A customer comes into your bank and is clearly angry. He does not understand why the bank placed fees on his business checking account. The customer wants the fees removed immediately.

You can see in your bank's Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system that the reason the fees were placed on the business account is that the account is over-drawn. The customer explains that he expected his business credit card would protect him from overdraft, as that was his understanding from the bank representative that opened the account for him.

You can also see in the CRM that the customer has a considerable amount of business with the bank. Your boss is at lunch, so you must solve this issue yourself.

• How do you address the customer to ensure you do not further anger him? What words do you use and why?
• What are your steps to resolution with the customer? Outline and explain the steps.
• What conflict management style should you utilize, and why?
• What conflict resolution strategy is best, and why?
• What can you do to help ensure the customer does not move business from your bank to a competitor's over this disagreement / conflict?
• What are some possible learnings from this event that could help the bank better serve the customer and what actions could the bank take moving forward?