When you are working in Sales, a large part of your job is making people happier, handling their complaints and making sure that they feel good about their purchase. It can be challenging for some people, while other seem to naturally have the knack.
This made me wonder, what is the secret to making people happy?
There is this great article at PsychologyToday that had an interesting idea on the matter. According to them, the secret is simply in acknowledging the fact that they are unhappy.
I know, it sounds crazy, right?
The thing is - it really works.
The idea is that when you acknowledge the reality of other people's feelings, instead of just reacting to them with denial, anger or irritation, you make them feel validated. If you restate their concerns, they feel heard and you can move on to getting the job done.
For example, if I said “I don't think that I want to go to this party. It just seems like a lot of trouble.” My friends would probably say, “Oh, come on, don't be a spoil sport. Besides, you like parties.”
Their reaction just makes me feel bad about not wanting to go. If instead they said, “I know you don't feel like going. But, we really want to spend time with you and you make parties a lot of fun.” I would probably go and be happy about it, knowing that they understood me.
You see, it's all in the approach. The end result is the same; I end up going to the party. The only thing that changed is that I would feel much happier about it.
The experts all seem to agree that denying someone's bad feelings only serves to intensify them. As adults, when our feelings aren't validated, we often resort to childish behaviors like whining and complaining in order to get the attention we crave.
All it takes is acknowledgment and a little bit of encouragement, to change an unhappy customer into a very satisfied and loyal one.
Give it a try the next time you are faced with a customer complaint and see if it works for you.
By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for SalesHeadsBlog and Nexxt. Along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.
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