Good, Better, Best. The essence of How to control your elephant.
A customer asks for something that she’s not going to get:
“I WANT COMPENSATION FOR LOSS OF EARNINGS!”.
Here are three possible responses.
ol>- I’m unable to offer you compensation for loss of earnings because ………..
- We’re unable to offer you compensation for loss of earnings because …………
- We won’t offer you compensation for loss of earnings because ………..
None of these responses is wrong. But one of them is the best.
“WE WON’T…….” Why?
Because number one, will have your customers screaming at you wanting to talk to your boss because you clearly aren’t qualified to make decisions about compensation.
Number two will have a cynical customer laughing in your face saying something like “you made 50 million last year and I only want 500 quid! Don’t tell me you’re unable to!”.
Number three carries the right weight and level of assertiveness.
Whilst most people attending How to control your elephant agree that number one is the worst choice, many of them believe that number two is the best. Because they feel it is somewhat “softer” and they fear that number three is “too harsh”
To which we reply “number three will only sound too harsh if the customer has caused you to trigger. If you remain calm, empathic, and in control of yourself, your “we won’t” will get your message across loud and clear.
It’s great to see their confidence grow as lightbulbs switch on.
This is the essence of How to control your elephant.
We start by believing that everybody does the best they can and in most cases the dialogue they have with their customers is fine.
Which means that we don’t preach Right v Wrong, as this approach frustrates learners; they feel like a “bad person” who “gets things wrong”
Instead we preach “better v worse”
