A long time customer of mine, more so a friend at this point, recommended that I read The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. With a ravenous thirst for personal development and improvement, I purchased it immediately.
As I’m sitting on the crowded subway train in the hustling bustling city, I feel instantly connected to this book as it begins to challenge my core beliefs.
Work life and personal life go hand in hand–things you do at work affect what you do outside of work and vice versa. We stress over and over again that it’s important to take care of yourself in order to take care of others.
The Four Agreements is a book based on ancient Toltec wisdom on finding personal freedom and erasing self-limiting beliefs to allow you to fully live your life. The four agreements discussed are:
- Be impeccable with your word.
- Don’t take anything personally.
- Don’t make assumptions.
- Always do your best.
Of course, as I’m going through each, I think back to how they relate to customer service. I plan on doing a post per week on each agreement and how it can all tie back to customer service development.
The Power of Your Word in Customer Service
Your word is the power that you have to create. ~Don Miguel Ruiz
Being impeccable with your word within a customer service aspect means to speak with integrity. Tell your customers the truth–be honest and sincere with your responses. They will respect you more for this and you will in turn respect yourself. Every human interaction is another opportunity to communicate so make it for the better with your words. Imagine a customer service team that talks with honesty, kindness and integrity–who wouldn’t want to do business with you?
Your mind and the minds of others are fertile fields. If you toss seeds of insincerity and negativity across them, that is what will grow. Is that the kind of crops you’d like to sow with your customers?
Your words are powerful to others, but also to yourself. If you’re filling your mind with negative self talk, you’ll be growing a crop of more negativity which will only spill over into everything else you do. How can you be a leader to others if you’re constantly putting yourself down?
When a customer comes at you with negative talk toward you, you have to be strong and realize that they are not talking about you. They are projecting the negativity from within themselves on to you. The second agreement, Don’t Take Anything Personally, will go into more detail on this.
Your Word (upper case) has to do with the power you have to create through every kind of expression you make. You create through multiple types of expression including emotions, attitude, actions, what you refrain from, and what you express your faith in.
Being impeccable with your word isn’t as easy as it sounds. In fact, it’s really challenging. The first step you can take today is that of awareness. It is said that, “To really master being impeccable will require that you heighten your awareness not just to the words you say, but also to the emotions you express, your attitude, your actions, and where you express the power of your belief. You will need to develop a discipline of mindfulness to be impeccable in these expressions through out the day.” (Shared from the Toltec Spirit website)
Take time today to really tune into your words–what are you saying to others? To yourself? How does talking this way make you feel? Jot down notes of these feelings to increase awareness and continue your journey toward being even more awesome.
