You Say "Manipulation" Like It's A Bad Thing (Or Persuasion For Pay)
My work is not a common topic for my blog. The reasons for this fall in to two areas. I work in a call center run by a third party vendor taking calls for a phone company. Neither company allows me to talk about them or the customers in any kind of detail. Vague stories don't make compelling blog posts.
More important, my job is not very interesting. Working in the public is both an adventure and mind-numbingly repetitive. I have always worked with the public. And I enjoy it. The worst thing you could do to me is stick me in an office by myself and expect me to sit quietly working all day.
Yet, I still have days when I wonder why enjoy it. Any management and training I have ever had on customer service has focused on the simply human pleasure of service. It feels good to help another person. Oh, sure. Will that idea keep you going day after day, year after year when dealing with the more thankless aspects of customer service. Six months, max, then the voices start to blur. It becomes hard to think of sixty interactions a day as real people.
Let me clue you in on a little secret: Using the power of words to make the customer think and do what I want them to think and do is one of the best things about my job.
I assume the utter thrill I get from having a customer's undivided attention and agreement to my assessment of their problem is rooted deep in my lack of social status in school. It doesn't take Freud to figure out why I take pride in my skill at selling ice to penguins or an electronic cigarette to nonsmokers. I'm darn good at what I do now. I was great in my seven years of selling shoes. I choose my words with skill based on cues from the customer I could not begin to explain, except that it is the right thing to say.
I only manipulate for the good of a person's phone bill. Using math, language, and personality as I do when talking customers out of outdated plans they are in love with is a balancing act. Too much confidence seems condescending. Too quick an answer is doubted.
Judging a caller's temperament, educational level and socioeconomic factors within the first few minutes of the interaction plays a large part in what they call in the business soft skills. That clearly means something you can't teach, but is vial to success.
I lead unwilling, yelling, abusive callers down the road to where they say thank you at the end of the call. It is stressful, but when it works, it is a power trip.
Hot damn! They bought it! Hook, line, sinker!
If that makes me a bad person, guilty as charged. If it helps me get through the day and keeps the customer happy, no harm is done.
Rest assured, my intentions are honorable. I won't persuade you wrong, but I will lead you where I think you ought to go.
I am jealous - your skill sounds really awesome; the art of persuasion is thoroughly undervalued but probably the most powerful skill one could have. And it sounds like you really enjoy your work, and wow: there are lots of people who would want to be in that situation.
Hope all is well!
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As simple case of "I am my mother's daughter."
I don't always love my job. That's the exact reason I have to put into words what I do like about it once in a while.
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