Jeff 's Daily Excellence Pill

Yesterday was an interesting day.  I had the "pleasure" of speaking to 3 different customer service providers.  It was an odd, frustrating, hair-pulling, hypertension-inducing, heart-stopping experience each time!!  And what caused this?  These people from the customer service department needed to discuss some issues with my house move, and yet, within 3 words of answering their question, I'd be interrupted, interrupted again, and then interrupted repeatedly with every few words I uttered.  I was thinking to myself, "What's the point of asking me a question if you don't bother listening to the answer that would make your job much easier?!!"

I had to finally resort to shouting at them a simple conversation strategy (yes, I really had to shout loud!).  I told them "one person talks and the other listens and we'll get through this conversation really well".  This simple strategy worked and we actually got down to the crux of the issue.  After all, if both are talking at the same time who's listening?

How often have we been guilty of interrupting someone who's answering our question? Next time this happens  -  Shh... Hush .... Quiet... Listen and may the "one person talks and the other listens" strategy live forever!