Mr. Slater shoulda had a SODA.
By now you've probably heard about Steven Slater, the JetBlue flight attendant who after arguing with a passenger behaving badly, announced on the loud speaker system that he'd had it, grabbed a couple of beers, opened a door and slid down the emergency chute.
If you work in customer service you know the feeling. You've had those days when if there was a window to open and a chute available you'd be tempted to do the same thing. The fact is if you deal with customers every day, a certain percentage of them will behave badly.
A lose-lose situation.
Actually, getting angry at customers is a choice we make. If you find yourself reacting in any of the following ways, you have fallen into the trap of taking customers' anger personally.
> Backatcha. Getting angry at angry customers results in disaster.
> Oh, ya! I'll show you whose right! Nobody wins the blame game.
> Throw gasoline on the fire. Knowingly making a remark to make an angry customer even angrier is downright sick.
> Crumble. Internalize the anger, suffer and get so stressed you get ill - or quit.
> Hang up. The equivalent of exiting out the window.
A win-win situation.
There is a healthier way to handle irate customers. That is to have a SODA (Stop.Observe.Decide.Act) This is an ancient four-step formula for dealing with emotionally-charged situations skillfully.
> Stop. It's only natural to have the fight or flight response when you feel you are being attacked. The key to maintaining emotional control is to stop yourself from reacting automatically. It's a nanosecond that makes all the difference.
> Observe. Once you make the choice to retain control, you see the situation for what it is: the customer is angry about their situation. It's really not about you!
> Decide. Instead of expending energy getting angry and getting nowhere, you focus on deciding which solutions to offer the customer.
> Act. This last step is the pay off. The customer gets their problem solved, you feel empowered and confident knowing you did the best you could. It is clearly a win-win situation.
Mr. Slater would have been better off trading those two beers and a slide for a SODA.