The best way to deal with any issue in customer service is to simply listen to what the person has to say to you. You make the request that you want from someone and then let them say what there is to say. If it's not satisfactory to you as an outcome then simply ask them if they were in your position, what would they do? The way to get what you really want is to be human and engage with other humans in an empathetic way. One way to not do that is to be angry, pissy or frustrated. Remember that the person who you are dealing with in customer service isn't the one who made the rules, they're just following what someone else told them to do. The next time you feel like you are not being treated fairly by a business, you simply do your best to be present with the human being on the other end of the phone or standing across from you. How are we going to get to people who are still prejudice and closed off from having empathy for all kinds of people that are different from them? What if we use this same technique of relating to one another when we're engaging with people in conversations that are difficult about situations that usually cause prejudice to come up or cause tension or anger? What we know is that nobody likes to be made wrong. When people who don't have exposure to diverse situations do have an experience with someone who is in their family or close to them, their whole perspective can change because one-on-one we relate completely differently than with someone online. We know that having one-on-one, in-person encounters with people who are different from us almost inevitably creates an opening for a disappearance of the prejudice, for the person to rethink their beliefs. We know that those types of conversations with people can make a real difference. It's unrealistic to put the burden on the people who are already burdened to go and change the minds of the people who are sitting back in prejudice because of their lack of experience with other cultures and people who are different from them. Asking the person what they would do if they were in your shoes forces them to look at the situation from a different perspective.
The instinct to embrace our prejudices instead of questioning them, we know that if that's a fear-based thing then shaming, threatening, yelling at people who are prejudice, those tactics are not going to work. When we feel isolated as human beings we feel more fearful. We're still in that fight or flight mode when people get angry or disagree with us. You have to be willing to hear what the other person has to say first. Do not interrupt them, that won't get you the result that you want. When you hear someone being prejudice, embrace the opportunity and start by practicing for yourself what it's like to receive a communication that you hate and can't be with. Once you learn this skill you will gain so much power in so many areas of your life. Just allow a person to communicate what it is that they have to communicate fully.
#TheNOWNation #QuestionTheWholeThing #YouAreTheHardWork
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