客服人员应该如何保持冷静

    The caller was enraged¹ long before Beverly Smith was asked to pick up the phone. He had already yelled at her boss for an hour.
    But staying calm in the face of other people's anger is routine business for Ms. Smith, who takes outpatient calls at a San Francisco medical center. Refusing to take the caller's rage personally, she put a smile on her face and listened with empathy as the ailing² retiree ranted³ for 45 minutes. When he calmed down, she promised to help, sorted out his demands and got him a referral he needed. By the time Ms. Smith was finished, the man was asking to send her flowers.
    These are angry times, from irate⁴ political protests to slapfests on reality shows, not to mention Burger King's Angry Whopper. The millions of people who work in customer-service and public-service jobs face this rising tide of rage every day. That puts them on the front lines of Americans' anger -- and makes them a rich resource. Many of them have developed a variety of skills for staying calm and keeping on-the-job frustrations⁵ from spilling over into their home lives. Their tips can be useful for anyone trying to defuse tension on the job or at home.
    A key task, when dealing⁶ with another person's anger, is to show 'emotional leadership' in responding -- that is, to keep from getting mad too, says Donna Earl, San Francisco, owner of an eponymous customer-service training and management company.
    First, workers should acknowledge the customer's emotions, listen with warmth and empathy, and apologize, even though they didn't create the problem, saying things like, 'We're sorry this happened,' she says. When the caller calms down, they focus on problem-solving and promise confidently to try to help, she says.
    When you're the target of rage or criticism, controlling your own emotions is one of the hardest tasks. Techniques Ms. Earl recommends include looking at the ceiling to relax your breathing and tracing figure-eights in the air with your eyes, which relaxes and refocuses the eye muscles, with a calming effect.
    To stay calm, one San Jose, Calif., help-desk worker posts a vacation photo of his family at his desk, directly in front of him at eye level, Ms. Earl says. One technique she doesn't recommend: Some agents hit the 'mute' button and scream back.
    Customer-service work is increasingly trying. Research shows 70% of customers who have problems with a product or service are in a rage by the time they talk with customer-service workers; 24% yell, 8% threaten to sue, and 5% start cursing, says a 2007 survey of 1,004 consumers by Customer Care Measurement & Consulting, Alexandria, Va. Customer rage has likely risen since then, as financial strain makes people 'more on edge, critical and less tolerant,' says Mary Jo Bitner, a marketing⁷ professor at Arizona State University's Center for Services Leadership and a researcher on the survey.
    In three separate incidents this year, customers have assaulted fast-food restaurant employees, pounding them with their fists or heaving a bucket of mop water over the counter. One Ohio woman climbed through a restaurant's drive-through window, then smashed it, after an employee refused to serve her lunch during the breakfast hour.
    Call-center workers say people these days are far quicker to get upset over small purchases than they were a few years ago. 'People feel so out of control on a macro level' that they fly into a rage when a smaller thing goes wrong, says Liz Ahearn of Radclyffe Partners, Bloomingdale, N.J., a call-center consulting and training company. Some insiders call such customers 'hot reactors⁸.'
    Some customer-service workers take satisfaction in the problem-solving aspect of the job. Zane Bond, team leader at a software company's Tampa, Fla., help desk, loves identifying potential causes and analyzing⁹ them step-by-step. 'I am the go-to guy for angry' callers, he says. He never takes it personally when callers vent¹⁰ but listens intently and tries to start building a relationship. Then he tells them confidently: 'We are going to fix this.'
    The more stressed or frustrated¹¹ callers are at the outset, the happier they are when he finds a solution, he says. One help-desk manager who had been under attack by her bosses for weeks over a hardware problem was 'over the moon' when he fixed¹² it, he says.
    It helps that Mr. Bond has fun with his work team members, who often collaborate¹³ on solutions. To ease stress, they play ferocious¹⁴ games of racquetball. They also stash¹⁵ toy rifles in their office and launch foam-dart battles on breaks, with the soundtrack from 'Top Gun' playing in the background.
    For most workers, however, customer service takes a heavy toll¹⁶. Turnover¹⁷ ranges from 25% to 300% a year. Part of the problem is having to fake happiness, according to a German study. Call-center workers who were instructed to remain polite and friendly with angry, rude customers had elevated blood pressure long after ending a call, researchers found. Those allowed to react naturally and defend themselves were far less stressed.

