De-Escalate: Tools for Conflict Management in the Grocery Store (On-Demand Recording)

Description:

Uncertainty leads to fear and fear leads to tension. Increasingly, grocery retail workers are faced with agitated and on edge shoppers. Although online shopping has increased, there are still many shoppers who shop in-store and are faced with new requirements as the result of COVID-19, including physical distancing, mask or face covering requirements, one-way aisles, new queuing protocol, not touching produce and more. How do grocery store employees communicate with these shoppers, particularly when they are agitated? What do they do when they observe shoppers calling one another out for failure to comply with these requirements? How should the grocery associate ask the shopper to comply? Learn: Understand where the agitation and conflict originates. Communicate to shoppers in advance to diffuse or prevent escalation of tension. Articulate the emotional dial that associates must recognize and manage. Equip associates with a toolkit of techniques to diffuse agitated shoppers, including both what to do and what not to do. Identify when and how to ask for assistance.