{"id":8131,"date":"2025-04-24T12:02:06","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T01:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/?p=8131"},"modified":"2025-05-09T11:20:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T00:20:04","slug":"are-you-really-preparing-your-staff-for-an-economic-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/?p=8131","title":{"rendered":"Are you really preparing your staff for an economic crisis?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Your customers will panic.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Your frontline will absorb it.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Last week I noticed five figure loss in my superannuation balance (which is like a 401K in the US). Thanks to the instability in the share market. But my mind didn\u2019t go where most investors\u2019 minds go when they have a negative return.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It reminded me of something I had learned 4 years ago, during Covid.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most companies focus on preparing for or recovering from the storm. But they forget who stands in the rain. When crisis hits\u2014returns on investments and Superannuation balances fall, markets crash, financial hardship spreads\u2014what happens?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, here is an example of what happens<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

She took off her headset, walked into the break room\u2026and cried. No one saw it. She wiped her face, went back to her desk, and took the next call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She takes 20 more calls like it that day – people angry! desperate! condescending!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People were desperate to withdraw money from their superannuation, after all the saw it as their investment. They suddenly had no income, but still had loan repayments and getting \u201ctheir\u201d money out needs to happen now. They didn\u2019t want to hear about government policies and procedures.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

She had no idea how to de-escalate and her own emotional wellbeing is being sacrificed for her job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another member (customer). Another wave of stress. Another financial meltdown that that she did cause, and wasn\u2019t her problem to fix \u2014 but somehow, she is made feel like she should<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s what crisis really looks like on the frontline for the staff bearing the brunt of customer frustration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four years ago, I saw this story firsthand when a Superannuation firm asked me to help their staff deal with members who were angry, panicked and were taking it out of the phone agents. They were empathic and concerned enough about the emotional toll it was having that they asked me to train their Client Experience Agents in emotional resilience and recovery techniques. They enthusiastically accepted my suggestion to train their agents on how to de-escalate too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A crisis can take many forms, negative investment returns, news articles about conduct of someone in the company, system outages or staff lay offs that take the full attention of senior leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about the people who actually have to deliver that experience in a crisis? Most customer experience training and coaching just isn\u2019t preparing client experience agents for what may be about to hit. And, if like me you see the storm clouds forming, now is the time to act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get your frontline teams ready.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To take 30 distressed calls a day from anxious customers or members.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To absorb financial stress and frustration from people worried about their future.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be calm, kind, and helpful\u2014even when they\u2019re hurting and stressed too.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These people aren’t just dealing with customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019re absorbing emotion. And if they\u2019re not trained, not supported, and not emotionally equipped\u2014it takes a toll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And here\u2019s the hard truth:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Most training doesn\u2019t prepare them for this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We teach process, policy, and compliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we don\u2019t teach people how to deal with emotional intensity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We don\u2019t help them manage their own state before, during, and after those conversations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a global recession looming, and growing pressure on financial services\u2014especially superannuation and investment firms\u2014this isn\u2019t optional anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time to invest in emotional capability.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time to train your frontline to manage member and customer emotions and their own<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time to prioritise wellbeing as a performance strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because no matter how good your crisis responses are, it\u2019s the human on the other end of the phone who defines the member experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So are your frontline staff ready for a crisis?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most companies focus on preparing for or recovering from the storm. But they forget who stands in the rain. When crisis hits\u2014returns on investments and Superannuation balances fall, markets crash, financial hardship spreads\u2014what happens?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-customer-experience-training"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAre you really preparing your staff for an economic crisis? - Influence Intelligence<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Most customer experience training does not prepare frontline staff with the skills and techniques to de-escalate and deal with emotions\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/?p=8131\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Are you really preparing your staff for an economic crisis? - Influence Intelligence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Most customer experience training does not prepare frontline staff with the skills and techniques to de-escalate and deal with emotions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/?p=8131\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Influence Intelligence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-24T01:02:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-09T00:20:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Linkedin-P240425B.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1536\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andrew Longmuir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andrew Longmuir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/?p=8131#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/?p=8131\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Andrew Longmuir\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9f21e70bfe1b5667b8fd72648476a03a\"},\"headline\":\"Are you really preparing your staff for an economic crisis?