Warning...warning...interaction with another human imminent!
Look at me hitting Day 21 of the YNAB 34 Day Challenge on day 21 😱 Shocker.
I think this one is really important! Learning to negotiate and inquire about financial outputs is awesome. It does take confidence, personally I give myself a huge pep-talk before any human to human interaction. You should see me the hour before I chair our school council meetings, I'm an absolute jittery, dry-mouthed, talking to myself mess and yet I've received the kindness praise of being a great facilitator and directing our topics of discussion with humour and ease.
In person or on the phone, I really have to psyche myself up and get myself ready to talk and negotiate and ask the questions I want to.
We've all become rather use to living in the status quo, things aren't really bad and no one wants to be an inconvenience and it's just easier to not...such a weird way to interact with the world. I am just speaking for myself but I really did feel convinced that every interaction would go like this:
HOWEVER...that's not what happens. Here are my thoughts when giving a service a call to ask for something;
Names. Names are important, it matters that someone gets your name right when you're reaching out for information and help. We're still living in times that usually it's someone trying their best at their job on the other end of that reach. Get their name, return their greeting, acknowledge that they're going to try and help you today. That's something to appreciate! This isn't an unpleasant stand-off, it's a conversation and you want to motivate the human you're interacting with to help you to the best of their abilities. Kindness costs you nothing.
You own the conversation in equal part - talk about your expectations, ask questions, bring up the knowledge or history you are bringing to the table as their customer. Keeping the conversation pleasant, knowledge-based and casual will not only serve you better but make you feel better than going into it like it's war. Even when it gets frustrating (ie, all my conversations with my former credit card company), your composure, comprehension and kindness will serve you better...I'm experiencing this now as I'm being contacted by a head office representative and retentions.
As for the challenge, I let our home insurance know that we've had a new roof installed - that brought our home insurance down by $12 a month.
I think this one is really important! Learning to negotiate and inquire about financial outputs is awesome. It does take confidence, personally I give myself a huge pep-talk before any human to human interaction. You should see me the hour before I chair our school council meetings, I'm an absolute jittery, dry-mouthed, talking to myself mess and yet I've received the kindness praise of being a great facilitator and directing our topics of discussion with humour and ease.
In person or on the phone, I really have to psyche myself up and get myself ready to talk and negotiate and ask the questions I want to.
We've all become rather use to living in the status quo, things aren't really bad and no one wants to be an inconvenience and it's just easier to not...such a weird way to interact with the world. I am just speaking for myself but I really did feel convinced that every interaction would go like this:
 |
| Little Britain is still hilarious |
Names. Names are important, it matters that someone gets your name right when you're reaching out for information and help. We're still living in times that usually it's someone trying their best at their job on the other end of that reach. Get their name, return their greeting, acknowledge that they're going to try and help you today. That's something to appreciate! This isn't an unpleasant stand-off, it's a conversation and you want to motivate the human you're interacting with to help you to the best of their abilities. Kindness costs you nothing.
You own the conversation in equal part - talk about your expectations, ask questions, bring up the knowledge or history you are bringing to the table as their customer. Keeping the conversation pleasant, knowledge-based and casual will not only serve you better but make you feel better than going into it like it's war. Even when it gets frustrating (ie, all my conversations with my former credit card company), your composure, comprehension and kindness will serve you better...I'm experiencing this now as I'm being contacted by a head office representative and retentions.
As for the challenge, I let our home insurance know that we've had a new roof installed - that brought our home insurance down by $12 a month.
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