An angry customer is simply incapable of rationalizing the situation. They are so caught up in their emotion that it (the anger) filters all their words. Anger is an emotion, and like every emotion, it is felt in the right hemisphere of the brain. Rationalization, problem solving, listening and negotiation are activities of the left hemisphere of the brain, but your belligerent customer is trapped in their right hemisphere.

At this point, don’t expect them to be able to rationalize the situation with you. Solving their issue would be pointless; instead, try to maintain control of the situation, to avoid worsening it even more. And don’t go antagonising a mad customer!

Clutter is an energy thief and a distraction, and every distracting thing prevents you from using your time effectively. When you lack of organization, or you don’t have an established system or effective process, lots of time is spent doing the same thing several times over.

If your main workspace (virtual or physical) is confusing, you will end up wasting time looking for things. A scattered workspace is made for a scattered mind. Clutter induces a feeling of guilt and makes a feeling of perpetual dissatisfaction persist within us.

Get rid of clutter and you will handle your workload more effectively. A tidy workspace incites more effective work and a greater productivity.

What to do when a customer is aggressive? First, ask yourself what could drive someone to become violent and what the factors are that create and increase anger. Few people become suddenly violent; oftentimes, violence and aggressiveness are a last resort “solution” to try to regain control of a situation that’s been rotting for some time. This is why it is important to know how to prevent and defuse difficult situations.

That being said, when a customer is getting angry… they truly are and they can choose unpleasant behaviours that can and must be handled. But there are behaviours that are considered unacceptable: violence, threats and insults.

In those situations, it is useless to try being heroic, but important to maintain a safe environment. Anticipate an action plan allowing you to put an end to the exchange, to ask the customer to leave, or to call for help if needed.

Our workplaces introduce us to constant challenges such as angry customers, unpleasant coworkers, demanding superiors, objectives to achieve, recurring issues, and performance requirements, making it easy to feel overwhelmed, overworked and on edge. Regardless of our roles we sometimes find ourselves in difficult situations leading to an emotional breakdown.

We can learn to adapt to or overcome difficult situations and it is in our best interest to manage our emotions, regain our balance and strengthen our emotional stamina.

Athletes regulate their emotions before competitions to help them perform better, and soldiers regulate their emotions before going to battle to avoid emotional collapses.

Why not make it a regular practice in your professional tool box?

We are very ambivalent about change…

We constantly demand that our environment changes.

But as soon as the same environment asks us to change…

… We "resist",

… Our defense mechanisms are triggered,

… We argue to maintain the status quo.

We are used to our "routines" and find it difficult to change them.

This change imposes stress on us, reviving the feeling of insecurity deep in the reptilian brain, which forces us to mobilize our forces to counter threats and ensure our survival.

This change forces us to …

… find another way of doing things,

... to adapt,

… to adopt new circumstances and conditions.

But its appropriation is above all a matter of individual progress!

The same change can cause very different reactions from one individual to another, depending on how they perceive the change.

A Buddhist proverb says: "Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional. "

This situation is certainly painful, but it is up to us to decide if we will suffer from it or not!

• Don’t send an email when you can pick up the phone instead.
• Don’t send a text when an email makes more sense.
• Don’t have a meeting when a memo would be just as effective.
• Don’t do a speech when a blog article would reach more people with more impact.
• And don’t write it when it’s better said face to face…

Sometimes an event has struck a raw nerve, the customer is convinced to have been wronged and it might trigger some emotional reactions. It is rare that the problem is directly related to you. The customer is not mad at you: they are angry at the situation. Nonetheless, you are the person who can fix the problem and they turn to you.

Take their discontent seriously… But don’t take the negative comments or unpleasant behaviours personally.

Actually, if you want to be professional, it is impossible to do both at the same time.

A customer service norm is a commitment in order to reach a performance level that customers (internal or external) can expect in their day-to-day operations. Keeping the quality of offered services in mind we owe it to our selves to develop customer service norms reflecting the behaviours the organization / department / service wants to adopt towards its customers. A customer service norm is:

Focused on the customer – Knowing the customers’ expectations means identifying their priorities and expectations. Those expectations are used as indicators allowing you to measure the customer’s satisfaction such as availability, accessibility, credibility, curtesy, reliability, security, etc. (what the customer wants)

Based on the organizational culture – the norm must be in syntony with the goals and decisions we make as an organization, and is lead by a combination of values and principles, such as independence, equity, integrity, excellence, respect, performance, innovation, collaboration, creativity, etc. The internal processes or values are what is important to reach the results. (What the organization aspires to)

Measurable – The respect of the norm is subject to an objective evaluation through performance measurement activities such as satisfaction surveys, call recordings, etc. And result in external and internal accountability.

