Dealing With Difficult Situations

This has been a crazy-busy day --- pilates, chores, grumpy kiddies, grocery shopping, a birthday bash, and preparing for an onslaught of guests tomorrow. In the middle of it all, I attended a volunteer training session at the YMCA this afternoon.

The session was called "Dealing With Difficult Situations". To tell the truth, I approached the training as an obligation I just had to get through. I wasn't expecting to learn much. In the midst of my hectic day, a volunteer training session was pretty much the last place I wanted to be.

Guess what? I actually did learn something in the meeting. We watched a great little video called The Difficult Guest. I also learned a handy pneumonic I can use when I deal with troublesome people:

L isten
A pologise
S olve
T hank

The goal of customer service is to make the relationship with a guest last. I should make people feel special and cared for. Isn't that the case in all relationships, though? I enjoyed my volunteer training session because I learned skills that I can apply every day. The concepts are transferable to my routine interactions.

In the end, I am glad I attended the meeting at the Y. I nearly skipped out when I learned how busy this weekend would be. Just goes to show, you never know when you'll learn something new.