Stay a While, and Listen!

When I first started as a technician I worked for a decent sized company that for some reason didn't have a department for my position and so no real supervisor. Instead I reported directly to the owner of the company, a man who in every way was an aging middle-age man, balding and down to earth with Midwestern values and a kind smile.
Never mind the earring he wore when off duty and the tattoos of dragons on his legs and such.
He had many gems of knowledge for me over the years. One of the best ones was about how to be better at helping people.
"First you have to ask "how can I heal your pain" and then you have to set, and you have to be quiet, and it's going to be hard but you have to listen."
This has been one of the truest things I've ever learned in my life. It doesn't really matter how good a technician you are. It doesn't matter if you are so good you can wave your hand and fix it all. If you don't make the customer fill listened to, then they walk away filling like you didn't get "it" and didn't fix anything. You have to ask, you have to wait, and its gonna be hard, but you have to listen.

The things we do.

A few years back I was asked to leave a job at a cell phone company based on a rumor that was going around about me, and in a lot of ways I'm still kind of bitter about.

That is until last night when my dad and I, on father's day, started trading stories about things we'd done that had gotten us chewed out, but not fired. It clicked with me that I'd done a number of things over the years that probably should have gotten me fired, and didn't, when a rumor about me that I never got to hear fully did.

Story #1: TSB, My first day on the job.

It wasn't just my first day, it was the entire store's first day after a recent buyout, and my position hadn't existed before that, so no mentoring. I was a young man who'd never been in charge of anything important and I certainly hadn't learned to have a filter on my mouth.

Since it was opening day, essentially, the new big bosses were there, along with however much of the old staff had made it through transition.

In walks a certain customer and a member from the old staff audibly groans and hides in my little office area. This customer under the previous company had been a pain and had gotten people to quit rather than ever deal with her again, or so rumor has it.

This customer sees my desk, marked "Service Center", and makes a beeline for me. My coworker who had been warning me about this customer and her past transgressions ducks out of my lil area but doesn't close the door behind her. She then proceeds to loudly tell the big bosses about this customer. I can still hear her, and so can the customer.

Me: Hi! Welcome to [Company], how can I help you?

Customer: Well you can fix my phone and you can tell the tall skinny b@#&% to shut her trap.

I don't even blink. I turn and lean out my door and say quite loudly, "Hey! Tall skinny b@#&%!  The customer wants you to shut your trap!"

I shut the door and turn back to the customer who's jaw just hit my service counter.

Me: So what was wrong with the phone?

Customer: Did you just... it, uh, it won't ring.

I flip the phone open, check the ringer, it's set to silent. I switch it back to full and test call the phone to make it ring out loud for her. She thanks me and leaves, still looking a bit stunned.

My coworker, the previously mentioned tall skinny b@#&%, peaks out.

Coworker: you got her to leave? Happily?

Me: yeah?

Coworker: No one's ever done that before...

Both the coworker and the customer stayed my friends for years afterward.