A friend spends half of her workday on the phone. Unfortunately for a millennial, financial accounts upwards of ten thousand dollars cannot be transferred by text messaging. But she is friendly, and gives careful attention to detail. Her boss thinks she's great.
She told me about a phone call she had as a customer, trying to make a purchase. After explaining her problem, the service person restated the issue.
"I understand that you ordered it to be shipped to your house but want to change that so it goes to the recipient. Is that correct?"
My daughter recognized the tactic. It had been drummed into her at Customer Relationship Management training. She was being handled.
"Yes, I need it to get there before the baby shower on the fourteenth."
"Urgency is often a concern for our customers. Shall I use overnight shipping?" This step was called normalizing. People are reassured when their requests are within the scope of average.
"No, three days is fine. I just need you to check the address."
"Let me verify that for you. Thank you for your patience." Steps three and four. Promise action and express gratitude.
By the time she hung up she was laughing. So this was what she sounded like to her clients.
My friend went through months of classes before she was ever allowed to speak to a potential customer. Her company has found that to be a good investment.
People get married without any certification standards. They are allowed to shout, hurl insults, stonewall or criticize willy nilly. There is no process in place to weed out those divisive tactics. But employing communication standards that can make businesses run smoothly come in handy at home too.
