Have you ever heard the statement, "Police officers see everyone as criminals"? If we are not careful, each of us can fall victim to focusing on the minutia of our daily lives and fail to see the overarching success of our journey. I work with a group of very talented customer service associates whose job it is to assist customers who are struggling with some aspect of how we go to market. It may be a question about need, it may be a genuine complaint about a short coming, or maybe even a rare compliment about a job well done. The vast majority of the calls however require an overcoming of some obstacle, either real or perceived.
In this environment it becomes easy to believe that everything is falling down around us. If you believe the buzz on the phone and though our e-mail you might develop the perspective that we are inept at what we do. The reality however is that our company works in an industry with an abysmal failure rate of between 20 and 30 percent (when measured by return rates) and we continuously perform at around a 5% level. We are also empowered to overcome ALL of those failures with tools at our disposal (credits, replacement, returns, re-ship, etc.). At the end of the day we are able to satisfy almost everyone we have the privilege to serve.
But the battle can become wearying if we do not take the time to celebrate the victories. Around here the victories are those 95% of the customers who are served correctly, most of the time in an automated fashion, and love to do business with us. Like most other areas of life, the main thing that claws for our attention is the negative. If you allow it to, it will subdue your attitude and make it subservient to it's corrosive will. Negativity can begin to creep into other aspects of your life and even affect health. The good news is that we are able to choose our attitude. We can believe in the positive aspects of life. We can focus on being glad about our ability to elicit change... and we can rest in the quiet confidence that comes from a job well done.
Today choose to battle negative with positive, and work towards turning those you encounter towards the sunshine of a great attitude.
