When you visit National Parks that are home to Black Bears, rangers give the advice to "make yourself big" when you encounter a black bear. The show of confidence will usually result in the bear ambling happily away. I use this analogy often when helping customer service reps learn to show confidence when working with customers. I mean this literally, be bigger than the bear! By changing your body language to a posture of big and open, you sound more confident to your customers. And the more confident you sound, the greater your chance of succeeding when helping a customer.
So I really enjoyed this TED Talk by Amy Cuddly where she shares her research on how "power posing" i.e. standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don't feel confident can affect our success. We have all have heard many studies that support changes in someone's perception of you based on your body language. But Amy takes it a step further and shares that WE are influenced by our OWN non verbal body language. If your body language says you are confident, you will be more confident!
So I really enjoyed this TED Talk by Amy Cuddly where she shares her research on how "power posing" i.e. standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don't feel confident can affect our success. We have all have heard many studies that support changes in someone's perception of you based on your body language. But Amy takes it a step further and shares that WE are influenced by our OWN non verbal body language. If your body language says you are confident, you will be more confident!
I have observed this to be true in Customer Service over and over. If your representative sounds confident on the phone, their customers are more respectful and respond to recommendations with more enthusiasm. If your representative sounds meek, customers are more likely to ask for a manager or sound doubtful. Through use of power poses, call center representatives can improve their confidence, they will then sound more confident. So, teach your customer service representatives to be bigger than the bear!
Image courtesy of Michael Elliott at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
