Thursday, November 15, 2012
Serving Your Customers Without Sacrificing Yourself
I attended Rayna Schroeder's workshop 'Serving Your Customers Without Sacrificing Yourself' at LaVale on November 14. This sounded like an interesting topic for me, as I deal with customers every day, and some of them can be challenges to my good nature. I learned that if I can identify my 'triggers', actions that will make me angry, I can learn how to diffuse the negative energy before I lose my cool. There are tools that can help me keep calm and they include the SOSS model. SOSS stands for Stop, Oxegenate, Strengthen Appreciation and Seek Information. The more I can emotionally understand a person, the less negative energy will be directed their way. I will try to encourage my coworkers to give our customers the benefit of the doubt and try to empathize with them and the library environment will be a nice place to be in!
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3 comments:
I agree with you, Linda. I have had some time to think about this workshop over the last couple of days, and I think the last "S" in SOSS is particularly valuable. It means "Seek Information," and the handout Rayna Schroeder gave us notes that not only will this allow us to gain insight into what emotional need the customer has, it will buy us time to choose our response instead of just reacting. We all know what it is like to know exactly what we should have said ten minutes after the situation is over. When faced with a difficult situation, I think I am often busy trying to react rather than listening to the customer and helping them feel listened to. If I seek more information, they might feel like I am listening, and I might have more time to say the right thing at the moment, not ten minutes after it.
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