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Barbara has the unique ability to speak to the heart, her message is both inspirational and positive, and her audience literally buzzed at the conclusion of her address.

Des Schollum, FNZITT Past President, New Zealand Institute of Travel & Tourism

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Barbara Glanz has been a featured speaker at two of my most successful conferences. At both conferences she proved not only to be an asset to the conference, but a dynamic wonder engendering much positive enthusiasm among the delegates with her wit and insight. Barbara endeared herself to the audience with her incredible spirit and exceptionally good information. She is always able to bring her concepts home with very practical situations and examples that everyone can relate to. Her charm is exceeded only by her intelligence.

Marilyn Steinhal , Conference Director , International Quality and Productivity Center

More of Barbara in action.

Idea of the Month from Barbara Glanz

Remember the Two Levels of Every Interaction

THE IDEA:

This idea is excerpted from CARE Packages for Your Customers, by Barbara A. Glanz, McGraw-Hill, 2006. To order this book, visit her online store.

Every interaction we have with anyone has two levels--the Business level of meeting their external objectives and the Human level which is all about how that interaction makes them feel. Whenever you are dealing with anyone, a customer, a co-worker, or an employee, make sure you have met both of these needs in your interaction whether it is written, electronic, or face-to-face.

THE IDEA IN ACTION:

Since I am a professional speaker and author, I travel nearly every week. I recently had a horribly traumatic experience with a credit card while I was on the road. When I finally returned and called the credit card company, I told the customer service rep the whole, terrible story, almost in tears because I was reliving it again. The very first thing she said to me after hearing the whole, horrendous story was, "What's your account number?"

What level did she go to immediately? What did that tell about how she felt about ME, a human being with an awful story? I felt as if I'd been slapped in the face!

That whole interaction could have been a positive one if she had only acknowledged my feelings and first dealt with me on a human level. She might have said something like, "What a terrible experience you had! Let's see how I can help you. What's your account number?" or, "I am really sorry that happened to you. Let's get it fixed right now. What's your account number?"

Notice how in just a few extra seconds she could have met both my human and my business needs, and I would have left the interaction feeling as if someone in that big, bureaucratic organization cared about me. As it was, I cancelled that credit card because I do not want to do business with an organization where people don’t care about people.

TIPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION:

Always remember that people are desperate to be recognized as HUMAN BEINGS. They are tired of being account numbers, government numbers, social security numbers. As technology increases, it will become more and more important for customer service professionals to create a personal relationship with customers, and this can only be done on the Human level. It doesn't take a lot of extra time, but it does take an awareness of the customer's human need and the importance of that to be acknowledged.

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