jackalgirl:fairy-anon-godmother:aqueerkettleofish:ilovecowdog: c-ptsdrecovery: People on Twitter sha
jackalgirl:fairy-anon-godmother:aqueerkettleofish:ilovecowdog: c-ptsdrecovery: People on Twitter sharing mental health advice that helped them So I thought this was ridiculously silly the first time I heard it. Then I had a really bad patch and decided to try it. Not only did this help me feel better, it made my friends feel better. They liked hearing the positive ‘thank you for helping me/ catching that/ understanding that’ which helped them be happier around me which helped lift up my mood. This is also INCREDIBLY USEFUL in Customer Service. If I could teach one rule in customer service it would be “You’re getting paid to fix that idiot’s problem, it’s your job, quit acting like it’s not. You have nothing better to do with your time than to help that idiot with their problem, and they have no other way of getting that problem solved.” But if I could teach TWO, the second would be “Never apologize for anything that’s not specifically your personal fault.”“I’m sorry you were on hold for so long.”“Thank you for your patience; that was longer than it should have been.”“I’m sorry the last rep treated you that way.”“The last rep’s behavior was unacceptable; you won’t get that from me.”“I’m sorry to make you do this, but it’s necessary.”“I know this is unpleasant, and I sympathize, but this is what we need to do to fix the problem.” This is excellent career advice in general. A lot of people make one of two mistakes when something comes up: they either apologize (owning the problem entirely when they might not have to) or try to push it off to someone else. But apologizing or pinning the blame on others doesn’t move you from the problem to the solution. Changing your language is a really great step to appearing more professional and mature. The ^ is great for customer service, but it also works really well when addressing projects that might have run long or run into issues. To your boss: ‘Thank you for your patience, we had to reach out to our partners to coordinate a response’ is better then ‘I’m sorry I screwed up and asked for help’ and ‘the other guys screwed up so I had to fix it’. To someone helping you: ‘Thank you for your assistance/knowledge/expertise/advice, I appreciate it and you helped us achieve success here’ is better then ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t figure it out on my own’ or ‘someone else screwed up so we have to fix it’.To the customer: ‘Thank you for your patience or understanding, we’ve achieved a better product/outcome now that we’ve had time to investigate and respond to the issue’ is better then ‘I’m sorry I let this break when I either couldn’t avoid that or dropped the ball on keeping it from breaking and kept you waiting’ and ‘don’t get mad at me get mad at someone else’.Unless the mistake is catastrophic, pretty much everyone understands that things happen and minor errors slip by. Inserting a thank you into the sentence adds understanding that the other person is being inconvenienced, and tells them you recognize that and are responding to end that inconvenience as quickly and smoothly as possible. ‘We have a problem’ should always be followed by ‘and I’m on it to fix it’. Get into the habit of replacing ‘I’m sorry’ with announcing corrective action is being taken. Seconded on this being a useful reframing technique -- source link