Never underestimate the tone of a smile.
This statement originated for me a few years ago when I was working in a call center as a customer representative. I have to tell you, some customers can be very ill-mannered and mean. Not all of them are, luckily. But many can be.
I had just gotten off of an hour long call with a customer. They weren't happy, they couldn't figure out the answer to the question they had, so they called in, and they got me. I did everything I could think of to help them. Without disclosing the full situation, basically, a customer did not know how to do something with a piece of electronic equipment, and I walked them through it, step by step, over and over again.
This particular situation was very frustrating, since it was something I could easily do for them in less than five minutes, You just don't get that opportunity in a call center, however. I described colors, I described shapes, and I described any identifiers I could think of, and they just could not get it.
They were not able to do it themselves, they ended up giving up and had to find someone to help them, physically. I ran out of ideas.
After the call ended, my supervisor, who sat across from me, said "Sarah, I have to tell you, I could hear how frustrating that call was. But no matter how frustrated you have to be, you can always hear the smile in your voice".
That hit home for me. Sure, it's easy to get frustrated, and it's easy to let people know your frustrated, but who does that help? Something as simple as a smile can set the tone for a better experience, both for your customer as well as for yourself.
Welcome to my blog. I am creating this blog in an effort to enhance as well as motivate people are work in customer service positions, and to motivate and inspire anyone that I can. When you've been both a customer service representative and a customer, you get more perspectives. I hope to see people from each end active on this blog.
Thank-you for reading and please comment and participate in discussions (respectfully, of course). Please help this blog to become a tool used by anyone who needs it and a way to help others, no matter what background they come from!
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