“You know,” she whispered. “Sometimes I feel almost guilty about how much pleasure I get from my job.  I have discovered that when I extend even the smallest kindness, I am repaid a hundred times over.”

Excerpted from the book, The Napkin, the Melon & the Monkey.

With the help of Isabel, her wise friend and mentor, Olivia discovered the joy that came from being more kind and generous to others.  While she knew that giving someone a compliment made them feel good, she hadn’t realized that being kind benefited her more.

The next time you praise someone, notice the three “feel good” stages that you experience.

1.  Anticipate the positive reaction of the person who will receive your praise.
2. The actual delivery of the praise when you see the positive reaction of the recipient.
3. The afterglow that you and the recipient feel after the praise.

A supervisor at a NWA reservations call center helped me to recognize these three stages.  A few years ago I called to make a reservation for a trip to Europe hoping to use my accumulated miles without having to pay a lot of additional cash. Bev, the agent I worked with, not only figured out how to make my reservation using more miles than cash, but also arranged an upgrade to business class on the return trip. I told her how much I appreciated her creativity and asked to be transferred to her supervisor. As I was waiting on hold I anticipated the supervisor’s reaction to getting a compliment instead of the usual complaint. As it turned out, the supervisor was not just surprised, she was delighted to hear me rave about Bev and thanked
me profusely. After I hung up, I realized that I had not only made her day, I had made mine as well.

“I get it!” I laughed. “If customers didn’t have any problems, Mighty Power wouldn’t need me. I wouldn’t even have this job!”
Isabel grinned and nodded. “So you can see, in a way, every problem a customer presents to us is really a gift.”

From the book, The Napkin, the Melon & the Monkey

Olivia was a lot like you and me. She became frustrated when life didn’t go the way that she thought it “should.” Her wise mentor, Isabel, helped her to realize that the source of her stress and dissatisfaction was her belief that she could live a life free of problems.

How can a problem be viewed as a gift? Here are two examples to consider:

• If you serve customers (internal or external) remember that if things worked perfectly every day, customers would not need to contact you. Your company would have no need for your services.
• Each problem you encounter in life has within it, an opportunity to learn and grow.

The next time you deal with a challenging situation at work or in your personal life, do a quick, honest assessment. Ask yourself: If I could do this over again, what would I do differently?

I know that is hard to do sometimes — accepting that you may be the one who needs to change, not the other person. When I wonder why I’m feeling so frustrated with a situation, I stop to remind my self of the old saying, “The sign of insanity is doing things the same way over and over again and expecting a different outcome.” Then I laugh at myself and vow to be slightly less insane next time.

Share the wisdom,

Barbara Burke
Author, speaker & employee engagement devotee

“I never considered it my responsibility to apologize to a customer for the inconvenience a problem had caused. But then I tried it. I was amazed at how those two words, ‘I apologize,’ immediately diffused customers’ anger.” — Olivia

From the book, The Napkin, the Melon & the Monkey

When irate customers call to complain, they are convinced that they have been wronged and expect you (as the representative of the company) to make it right. Your customers have absolutely no interest in knowing why the problem occurred or who in the company is to blame.

The next time you encounter a frustrated customer who blames you for their problem, do what Olivia learned to do. Try saying the magical words: “I apologize for the inconvenience.” Notice that you are not saying that you, personally, are at fault. Rather, you are showing them empathy for their plight.

When customers hear your apology, they calm down immediately. They know they are working with a competent professional who is taking responsibility for solving their problem. As many top agents already know, uttering those five magical words (and meaning it) really does work wonders.

I have found that apologizing to a customer is easy compared to apologizing to a good friend or a member of my family. I’ve learned (the hard way) that when I pay attention to that little voice inside my head telling me that I just might have been wrong, I should go ahead and apologize. I admit that I don’t always take the advice from that little voice. But, I’m a lot better at apologizing than I used to be.

I’d love to hear what you have to say about this new feature!

Share the wisdom,

Barbara Burke
Author, speaker & employee engagement devotee

Woman Out of Order

Sometimes reps just don’t know any better.

CSR: “Mam, to be honest, you’re lucky you got your order at all, considering we have been really short-staffed since we had the big lay off in September and lost about half our guys in the shipping department. I think that by the time you called we had pretty much caught up with all the back orders. You wouldn’t believe how bad it was. We had to put in bukoo overtime which didn’t make us too happy. But, hey, we’re a team, so we got it done. That, on top of the CIS conversion really messed things up. Talk about a nightmare. Personally, I liked the old system much better. This one has less screens but they are harder to get to. But then that’s just me. Other people like it just fine. Oh yeah, that day you called? We had a major blizzard. Most of us live pretty far out of town so most every body was late coming to work. Except me. My driveway is about a mile long, so I have four-wheel drive, so I was one of the first to get here. Other people weren’t so lucky, they had to wait to get shoveled out and didn’t get here until after lunch…so really, you were one of the lucky ones and got your order….even if it was late, you still got it…it coulda been a lot worse.”