Learning

Today I spoke with a customer who wanted information about her husband's account. She spelled his name out for me, but I did not find anything in the system under his name. She spelled it again, and I spelled it back to her a few times. She said I had it correct. She was very frustrated with me for not being able to find it. I was frustrated with her for refusing to give me more information. I guess she was suspicious about giving out the necessary credit card number when it should have been easy for me to otherwise find his account. Finally, we realize I was missing a T from the spelling of his name, and I found all the information she was looking for. From the way she had been a little curt with me and I with her, I was expecting the rest of the conversation to continue the same way. For a little bit, it did. However, by the end of the call, she was thanking me and telling me how kind I was. I was suspicious of her praise. It occurred to me as I was hanging up the phone that she was being genuine. It was I who had not yet forgiven.

I have encountered this a lot in my job. I am often not as kind or accommodating as I usually am if a customer has put me off in some way. However, the Spanish customers especially seem to forget all about any uncomfortable feelings by the end of the call. I, on the other hand, like to go gripe about them to my husband when I get off of work a few hours later. It struck me tonight that I need to be better about forgiving. I am only hurting myself by holding on to any rancor I might feel towards customers or other people in my life. This lady really taught me something tonight. I hope I can be more like her.