Public – the commitment and performances will be shared with customers and employees.

Today’s workforce is more diverse than ever. Reality changed. It’s no longer about knowing how to work with people like us, but rather being able to work with people different from us. It is no longer realistic to wish to work in a homogeneous environment, but rather to have the ability to thrive in a heterogeneous work environment. 

We don’t always realize the biases or prejudices we have towards our coworkers, or our customers, whom are different from us. And, it is possible we don’t understand how our behaviours affect others.

Learning to understand others can help avoid misunderstandings and prevent any confrontation that might happen in the workplace. Like in any other aspect of diversity, we must respect others and appreciate (which is more than to tolerate) differences to maintain a sense of community.

When we are stressed, it’s easy to get disconnected from the body’s best coping mechanisms: the senses.

In fight-or-flight mode, you can feel so overwhelmed that you forget to rely on your senses to guide you. Research shows that using the power of sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste is the best way to beat stress.

Smell: Try aromatherapy. Lavender, peppermint or citrus have all relaxation and mood-boosting benefits.

Taste: If you are going to indulge, do it mindfully. The simple fact of chewing itself offers numerous therapeutic benefits. And a recent study showed that a daily dose of black tea reduces stress hormones.

Hear: Certain music stimulates areas of the brain responsible for emotions. Listening to music can help you relieve a stressful situation and decrease cortisol levels.

See: Our environmental surroundings can definitely make a big difference to our stress levels. Diminish clutter, have a potted plant or surround yourself with your favorite color.

Touch: While breathing deeply, give yourself a mini self-massage: Knead your neck, shoulder and upper-back muscles. That’s where we carry our stress!

You’re striving toward a goal… And you hit a wall! You’re stuck, frustrated, and exhausted.

When active efforts at problem-solving have taken you as far as they can, try letting go.

Turn to something completely different, perhaps something soothingly, mindless, and repetitive. Like taking a walk or a shower, brushing your hair, shaving, knitting or folding laundry. Sever completely your previous train of thoughts and emotions. 

We often find our answers in serene places. Get your mind completely off what you were struggling with. Relinquish control. Go into reverie, and then the mind, relieved of pressure, rearranges itself.

Often the answer will be there. Your mind is flooded with solutions and your body with the energy that athletes call “the zone”.

It is more and more common to take notes on electronic applications instead of by hand.

A study conducted by Princeton in 2014 shows that when we use a keyboard to take notes, we do not absorb the material optimally, primarily because we transcript word for word instead of rephrasing in our own words. The act of typing rapidly without trying to grasp the real sense of words harms the comprehension and learning process.

Taking notes electronically might be more efficient, but doing it by hand is more effective!

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797614524581

Tattoos are not necessarily compatible with all professions and work sectors, and depending on the career or occupation you wish to have, tattoos will be more or less tolerated, accepted, appreciated perhaps even admired.

Some industries are more open minded and value the creativity and the self expression, while some are more formal, and want to give off a more rigorous image of impartiality, confidence by means of a fitting and polished appearance. In those cases, a tattoo must be more … discreet – in order to respect the neutrality and formality required by the organization.

In terms of tattoos, corporate image must be a key element to consider. One should show some caution, all depending on the kind of employment and the context. It is essential to understand the organization’s culture (its implied rules), its philosophy (its values), the nature of the job… And above of all whom will you be in contact with!

The customer is not always right… Evidently, you could make your point, even have the last word. You might even be right. However, right or wrong, your effort will be in vain: It is not possible to win an argument with a customer.

Your goal is to acquire, maintain, and increase a loyal clientele, not to be right. If you win the argument, you might damage your relationship with the customer. Whether your organization is private or public, it is always a LOSING outcome for YOU.

The customer isn’t always right but he is the customer. We have to find a fair solution that answers his requests while respecting the needs of the organization!

It's the end of the year: whether good or bad, satisfying or disappointing, it's time to look back on the year we leave behind.

Resilience means being able to see failures as lessons and opportunities for improvement. As Thomas Edison once said about the invention of the light bulb, “I have not failed. I simply found 10,000 solutions that did not work.”

Knowing how to accept your failures as easily as your successes is a sign of a deep-rooted self-confidence, the kind of self-assurance that will not be eroded by setbacks and will be able to inspire you to persevere in the face of adversity.

Your failures are whispers telling you to try again and they serve as benchmarks for the rest of your journey. They help you know which paths to avoid in the future and allow you to turn back and go in the right direction.

Reframe these failures so that you may make changes and come out stronger than before.

When you look at a situation from a different angle, you can see many opportunities for success, growth and development.

What a great opportunity to start over and begin the new year with strength, character, verve and conviction.