3 Spiritual Rules for Dealing With Customer Service Reps

This article was originally published by Technorati on 9 May 2010 as a Simply Spirited feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

Last week I expounded on the unconsciousness of large corporations as an element of reportage about an $18,000 bill Verizon sent to one of its loyal customers.

Our coverage of the subject would remain incomplete if we did not consider the flip side of this selfsame relationship, the costumer's responsibility when dealing with large corporations.

While an $18,000 bill is best left to a trained professional--an attorney--smaller amounts don't warrant such treatment. So it's up to us to deal with the frontman (or woman) of virtually all large corporations, the lowly customer service representative.

Observance of three spiritual rules will help you achieve your desired outcome in both a material form and at the deeper level of personal growth.

1. Don't go unconscious. This will only happen if our egos take us over.

Spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle writes in A New Earth, "It is likely you won't feel any emotion when you are told that someone's car has been stolen, but when it's your car, you will probably feel upset." Or when it's your bill that is bigger than you think it should be.

The ego fears the loss of things because it sees them as extensions of itself. This is doubly true of money, which for many people strikes a more deeply-seated fear (Tolle calls this the "pain-body") which may well go back to parental anxiety about finances.

Realize this going into the conversation and we stand a better chance of remaining calm and positive, our awareness focused on the present moment, solving the problem at hand.

2. Don't allow the customer service rep to become "the other." Jesus said, "Love your enemy," which is to say your enemy might think he's your enemy, but you don't have to agree.

The customer service rep might take an adversarial or passive-aggressive tone, but we don't have to take the bait. Get the person's name (and not to use it against them later if things don't go our way). Use it in the conversation. Imagine you will see this person again at your favorite coffee shop. Try to work as a team rather than opponents and you're more likely to get that exception to policy you're looking for.

3. Observe Yourself. The point of all this is two-fold: First, remain positive and thereby stand a better chance of reaching your goal. Secondly maintain an inner state free of unpleasant sensation, negativity.

If you find yourself getting upset, the volume of your voice heading north, sarcasm entering the fray, at least try to remain aware of these reactions. By observing them in the moment we begin to become aware of the pain and futility we're causing ourselves and those around us. We get a little better at it each time.

This is where I found myself recently. While traveling in Ukraine, my credit union inexplicably decided to refuse my ATM request. I was forced by circumstance to use my Italian cell phone to call back to the U.S. to solve the problem--at 10 bucks a minute.

The customer service rep informed me that I would have to wait on hold for several minutes while she worked out the problem; if I hung up, she said, she would have to move on to the next caller. Long story short, I spent $70 to get the equivalent of $37 in Ukrainian Grivna out of an ATM.

I was upset with the woman but I didn't lose it and I was back on an even keel for the benefit of my friend, and myself, as soon as I hung up the phone.

As Tolle has said: "I have seen spiritual, that is to say, relatively conscious people who started to shout, blame, and make accusations the moment they picked up the phone to talk to their stockbroker."

Or to a customer service representative. And for the record, I wasn't quite that bad. . .

You might also like: 4 Truisms of Success as Taught by Butler Coach Brad Stevens

or Put Being Before Doing in Job Search

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