Working with customers can be a blessing and a curse. Most days, you’re blessed with good people and situations. Other days might be different.
For those tougher days on the front line of the customer experience, here are six unique tools and tactics from Joy Baldridge, author of The Joy in Business – Innovative Ideas to Find Positivity and Profit in Your Daily Work Life.
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These can help you relieve stress, stay calm and keep customers happy – even in difficult situations:
- Master AFA. Always Flexible and Adaptable. Most leaders and workplace experts agree that flexibility and adaptability are the two most important characteristics for employees now – especially those who work in the customer experience. The key is to be flexible enough that you bend without breaking and adaptable enough to adjust to circumstances quickly.
- Watch your WAFs – Worry, Anxiety and Fear. Difficult customer situations can increase everyone’s stress level. When a situation escalates, Baldridge suggests to take deep breaths, recognize and acknowledge what is bothering you and/or customers and talk about how you’ll overcome it.
- Function in Disaster, Finish in Style. The key to dealing with and overcoming difficult situations and days is to keep going. Avoid rehashing negative emotions and agreed-upon details. Instead, direct conversations and actions forward toward an outcome.
- Practice the T Press. In stressful situations, try the Toe Press to keep you “grounded.” Press your toes into the ground. If the situation becomes more tense, press harder. You divert tension from your voice, face and body language to your toes. That can calm you and your customer (who could potentially have a negative reaction to noticeable tension).
- Salt the Hay. You know the saying, “You can take a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” But you can encourage the horse to drink by salting the hay. When faced with a seemingly dead-ended situation, “salt the hay.” Take a step back in difficult situations to uncover something that could alter the outcome to a result that will work for the customer and you. Ask, “How can we salt the hay in this situation?”
- BYT. Some difficult situations can be de-escalated with silence. If you Bite Your Tongue, and let upset or frustrated customers talk more, and show you’re listening closely, they often feel better from the venting. Baldridge suggests literally biting your tongue so you aren’t tempted to interrupt or jump into solution mode before customers have a good opportunity to say their piece.
