Mind Your Manners

In the world of technology, everything revolves around information. People tend to get caught up in learning the hard skills that come with working in IT or programming a computer. This can apply to many other careers as well such as accounting or engineering. The big thing that many people often like to oversee is that every jobs requires working with people. In our Geek Leader’s Handbook this week, we learned how we can advance our career by focusing on one goal: putting others before ourselves.

Got Manners?

The first step to being a good employee in any field starts with being polite. As I grew up, I was fortunate to have parents that stressed the importance of “please” and “thank you”. Now that I am older, I have been able to see the impact good manners can have on the work place. Whether we like it or not, communication with customers or coworkers comes with every occupation. If you are unsure of what it means to be polite, here are a few tips that can assist you in your pursuit to be a good employee.

One Small Interaction Goes a Long Way

Working in the IT department, as well as other customer service positions, has given me many first hand experiences with the impact a good employee can have on an organization. Throughout our day at the IT Help Desk, we encounter many different people from all across campus. With the amount of tickets we receive, it’s easy to forget how to treat someone with care and respect. The level of communication within IT also becomes more difficult as we interact with clients on many different platforms such as email, instant messaging, telephone, or face to face. On one particular day, we had received an instant message on our website asking for information about admissions. Though we didn’t have the answers for them, we were able to direct them in the right direction by sending them to the admissions department. A few days later, we received this review on our website:

Even though the amount of time spent interacting with this client was short, it remains clear that our short encounter changed the way this person looked at our school. When the IT Worker spoke with the requester, he had no idea that they were a parent of a potential student. Simply by putting others first and remaining polite and professional, our IT department was able to push a skeptical student towards attending our school.

The moral of the story is this: treat everyone with care and respect. You never know who may be watching. Whether it’s retail, food service, IT, or sales; there is a chance that someone important is watching. People notice when they are treated right. Opportunities rise from the relationships that are made from those encounters.

Be Patient With People

With customer service comes the inevitable rise of frustration. Frustration can come at any time. If someone has had a long day, the odds of frustration are only greater. The only thing that a meltdown requires is something to give it that little push it needs to get started.

If you have worked in any sort of customer service job, you know what it feels like to be frustrated with a customer. The only way to combat this is through patience. Whether you want to yell at someone or are being yelled at yourself, it’s important to keep yourself at bay and remember that you represent the company you are working for. In those trying times, you will be remembered as the guy or girl who is able to handle those pressured situations and will be looked up to by your coworkers and even your manager. In these videos, we see a perfect representation of a high stress moment between a worker and a customer. By analyzing these situations and preparing ourselves for the worst, we can become better at staying composed and professional.