Busy Day

We are in the middle busiest season at my work, and I have a really busy day scheduled for me, so only have time for a quick post :-)

Headrush has a great post today, centered around the question: How do you make people care? It references those people in customer service, and talks about how passion is contagious - please check it out!

The struggle is, when things get really busy (the way they are for me right now) and you have other interests that you care deeply about that are not connected to your 9-5 work. How do you retain the motivation necessary to find out about the hopes and dreams of your customers, when you feel that all your emotional and mental effort is absorbed just by going through the motions of your day?

It's a challenge.

One thing that has worked for me though: Share your feelings with your client. If you have other interests outside of work - talk about them. Your client can probably relate to your varied interests. If things are really busy and you feel that you are running around like a chicken with your head cut off, then joke about it. Like Hugh Macleod says, have real conversations with these people. Clients don't mind if you act like a human being. In fact, they usually like it. Just as long as you remember to keep your negativity in check. Talk about things that make you happy, excited even. Because passion is contagious and if you treat your customers like your friends they will remember you and want to come back.

Brain wave - The way I am going to stay motivated today is I am going to ask every customer what they do for fun. This conversation excites me, and I think that my clients will be glad that I asked.