We can all tell a little bit from your mood and your voice, especially over the phone when you can’t see the person, ad yes, I am talking about the person filling a customer service role.

The funny thing is that customer service is known to be a tough job, so when they are smiling – yes, you can hear it – that makes a huge difference.

We get it.

People are usually not calling in to say “hey everything was great and I am so glad I ________ (shopped at your store, visited your doctor, got my bill, at at your restaurant) and it was so awesome I just had to call and say thanks so much!”

No.

I mean, you don’t do that do you?

No, you don’t.

You may be the type of person who is overly cheerful to a retail clerk, the front desk medical manager, accounts receivables bookkeeping team, or the restaurant server – but, are you also overly nice and sweet to the person on a call line?

Probably not. Why?

Because they start it…by being audibly overwhelmed and irritated. Sure, they are tired of talking to cranky people and they are typically being asked to fix a problem that they didn’t cause, but – if only – they could smile first. That might help.

In other words, how can we convey, convince and collaborate in a very nice way? Do we need to say “your mood will set the tone for mine”? (That probably won’t help. But they could try it and I bet their days would get better and they would actually be smiling at the end.) In my day’s research, speaking to not 1 or 2 but 5 (or, was it 6?) different teams today…the most memorable was the one who I know was smiling, acting helpful, and truly sounded like she cared. Thank you Carmen, I hope that’s your real name, you made my day even though you couldn’t help solve my problem and I had to call back in again an hour later.

~ Dawn aka Hat Girl