Two Way Radios - Enhancing the Customer Experience

#2 FIND THE GOOD NEWS.

“Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad. (Proverbs 12:25 (ESV)”

Find ‘the good’- whatever it may be. Steven Covey’s fourth of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People recommends thinking “Win-Win” in relationships with competing agendas. This tactic is no less applicable in combative dialogues than between business partners or spouses. Find a way to concede and compromise by locating an aspect of the other person’s perspective that you can agree with. Highlight that portion and communicate how the other person’s perspective is in fact compatible with a part of your argument. When you can find common ground with people, you will in fact establish credibility in your communication, rather than concede total failure.

This fear of conceding failure often poses an unnecessary barrier to the words: “I’m sorry.” There are millions of people who rarely hear these words. Some don’t even hear them from their spouses, children, or best friends. Saying, “I’m sorry” can have a powerful effect on people just hearing you admit that a mistake was made and you’re willing to take responsibility for it. Nevertheless, you will get people who say, “I don’t accept your apology, I want X-Y-Z and I want it yesterday!” You know what the response to that is? “I’m sorry, sir/ma’am, I am doing (or have done) everything in my power to resolve this for you.” Proverbial wisdom is not an absolute category of what will happen in every scenario; rather, it’s a description of the general patterns of human nature. Couple good news with a soft answer and you will decrease the level of animosity from customers, clients, vendors etc.

At some point in the conversation, you may need to redirect your interlocutor with, “Is there anything else I can help you with today?” That redirection must be a sincere offer of assistance, while also a firm assertion that with regards to their previous complaint you have come to an impasse. The problem with continuing a long and heated conversation is that the customer may be inclined to escalate their complaints the longer they dwell on them. Solomon confirms this when he adds, “The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so quit before the quarrel breaks out. (Proverbs 17:14)”