In a few words, describe the reason you’re calling. You could say things like, “Account activity”, “What’s my balance?” Or…
Representative!
To get you to the right person, I just need a little more Information…
Representative!
I can’t seem to hear you. Do you want to know how to open a checking account?
Representative!!!
Ok, I’ll transfer you to small business savings accounts now. Goodbye.
Representative!
This was a brief snapshot of my last phone call to my bank to deal with a pending payment. I was then transferred to, count them, 1, 2, 3, 4 different people to answer my question. Resulting in around 30 minutes of my life and, turns out, in the end I was told “You should be fine.” Awesome.
The next day I received an email from the bank asking me, “How would you rate your recent call experience?” with some boxes numbered from 1 to 10. I’m now expected to take some time to click one of the numbers which inevitably will take me to a longer survey in order to improve the bank’s customer service. I didn’t rate anything though on account of having way more important shit to do with my life but it got me thinking. I’m imagining a lot of people fill these surveys out and help the bank improve themselves. So I thought… why don’t I rate my experience with myself in my own life? How do I rate how I’ve treated myself over the last 24 hours? Never mind how Gustavo at Bank of America treated me but how did I treat me?! How much patience did I lend to myself? How much compassion did I give myself when I spilled the oily mussel sauce all over the kitchen? How many big deep breaths did I divvy out to myself when I was stressed about getting all my work done? How would I rate my service to… me?
We get caught up leaving reviews about products and filling out surveys about banking experiences and “liking” pictures of other peoples food and vacations and we look at ourselves last. We press the “like” button about ourselves after we’ve done it for everything else. We put ourselves at the bottom of the hospitality list and are then surprised when we’re bummed out and feel like ass. You gotta have it in order to give it out. At the end of this day when you’re all done with the work and calls and stuff, look back and rate your experience with yourself. You may find that you need to improve customer service. And that’s not a bad thing. It’s just a call to give yourself a little more compassion, a little more patience and a little less shit. Put the mask on yourself before helping other passengers. How would you rate your experience with you so far?
