AARGH!

This is the word I use when I’m angry/frustrated/annoyed. Usually, I’m partially to blame and I certainly was this weekend past when all I could think was “AARGH!!”

A customer had sent an email and I’d replied to it – flippantly, without the right amount of tact and without the type of customer service I usually proudly deliver.

And guess what – he had the nerve to call me on it!

He even suggested I write a blog on it called “Teacher Doesn’t Apply Own Lessons”.

AARGH!

I was steaming. I fumed. I vented a little. I wrote back to him and challenged him.

He backed down.

I calmed down and tried to reopen the dialogue; because… he was right.

He handled the matter tactfully and in a grown-up manner. And eventually I got there too (I hope).

So while I won’t indulge him and write a blog called “Teacher Doesn’t Apply Own Lessons” – I will write one admitting:

• that even those of us who love customer service, have our off days;
• that we should all take time to pause before we reply to emails either too lightheartedly, with venom or with anger;
• that even if we don’t necessarily see the customer’s point, we should thank them for bringing it to our attention rather than just whining about it behind our backs – or, in this day and age, whining about it behind our back and in everyone’s face on social media.

Thank you, Terry – lesson received loud and clear.

Kirsty Dunphey is the youngest ever Australian Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year, author of two books (her latest release is Retired at 27: If I Can do it Anyone Can) and a passionate entrepreneur who started her first business at age 15 and opened her own real estate agency at 21.

Now Kirsty does lots of fun things which you can read about here. Her favourite current projects are Elephant Property, a boutique property management agency, Baby Teresa, a baby clothing line that donates an outfit to a baby in need for each one they sell and ReallySold, which helps real estate agents stop writing boring, uninteresting ads.