1 enraged   

使暴怒( enrage的过去式和过去分词 )； 歜； 激愤

参考例句：

• I was enraged to find they had disobeyed my orders. 发现他们违抗了我的命令，我极为恼火。
• The judge was enraged and stroke the table for several times. 大法官被气得连连拍案。

2 ailing   

v.生病

参考例句：

• They discussed the problems ailing the steel industry. 他们讨论了困扰钢铁工业的问题。
• She looked after her ailing father. 她照顾有病的父亲。

3 ranted   

v.夸夸其谈( rant的过去式和过去分词 )；大叫大嚷地以…说教；气愤地)大叫大嚷；不停地大声抱怨

参考例句：

• Drink in hand,he ranted about his adventures in Africa. 他端着酒杯，激动地叙述他在非洲的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Lu Xun ranted and raved against the enemy, but he felt warmth towards the people. 鲁迅对敌人冷嘲热讽，而对人民却是满腔热忱。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 irate   

adj.发怒的，生气

参考例句：

• The irate animal made for us,coming at a full jump.那头发怒的动物以最快的速度向我们冲过来。
• We have received some irate phone calls from customers.我们接到顾客打来的一些愤怒的电话

5 frustrations   

挫折( frustration的名词复数 )； 失败； 挫败； 失意

参考例句：

• The temptation would grow to take out our frustrations on Saigon. 由于我们遭到挫折而要同西贡算帐的引诱力会增加。
• Aspirations will be raised, but so will frustrations. 人们会产生种种憧憬，但是种种挫折也会随之而来。

6 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

7 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

8 reactors   

起反应的人( reactor的名词复数 )； 反应装置； 原子炉； 核反应堆

参考例句：

• The TMI nuclear facility has two reactors. 三哩岛核设施有两个反应堆。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• The earliest production reactors necessarily used normal uranium as fuel. 最早为生产用的反应堆，必须使用普通铀作为燃料。

9 analyzing   

v.分析；分析( analyze的现在分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析n.分析

参考例句：

• Analyzing the date of some socialist countries presents even greater problem s. 分析某些社会主义国家的统计数据，暴露出的问题甚至更大。 来自辞典例句
• He undoubtedly was not far off the mark in analyzing its predictions. 当然，他对其预测所作的分析倒也八九不离十。 来自辞典例句

10 vent   

n.通风口，排放口；开衩；vt.表达，发泄

参考例句：

• He gave vent to his anger by swearing loudly.他高声咒骂以发泄他的愤怒。
• When the vent became plugged,the engine would stop.当通风口被堵塞时，发动机就会停转。

11 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

13 collaborate   

vi.协作，合作；协调

参考例句：

• The work gets done more quickly when we collaborate.我们一旦合作，工作做起来就更快了。
• I would ask you to collaborate with us in this work.我们愿意请你们在这项工作中和我们合作。

14 ferocious   

adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的

参考例句：

• The ferocious winds seemed about to tear the ship to pieces.狂风仿佛要把船撕成碎片似的。
• The ferocious panther is chasing a rabbit.那只凶猛的豹子正追赶一只兔子。

15 stash   

v.藏或贮存于一秘密处所；n.隐藏处

参考例句：

• Stash away both what you lost and gained,for life continues on.将得失深藏心底吧，为了那未来的生活。
• That's supposed to be in our private stash.这是我的私人珍藏。

16 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

17 turnover   

n.人员流动率，人事变动率；营业额，成交量

参考例句：

• The store greatly reduced the prices to make a quick turnover.这家商店实行大减价以迅速周转资金。
• Our turnover actually increased last year.去年我们的营业额竟然增加了。