More With Honey
You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. Sometimes (like when you’ve spent ten minutes listening to infuriating hold music and the customer service representative is being entirely unhelpful) it’s much easier to come up with vinegar than it is to find honey.
I nearly blew up on the customer service rep, but I checked myself.
She didn’t intentionally waste my time. She likely had multiple angry callers, making the hold time longer and her overwhelm great.
I’ve had a hard week outside of work. Everyone does sometimes. If a customer misdirected their anger at me this week, it would’ve been the straw that broke the camel’s back. Who’s to say this woman wasn’t having a hard week too?
So I took a deep breath instead, and we came to a solution. Neither of us ended our weeks with mental breakdowns, proving that you truly get more with honey (and a little compassion).