfires. Your brain doesn’t want calm. It wants clarity, focus, and execution. So if you’re amped up before a big moment—good. But how do you channel that energy? I call it the E.A.S.E. Framework: 🧠 Emotion 👀 Attention 🧩 Strategy 🎯 Execution Train each layer like a skill. Make it second nature—so when the chaos hits, you’ve got something to grip onto. I saw this firsthand in an open-heart surgery when the patient flatlined. No panic. No scrambling. The team locked in and went straight to the checklist. They had a process. They trusted it. And they definitely didn’t have time to wait until they “felt good” before taking action. #PerformancePsychology #Neuroscience #Pressure