It was 8:05am and the guy answered the phone with an air of frustration.
They had just opened.
I said I wanted to inquire if he could send out a spear for a speargun from Auckland to Great Barrier Island before the weekend. I needed a new spear for a speargun building project we are wrapping up.
He replied quickly: “Yeah we can do that.” then a pause. Very matter of fact.
So, with no real lead from him, I started to describe what I was after.
“I need a seven millimetre spear, sixteen-hundred long, with shark fins and a Euro end.”
I described the product I was after…
“Oh, no, you don’t want that. That won’t work in the trigger you have.”
Instantly this creates tension in a conversation.
From here, it was a battle to get through to the purchase.
Why? When a person expresses what they want, and we tell them that they are wrong, we are denying them of the transformation they want to make.
We are telling them that the reality that they want to create is wrong.
We got through the rest of the call – the spear I was after was the correct choice in the end, but when the call wrapped up, we were less in communion than we were at the start.
Not only is this ineffective customer service, but it doesn’t tend to fly to well in any relating.
Thankfully we have the opportunity to choose a different path. To move into communion with the other person – to ask more questions, listen, and then if needed, to enrol them in a future or decision that may serve both sides more powerfully.
Our decision to return as a customer, partner, friend or colleague often hinges on how we feel when we interact with the other. There are few quicker ways to extinguish a flame than to make them feel wrong.
