Five ways to deal with difficult customers around Christmas
Difficult customers add to end of year stress
Five simple ways to let go of end of year pressure and enjoy the holidays
Wellington, 20 December 2012 - Exhausted Christmas shoppers and end of year revellers put extra stress on retail and hospitality workers. The high toll on their health and well being can be off-set by a few simple holiday tips.
Communications specialist, John Faisandier, recommends five key tips for anyone experiencing stress at the beginning of the holidays.
1. Relax your body
Breathing deeply
and consciously, let go of negative feelings and breathe in
goodness and health. Neuroscience research has shown that
deep breathing revitalises the brain.
2. Focus your
thoughts on the positive things that have
happened
Recall the positive things that happened
throughout the year. Savour the feelings that go with those
events. This will inspire and motivate you for the coming
year. Let the unpleasant experiences fade into the back
ground as you focus on the good.
3. Get with people who
make you feel good.
Being with positive people is a
powerful way to become positive yourself. If those around
you are not very positive, look for the good in them and
tell them what it is. The more you affirm the positive in
others the more they will live up to the labels you give
them.
4. Be kind and compassionate to
everyone
If people are negative towards you they may
be feeling hurt from past experiences, even as far back as
early childhood. Show empathy by acknowledging their
feelings. Affirm them for who they are, even if you don’t
agree with their ideas.
5. Give your body a chance to
recover.
Walk, exercise with friends, play games,
laugh and eat and drink enough to get pleasure from the
nourishment and the company.
Enjoy the positive feelings this generates and you will have new energy to take back to work with you.
Special bonus tip from kindergarten wall
poster:
Be nice and share your toys
John Faisandier, trainer and author. For the past 14 years has been training people to deal with emotions in the workplace much of which comes from difficult customers and annoying colleagues. His initial work as a Catholic priest and then as a psychodramatist working with drug and alcohol rehabilitation has given him unique insights into emotions and how they can help and hinder effective communications and healthy living. His book “Thriving Under Fire: Turn difficult customers into business success” is published by Steele Roberts Publishers, Wellington. Information on the TUF award winning training programme TUF: Thriving Under Fire can be found at www.tuf.co.nz
ENDS