This webinar is included in our Replay Library. Volume discount applies to all items in your cart including replays and live webinars. Save 10% on two items, 15% on three, 20% on four and 25% on five.

---

Course ID: SA7916
Title: Responding Effectively (and Calmly!) to Complaints and Criticism
Duration: approx. 1 hour
Facilitator: Amir Baghdadchi
Price: $50

📂 Downloads included with your replay: video + audio-only file + transcript

OVERVIEW
Signing up to do student affairs work means signing up for criticism — and with good reason: students, families, and the public entrust us with fundamentally important things, so it stands to reason that even doing our best, we will generate some complaints and angry email. Not to worry: in this webinar, we will learn how handling unhappiness in our line of work is different from other kinds of service, and how our student affairs background actually holds the key to de-escalating a situation and rebuilding trust. We will look at real life examples and learn some tried-and-true recipes to composing your response.

OUTLINE
In part one, we look at how receiving critical emails can “raise the temperature” and lead us to a space of trying to refute the criticism — and why this is not a productive place to be. We look at the proper role of a response email: not to eliminate the issue to but to a build a bridge and regain trust.

In part two, we talk about the unique challenge for student affairs: how to respond to a complaint when the writer takes issue not with a mistake, but with an intentional policy? We learn a technique for establishing a rapport, finding common values, and for affirming our point of view without contradicting the writer’s.

In part three, we talk about how to present ourselves in a way that builds credibility, and how to understand that even when you can’t do the specific thing the person wants, you can still be of service and leave them with a positive attitude towards the institution.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Learn to evaluate realistically what your response needs to achieve.
• Learn to get out of the “defend the castle” mentality so you can de-escalate and have a real dialogue.
• Find out how you can turn even a scathing critique into a win-win moment.
• Discover the underlying structure behind a good — and effective — response.
• Get tested tactics, tips, and phrases for crafting your response.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND
This webinar would be beneficial for any student affairs professional that uses any form of communication.

---

Amir Baghdadchi is the director of communications and public relations in University Housing at the University of Michigan and has often been on the front lines of managing responses to public feedback. With a career spanning academic teaching to commercial advertising, he brings a unique tool set to student affairs work — and is a two-time Moth GrandSLAM storytelling champion. He holds a bachelors in Classical Studies from the University of Michigan, a masters in Ancient Greek from the University of California, Berkeley, and a doctorate in English from Cambridge University in the UK.

---

PAYMENT & REGISTRATION
Payment can be made by Credit card, PayPal or Venmo. Please provide the Name, Institution/Organization + Email of the attendee in the two boxes provided on the checkout page. A receipt from PayPal will be sent automatically to the email address associated with your payment method. However, login instructions are processed manually (usually within 12 hrs) and sent to the attendee's email address.

Please make sure to check your spam folders for an email from webinars@mystudentaffairs.com.