Moment of Truth - Jul 09
I had dealings with a Consultant who simply would not accept that we did not require his services. He called to ask for the person who deals with photo-copiers. Our administrator advised that no-one specifically dealt with this; however we did not require a new one. He responded that this was not good enough and he wanted to speak with some-one; if we were to purchase a photo-copier before the end of the month we would get ‘a cracking deal’.
Jayne passed the call over to me and after listening to a very frantic paced sales spiel I reiterated Jayne’s response. The consultant demanded to speak to the most senior person within the company as we were clearly not good decision makers and he needed to speak to the director… he was! This time I explained why we did not require his services he responded with that he would be calling back and when he did get to speak to the Director he would be the first to tell him how very unhelpful we were and that we may have cost the company money. I asked was the end of the month their year end? Yes he responded curtly. I then asked had he not met his year end targets and he replied frantically “who has?”
Is it possible to step back and see the need for customer care when we are so stressed with all the other factors fogging our mind?
There are often times at work where our stress levels will follow peaks and troughs. For most of us we recognise this and prepare for these times. What happens when we don’t recognise why we are stressed?
Stress Logging
If you find that you feel very stressed at work and this will of course impact your customer care, do something to take control. Rate the event on a scale of one to 10, where one is a minimum of stress, five is, “I feel like I need a break,” and 10 is, “I’m going to blow a gasket.” Leave room for any comments or thoughts.
Monday, July 15
Time Event Rating Comments
8:15 a.m. Stuck in traffic 3 Why did I get so upset and let this ruin my morning?
10:30 a.m. Did not prepare my sales report for today’s meeting 8
12:05 p.m. Still working on report when I should be meeting Bill regarding important sales meeting 8 I should have let Bill know before meeting
3:30 p.m. My manager complained about my late report 6
6:15 p.m. Was late leaving the office and picking my son up 5
When we have situations that cause our stress levels to rise, we have three basic strategies we can use. We can alter or change the situation, figure out how to avoid the situation, or accept the situation and alter our response to it.
Alter Sometimes this is the most promising strategy. Let’s say you are always stressed when you are going to be late for a meeting. Change the situation by setting an alarm so you will leave five or ten minutes earlier. Write the appointment down with a 15 minute cushion. For example, if you have a doctor’s appointment at 2:30, write it in your planner for 1:15, allowing for travel time. If you are always late getting to work, set your alarm 30 minutes earlier and leave 30 minutes earlier.
Avoid You know your manager likes to review your reports prior to meetings and yet your bring you bring yours along to the meeting. You know that your best and yet grumpiest customer does not like to be kept waiting and still you are always late by at least 10 minutes. Forcing ourselves into situations that make us stressed, when we really don’t have to be in those situations, is just being a masochist.
Accept There are some things in life, like year end, weekly meeting, recurring reports, that are unavoidable so we may as well accept these situations with good grace. Let’s say going to the dentist makes you stressed. Accept that and deal with it accordingly. Play music before you go. Give yourself some positive self-talk like, “By this time tomorrow it will be all over,” “I won’t have to do this again for six months,” or, “I can handle this”.
Customers will pick up on your stressed state and act accordingly!
Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. Nothing is that important. Natalie Goldberg
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