If you work in an industry with continual customer interaction and exchange of money, you’re bound to run into an unhappy person or experience a disagreement with someone at some point. Nobody wants to deal with conflict at work, but it’s an unfortunate fact of doing business. In this series, we’ll look at a few important keys to retail conflict management, including preparing yourself with common scenarios, recognizing the phases of escalation, de-escalating, and maintaining control in these tense situations. The goal is to prepare you for the worst-case scenarios ahead of time, so they don’t catch you off guard.