\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-24T01:02:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-09T00:20:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/?p=8131\"},\"wordCount\":642,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/?p=8131#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/Linkedin-P240425B.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Customer Experience Training\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/?p=8131#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/?p=8131\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/?p=8131\",\"name\":\"Are you really preparing your staff for an economic crisis? - Influence Intelligence\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/?p=8131#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/?p=8131#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/Linkedin-P240425B.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-24T01:02:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-09T00:20:04+00:00\",\"description\":\"Most customer experience training does not prepare frontline staff with the skills and techniques to de-escalate and deal with emotions\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/?p=8131#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/?p=8131\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/?p=8131#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/Linkedin-P240425B.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/Linkedin-P240425B.webp\",\"width\":1536,\"height\":1024,\"caption\":\"Preparing staff for a financial crisis and recession\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/?p=8131#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Are you really preparing your staff for an economic crisis?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Influence Intelligence\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Influence Intelligence\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/2IQ_Logo-Long.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/2IQ_Logo-Long.png\",\"width\":1214,\"height\":250,\"caption\":\"Influence Intelligence\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9f21e70bfe1b5667b8fd72648476a03a\",\"name\":\"Andrew Longmuir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/cec2235197f5f87c4c52eba0b9a598857ddfb67e2db6db4b5a2a22309e926c91?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/cec2235197f5f87c4c52eba0b9a598857ddfb67e2db6db4b5a2a22309e926c91?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/cec2235197f5f87c4c52eba0b9a598857ddfb67e2db6db4b5a2a22309e926c91?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Andrew Longmuir\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/influenceintel.com\\\/?author=2\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Are you really preparing your staff for an economic crisis? - Influence Intelligence","description":"Most customer experience training does not prepare frontline staff with the skills and techniques to de-escalate and deal with emotions","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/?p=8131","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Are you really preparing your staff for an economic crisis? - Influence Intelligence","og_description":"Most customer experience training does not prepare frontline staff with the skills and techniques to de-escalate and deal with emotions","og_url":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/?p=8131","og_site_name":"Influence Intelligence","article_published_time":"2025-04-24T01:02:06+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-05-09T00:20:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1536,"height":1024,"url":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Linkedin-P240425B.webp","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Andrew Longmuir","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Andrew Longmuir","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/?p=8131#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/?p=8131"},"author":{"name":"Andrew Longmuir","@id":"http:\/\/influenceintel.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9f21e70bfe1b5667b8fd72648476a03a"},"headline":"Are you really preparing your staff for an economic crisis?","datePublished":"2025-04-24T01:02:06+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-09T00:20:04+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/?p=8131"},"wordCount":642,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"http:\/\/influenceintel.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/?p=8131#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Linkedin-P240425B.webp","articleSection":["Customer Experience Training"],"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/?p=8131#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/?p=8131","url":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/?p=8131","name":"Are you really preparing your staff for an economic crisis? - Influence Intelligence","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/influenceintel.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/?p=8131#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/?p=8131#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Linkedin-P240425B.webp","datePublished":"2025-04-24T01:02:06+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-09T00:20:04+00:00","description":"Most customer experience training does not prepare frontline staff with the skills and techniques to de-escalate and deal with emotions","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/?p=8131#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/?p=8131"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/?p=8131#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Linkedin-P240425B.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Linkedin-P240425B.webp","width":1536,"height":1024,"caption":"Preparing staff for a financial crisis and recession"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/?p=8131#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Are you really preparing your staff for an economic crisis?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/influenceintel.com\/#website","url":"http:\/\/influenceintel.com\/","name":"Influence Intelligence","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"http:\/\/influenceintel.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/influenceintel.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"http:\/\/influenceintel.com\/#organization","name":"Influence Intelligence","url":"http:\/\/influenceintel.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"http:\/\/influenceintel.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/2IQ_Logo-Long.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/2IQ_Logo-Long.png","width":1214,"height":250,"caption":"Influence Intelligence"},"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/influenceintel.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/influenceintel.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9f21e70bfe1b5667b8fd72648476a03a","name":"Andrew Longmuir","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cec2235197f5f87c4c52eba0b9a598857ddfb67e2db6db4b5a2a22309e926c91?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cec2235197f5f87c4c52eba0b9a598857ddfb67e2db6db4b5a2a22309e926c91?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cec2235197f5f87c4c52eba0b9a598857ddfb67e2db6db4b5a2a22309e926c91?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Andrew Longmuir"},"url":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/?author=2"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8131"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8138,"href":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8131\/revisions\/8138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/influenceintel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}