Sangha

There is a concept in Buddhism known as "Sangha." In short, it refers to the community of believers. Any time someone wants to learn something new, or change their lifestyle, or even kick a bad habit (or start new ones) it's good for them to surround themselves with like-minded people for support. You see this everywhere -- Weight Watchers, AA, Sunday Mass.

The same holds true for changing your customer service skills. A visit to any call center break room will find that reps like to segregate themselves into different groups. One group likes to talk about life outside of work, another group likes to talk about positive customer interactions, while another group likes to complain and criticize customers. Beware the last group.

If you spend time with customer service reps who have negative attitudes, then it will be easy for you to adapt that attitude as well. First, you'll want to feel part of that group so you'll begin to share your negative experiences. Soon, negative customer experiences will become part of your work day. You'll begin to look for stories to share with your new lunch mates. You'll start to look at your job negatively.

Instead, have lunch with those that have a positive outlook on their customers and their jobs. Soon the opposite will start to happen. You'll begin to see the customers in a more positive light and chances are you'll start to enjoy your job a lot more.

So this week when you are at work and you have the choice of sitting with co-workers who complain or those who don't, sit with those who don't complain. I bet in a few weeks you'll start to see your job differently. This is the secret of Sangha.

It Happens to All of Us

Buddhism tells the story of a woman whose small child had died. Stricken with grief, she carried the child from house to house asking for medicine that would help. One household told her to go see the Buddha. The Buddha told her that he did have a cure, but that she would need to collect mustard seeds from every house in the village that has not experienced death. Well, as you can imagine, every house she visited had known death and she was able to let go of her grief and accept her child's death as part of life.

What does this have to do with customer service? Well, how many times have you told yourself you have the "customers from hell" or the "worst job in the world"? The thing is, all of your coworkers have the same job and the same customers. Are they all unhappy? When I worked as a Customer Service Rep I noticed in the break room how it was always the same reps who seemed to have "the hotline from hell" or all the bad customers. When I became a supervisor and started to monitor their calls and those of their coworkers I noticed a big difference in how the customers were approached by the different reps. The ones that often complained were defensive, quickly aggitated, and easily frustrated. The ones that never seemed to complain were patient, courteous, and helpful.

We all have the same customers, we all have the same job. Don't feel like your customers are the worst, or you somehow are cursed with the bad customers. If you feel this way, look at your own service and be the rep you want when you call a customer service number.