Navigating Conflict at Work: Practical Tips for Resolution

Conflict is a natural part of working with other people, but it doesn’t need to derail progress or damage relationships. We’ve all experienced frustrating times where a project goes quiet, feedback doesn’t land well, or a message over Slack comes across colder than it was meant to. These small moments can create tension, and if they’re left unaddressed, they tend to build.

Conflict resolution is the process of recognising that tension early and managing it constructively. It doesn’t mean avoiding disagreement or glossing over real issues. Instead, it’s about responding in a way that protects your working relationships and enables you to focus on doing your best work.

Whether you’re working across teams, managing clients, or collaborating in a pressure cooker, conflict is part of working life. In this article, we’ll walk through what conflict resolution is, why it matters and which strategies are most effective for handling conflict when it shows up.

Conflict resolution is the process of working through tension or disagreement in a way that helps everyone involved move forward.

Conflict can happen between individuals, teams, or even entire organisations, and the resolution doesn’t always follow a formal process. Sometimes businesses will have a structured mediation, other times it’s a quick conversation to clear the air. The approach is dependent on what the conflict is and how serious it is.

The goal of resolution is to understand what’s gone wrong, find some common ground, and reach an outcome that everyone can work with. Depending on the situation, this might involve negotiation, compromise, mediation, or even legal steps when things escalate.

Conflict is part of life. Whether it’s a breakdown between team members, tension during a client project, or a complaint from a customer, the way you respond can shape the outcome. When managed well, coming out the other side of conflict builds trust, strengthens relationships, and helps people move forward with more clarity.

Internally, conflict resolution helps protect working relationships and keeps projects on track. It gives people the tools to work through tension early, before it turns into something bigger. It improves communication, supports collaboration, and creates a more respectful, productive environment. When conflict is ignored, it can quietly erode morale and make it harder for people to do their best work.

Externally, conflict resolution plays a big role in how customers see your brand. 83% of customers say they feel more loyal to brands that resolve their complaints, and 65% have switched brands after just one bad experience. That could be a big hit to your bottom line just from one avoidable moment of tension.

When you handle issues quickly and constructively, customers feel heard and valued. It helps reduce churn, smooth out the customer journey, and turn negative experiences into long-term loyalty.

Each conflict needs to be considered on its own merits. That being said, there are some proven methods and guiding principles that you can use to maintain positive customer relationships through restorative practice.

Being an active listener means paying full attention to another person, listening and acknowledging their concerns without interrupting.

Example: A customer at a retail store expresses frustration over a faulty product. The staff listens attentively. They paraphrase the issue back to the customer to ensure understanding. The staff acknowledges both the issue and the frustration before offering a solution.

Try to imagine why the other person feels the way they do, based on their role, pressures, or world view. When people feel their emotions are understood, they’re more likely to stay engaged with the conversation and work toward a solution, even if they don’t agree with the outcome.

Example: If a colleague gets defensive during a project update, it might help to consider that they’re juggling last-minute feedback from leadership and the pressure of a tight go-live date. Their frustration may be less about you and more about everything else going on behind the scenes.

Be direct and specific about what you need and expect. Avoid vague language or assuming others already understand your point; most conflict starts with a misunderstanding.

Example: A tech support rep clearly walks the customer through each troubleshooting step, using plain language and pausing to confirm understanding before moving on.

Find an outcome you’re both working toward. When you can show there’s a shared goal, it becomes easier to move the conversation from tension to collaboration.

Example: Two coworkers disagree about who should cover an upcoming weekend shift. Once they both acknowledge they’re trying to make sure the team stays supported without burning out, they’re able to come up with a fair rotation that works for everyone.

Focus on finding solutions rather than assigning blame. However, don’t go straight to a solution without acknowledging the other person's needs and emotions.

Example: Instead of blaming limitations in company policy that may be roadblocks to helping, focus on ways you can improve the situation and find alternative ways to meet the customer’s needs.

Check in with the other person later to make sure things are still on track. A quick chat, message, or even grabbing a coffee together can help ease any lingering awkwardness and show that the tension has cleared.

Example: After a workshop where tensions ran high during a group discussion, one participant reaches out to another a few days later to check in. The follow-up helps clear the air and opens the door for future collaboration.

Understanding the psychology behind a conflict is essential for effective resolution. This is grounded in the idea that, often, the issue at hand is only half the irritation for the other person. Here are three psychological concepts to help you understand what’s going on under the surface during a conflict.

Strong emotions like anger, frustration, or disappointment can quickly heighten conflict, and they’re often about more than the issue at hand.

When someone feels let down or ignored, those feelings can take on a life of their own. In many cases, the emotion becomes as important to address as the original problem. Whether it’s a customer upset about a missed promise or a colleague feeling unheard, acknowledging the emotional impact is an important part of finding a resolution.

Individual differences naturally influence how people handle conflict. Some people are assertive, while others are inherently passive in their conflict styles. Recognising and understanding these traits can help you tailor your approach to resolution.

People bring baggage with them into any conflict. Perceptions and biases will affect their interpretation of any given situation. For example, a customer might assume a mistake from a sales rep was intentional due to past negative experiences. An awareness of these biases and perceptions is also helpful as you try to forge a path toward resolution.

Acknowledging these psychological elements can help anyone from customer service reps to team leads to address more than just the surface issue. Appealing to the emotional needs of customers leads to more effective conflict resolution.

Conflict resolution is built on the idea of mutual respect, but if someone feels unsafe or like they can’t speak up, that’s not something they should be expected to navigate alone. It’s important to know the difference and to make sure the people around you have a way to speak up if they need to.

