On a trip to western Canada, I had the dubious pleasure of having my email hacked by someone who gets their kicks out of making the lives of others miserable.  It started about 6 AM with a couple of “Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender…” email messages and suddenly it turned into a torrent.  My smart phone would not stop vibrating as message after messaged jammed my inbox.  And then, after about 10 minutes, it stopped.  Phew, I thought.  That must have been a glitch somewhere.  Just as my blood pressure was returning to normal, it started again and this time it did not stop.

I should point out that I am not very savvy when it comes to high tech.  I called my service provider and the kind person on the other end of the line walked me through various steps to try to stop the vicious emails.  We spent over two hours on the phone.  Nothing seemed to work and, in the process, we found that my outgoing email was not working either.

I had to terminate the call so I could get to an important appointment, so the service provider gave me a ticket number and told me to check back later.  By this time I had over 3000 emails and counting in my inbox and I was a nervous wreck.  I turned off the vibration feature to reduce the stress, but I watched as the emails kept piling up – faster than I could delete them.

Thank goodness my phone still worked.  On my way to the appointment I called the person who set up the service for me and who manages my social media needs.  She knows that I am not up to speed when it comes to this type of technology and she could tell that I was under a great deal of stress.  She intuitively knew that the stress I was feeling was largely because the situation was completely outside of my control and I felt helpless to do anything about it.  She immediately took steps to reduce the stress in the situation and give me some semblance of control.

She explained to me what was likely happening here and that the first thing to do was to change my email access password.  She would do that for me.  She then volunteered to call my service provider and discuss the situation and get a “read” on what was going on from their end.  She pointed out that this was not an uncommon problem and that it would be solved – it was just a matter of time.  I was going into a meeting and we agreed that she would be standing by for my call when the appointment was over to bring me up to speed on what was going on.

That simple act made all of the difference for me.  Through her actions, she was able to give me the sense that I did after all have some control over the situation.  She didn’t fix the problem per se, she simply gave me the information and, after her conversation with the technical person at my service provider, was able to put me at ease by assuring me that everything was being done that could be.

The problem was finally resolved late that evening and I was able to breathe a sigh of relief.  However, it made me think.  The technical person at the service provider was very helpful and I am sure that he was doing all that could be done.  However, I did not feel reassured at the time that everything was being done that could be done or that if we were even on the right track.  As a result, my stress levels did not subside and, if anything, kept rising as we seemed to be no nearer to a solution.  If only he had taken a moment to explain what was behind what I was experiencing, and reassure me by explaining the steps they would take to pinpoint the cause and get me back in business, it would have given me more confidence in his actions and greatly reduced my stress levels from the start.

How about your service techs?  Do they initially focus on the problem or the customer?  Do they take a moment to reassure the customer through their words and their actions to reduce the stress the customer is feeling?

I’d love your feedback on this. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen with our ears and our hearts and to be assured that our questions are just as important as our answers.”

– Fred Rogers

The post Taking the Stress out of Challenging Situations appeared first on jimbaston.com.

It happened to me recently on a flight from San Diego to Toronto.  I was running late for my 11:30 am flight – the only one of the day by that airline.  I ran up to the ticket counter.  I had checked in on-line and all I needed to do was drop my bag.  As I jogged up to the counter, I was relieved to see that there was only one person in front of me – a family checking in bags presumably for the same flight.

As I stood at the front of the line puffing, but otherwise quietly waiting my turn, the ticket agent looked up from her work and asked over the shoulders of the family she was serving, “Going to Toronto?”  “Yes, thanks,” I replied.  “If you’re checking that bag, you will have to go without it.  You’re six minutes past the cut-off time.”

My facial expression must have communicated the question that was formulating in my head because before I could say another word, she explained that the people she was currently checking through had arrived at the desk on time so she was able to process their bags even though it was past the arbitrary cut-off.

So, here I was in an airport, hoping to go home on the only flight that airline had that day, but unable to check my bag because of an arbitrary cut-off time.  And, to add insult to injury, the ticket agent was processing bags for the same flight, right before my eyes.  Apparently, the only reason she would not process me was not because she couldn’t, but that I was six minutes past the cut-off time.

By now the agent had finished processing the family and was able to dedicate full time to “helping” me.  “Is there nothing you can do for me?”  She shook her head.  “So what do I do?”  “Well, you can get rid of the bag and get on this flight or take the next one,” she replied.  “When is the next one?”  “Tomorrow, same time,” she replied.  I am sure she exhibited a small grin.  I was stuck and she knew it.

The next 20 minutes was a wild frenzy as I arranged to have my bag taken care of.  Fortunately, I had a business acquaintance who was staying an extra day at the conference and he willingly agreed to bring my bag back to Toronto.  I put my bag on a taxi bound for the hotel and headed back to the ticket counter.  As I reached the counter, the ticket agent greeted me with a smile and the same question she had for me 20 minutes earlier – “Going to Toronto?”

Argggh!  I understand that there are guidelines and that I was outside of them.  The agent was simply doing her job.  What annoyed me was her lack of the three critical components of dealing with a sticky situation.

Empathy – I had no feeling that the ticket agent had any concern for my welfare at all.  In fact, I think she enjoyed being in the position to be able to say “no”.

Creativity – She made no effort whatsoever to see if she could help me.  I am still convinced that she could have assisted me if she wanted to.  She could have made a quick phone call to see if they could make an exception in this case.  Even if the answer was still “no”, at least I would have felt she tried.

Common Sense – It is common sense not to inflame an already charged situation.  Pointing out that I was six minutes late, making off-hand comments about having to leave my bag behind and later asking me the second time if I was going to Toronto were not helpful and certainly did not endear me to the agent or the company she represented.

But I have to thank her.  There is a valuable lesson here.  This agent probably does a pretty good job of processing people through the airport when things are as they should be.  However, when things go out of the norm, she obviously does not have the skills or the knowledge to handle those exceptions effectively.

How about your customer facing staff?  Are they prepared to handle difficult situations?  Do they show empathy and use creativity and common sense to try to diffuse and ultimately correct the situation?  Or, do they act in a manner that sends your customers packing?

I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”

– Zig Ziglar

The post When the Customer Service person says “I Can’t Help” appeared first on jimbaston.com.