If you or someone else is being bullied, harassed, or consistently undermined, it moves from being about finding middle ground to addressing the harmful behaviour. These issues need to be taken seriously and raised through the proper channels, whether that’s HR, your workplace’s grievance procedure, or formal support through Fair Work or legal advice.

In the broadest sense, customer service conflict always occurs when a brand fails to align itself with a customer’s expectations, beliefs, or values. Common causes include:

• Unmet expectations: The simplest and most common reason for conflict occurs when a business doesn’t meet customer expectations. This can result in dissatisfaction, disappointment, and even anger.
• Miscommunications: Unclear instructions, language barriers, and unresolved technical problems can create confusion and misunderstandings.
• Delays: When a customer needs to wait longer than expected for a product, this can test their patience, increasing the likelihood of conflict.
• Personal stress: Sometimes, customers may spark conflict due to stress. This could be a high-stress situation in their own lives or because they feel disrespected or ignored by an employee.

These types of conflict can manifest as verbal outbursts, written complaints, negative reviews, or social media backlash. Every customer is different, with their own traits, beliefs, and concerns. No two situations are the same.

For example, let’s say a business has opened a new office in Strathfield, a Sydney suburb with a large South Korean population. The business needs a Korean customer to sign a document, but has run out of blue or black ink, so they ask the customer to sign with red ink. In South Korea, this can be deeply offensive, creating a conflict situation that arises from failing to consider the cultural context.

That means businesses have to think on their feet and take a case-by-case approach to understanding conflict. It’s necessary to understand not just the ‘what’ but the deeper ‘why’ behind the frustration to successfully resolve the conflict.

For that, the best place to start is to get into the heads of your customers and understand the social psychology behind their complaints.

Here are a few examples of companies showcasing how to handle difficult conversations. You’ll see empathy, solutions, and proactive attempts to put things right as part of a resolution process.

Cancelled flights are a common occurrence with airlines. And when customers have their flights cancelled, they’ll often vent some of that frustration at the airport over social media. Here’s an example:

Here, the team at Qantas has taken the time to respond to a customer complaint.

In the message, they do several things to kickstart the process toward dispute resolution:

• They don’t assign blame or offer an excuse (the customer isn’t really interested in why the flights were cancelled).
• There is an implication of a solution: “We’d like to look into this for you”. This sets the common goal that something should be done.
• The team at Qantas invites further private conversation. This shows that the team values the customer’s privacy and cares personally about finding a resolution.
• There are further reassurances of the company’s legitimacy, with references to social media best practices.
• This kind of engagement and conflict resolution via social media is common for many brands nowadays. It gives the company a visible opportunity to address an issue and show a willingness to fix issues that arise in real-time.

Not only will the implied conflict resolution potentially repair the healthy relationship with this customer, but the company’s transparent engagement also indicates to other customers that Qantas is a company you can trust. They’ll deal with issues honourably if things go wrong.

NAB implements an AI chatbot on its website to handle common customer inquiries. This is an increasingly common feature you’ll see across many businesses.

The chatbot efficiently resolves conflicts based on simple issues, reducing wait times and allowing human agents to focus on more complex conflicts.

The key aspect is this. Customers will get frustrated if they feel they can’t resolve an issue via the chatbot. It’s important, still, that customer service teams don’t completely outsource conflict resolution to AI. Customers crave that human connection and respond better to a company that demonstrates its human side.

If the AI agent cannot resolve an issue, a human should be present to take over, show genuine empathy, and work on finding a human solution to a human issue.

When done well, this blend of technology and personal service enhances overall customer satisfaction.

Here’s an example of proactive conflict resolution that all companies can implement: effective communication through an extensive FAQ page.

Woolworths takes the pressure off its support team by making answers easy to find. The FAQ page walks customers through everyday things like how to pay, what’s in stock, when to expect a delivery, and how to send something back, so they don’t need to talk to a staff member for the simple stuff.

A clear, well-written FAQ helps customers solve problems on their own, which means fewer calls to your support team and a smoother experience all around.

Of course, even with the best conflict resolution strategies, there are always likely to be challenges, and the very nature of conflict means that it's not easy to apply one-size-fits-all solutions. Here are three proactive ways to counteract conflict.

Your staff may be naturally empathetic, kind people, but this alone isn’t enough. Equip your team with conflict management skills through in-house conflict resolution training programmes and short courses.

Businesses can use platforms like Salesforce Trailhead to provide employees with interactive learning experiences on customer service best practices.

Use the technology available to you to deliver better customer support. To optimise conflict management, you can implement customer relationship management (CRM) systems with AI-powered tools.

Salesforce Service Cloud is one example of these tools. With it, you can access customer histories and customer data, enabling personalised and efficient conflict resolutions with the help of AI.

With Salesforce, you can effortlessly deliver a more responsive customer service experience.

Develop clear guidelines for handling conflicts to ensure consistency and make sure these are accessible to your customer support team.

Any company handbook worth its salt should outline the specific steps and strategies to deal with different types of conflict.

This provides your team with a supportive framework to back up their conflict resolution skills. They can follow clear policies instead of feeling like they are exposed to customer frustrations.

Effective conflict resolution is vital for businesses. We know that conflicts are part and parcel of customer relationships; what matters is how you react to them to reach an agreement.

Resolving conflicts well helps build trust and retain customers, reinforcing your positive reputation as an authentic, empathetic brand.

By understanding the different factors involved, both psychological and cultural, and employing strategic resolution methods, businesses can turn conflicts into opportunities to strengthen relationships.

There are tools available that can empower your customer service team. Discover how Salesforce Service Cloud can provide tools and insights to deliver exceptional customer service.