Wednesday, March 18, 2020

9 tips for handling difficult customers

9 tips for handling difficult customers Every business, in every sector, in every industry, is filled with difficult clients or customers who make doing your job 10 times harder than it has to be. After a long day of work, it can be enough to make you rage out†¦ or crumple into a ball and weep. When you feel like you’re going to lose it, try these 9 helpful strategies instead. 1. Show how well you can listen.You know they’re totally in the wrong, but they don’t understand that yet. They’ve got the situation or the facts all incorrect and you just can’t bear to hear them rehash details that don’t make sense. All they hear from your impatience is that they’re not being heard. Try just letting them get it all out. Listen patiently to what they have to say. Let them vent. It will help you set them straight if you understand their position better first and if they feel like you’ve been paying attention.2. Show empathy.Forget for a second that this person is rude, mean , and wrong. Whatever their problem, they really want you to understand and help them. Repeat back what you hear as the major issue. Express your genuine regret that they’re having a rough time, and show an honest willingness to help. Even if you have to fake it, use eye contact, body language, and verbal cues to show you care and are engaged. Don’t talk over your customer- this just feels like a power play. Let them finish first.3. Talk slower and sweeter.Just because your customer raises his or her voice doesn’t mean you have to respond in kind. Lower your voice and slow your speech down. The calming effect can be immense. You can still be firm- the last thing you want to do is show your fear. But try to inspire the client to relax just with the way you’re speaking.4. Look for nuance.Is their ire coming at you from a place of anger, anxiety, annoyance, or frustration? Getting a more specific sense of where their wrath originates can help you figure out how to tackle neutralizing it. Look at the situation from their point of view and try to figure out what may have triggered their (over)reaction. See if there’s anything you can accept blame for or fix easily, and start with that.5. Imagine you have an audience.If you’re having a hard time keeping your cool, just imagine you’re not alone. Rather, pretend you’re in a room full of clients or customers. Imagine this audience of people is judging your company on your merits as a problem solver. Keep the tone confident and cool. Playing this trick on yourself is a great way to stay professional and courteous, even when you want to scream.6. Find your foothold.Is there anything, in your customer’s tirade that makes a little bit of sense? Look for something you can work with- break down the rant into manageable, actionable chunks and talk your customer through those. Finding even one thing you can solve immediately, however small, can really diffuse a sit uation and make a customer feel heard and respected.7. Pretend to be wrong.If you flip the tables and start agreeing with everything your customer says to the point of taking all the blame upon your shoulders (where it doesn’t belong), you might just find the customer will soften and start saying things like, â€Å"Well, I understand it’s not your fault.† It’s a bit of a hit-or-miss strategy, but can be super effective in certain situations.8. Give them a parting gift.Your biggest goal as a liaison for your company is to repair the relationship. See if you can give your customer a voucher or a bonus discount of some kind- anything to make them feel they’ve â€Å"won.†9. Don’t take it personally.At the end of the day, some customers can’t be reason with and some people are irrationally angry. It’s not about you. It’s probably not even about the company. Let it wash right off your back. Don’t take it home.

Monday, March 2, 2020

Learn More About the History of Lasers

Learn More About the History of Lasers The name LASER is an acronym for Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation. It is is a device that emits a beam of light through a process called optical amplification. It distinguishes itself from other sources of light by emitting light in a spatially and temporally coherent manner. Spatial coherence keeps the beam within a narrow and tight path over long disances. This allows the energy generated to be used in applications such as laser cutting and laser pointing. Having temporal coherence means that can emit light within a narrow spectrum to generate a light beam of a specific color. In 1917, Albert Einstein first theorized about the process which makes lasers possible called Stimulated Emission. He detailed his theory in a paper titled Zur Quantentheorie der Strahlung (On the Quantum Theory of Radiation). Today, lasers are used in a wide range of technologies including optical disk drives, laser printers and barcode scanners. They are also used in laser surgery and skin treatments as well as cutting and welding. Before the Laser In 1954, Charles Townes and Arthur Schawlow invented the maser (microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) using ammonia gas and microwave radiation. The maser was invented before the (optical) laser. The technology is very similar but does not use visible light. On March 24, 1959, Townes and Schawlow were granted a patent for the maser. The maser was used to amplify radio signals and as an ultra sensitive detector for space research. In 1958, Townes and Schawlow theorized and published papers about a visible laser, an invention that would use infrared and/or visible spectrum light. However, they did not proceed with any research at the time. Many different materials can be used as lasers. Some, like the ruby laser, emit short pulses of laser light. Others, like helium-neon gas lasers or liquid dye lasers, emit a continuous beam of light. The Ruby Laser In 1960, Theodore Maiman invented the ruby laser considered to be the first successful optical or light laser. Many historians claim that Maiman invented the first optical laser. However, there is some controversy due to claims that Gordon Gould was the first and there is good evidence backing that claim. The Gordon Gould Laser Gould was the first person to use the word laser. Gould was a doctoral student at Columbia University under Townes, the inventor of the maser. Gould was inspired to build his optical laser starting in 1958. He failed to file for a patent his invention until 1959. As a result, Goulds patent was refused and his technology was exploited by others. It took until 1977 for Gould to finally win his patent war and receive his first patent for the laser. The Gas Laser The first gas laser (helium-neon) was invented by Ali Javan in 1960. The gas laser was the first continuous-light laser and the first to operate on the principle of converting electrical energy to a laser light output. It has been used in many practical applications. Hall's Semiconductor Injection Laser In 1962, inventor Robert Hall created a revolutionary type of laser that is still used in many of the electronic appliances and communications systems that we use every day. Patel's Carbon Dioxide Laser The carbon dioxide laser was invented by Kumar Patel in 1964. Walker's Laser Telemetry Hildreth Walker invented laser telemetry and targeting systems. Laser Eye Surgery New York City ophthalmologist Steven Trokel made the connection to the cornea and performed the first laser surgery on a patients eyes in 1987. The next ten years were spent perfecting the equipment and the techniques used in laser eye surgery. In 1996, the first Excimer laser for ophthalmic refractive use was approved in the United States. Trokel patented the Excimer laser for vision correction. The Excimer laser was originally used for etching silicone computer chips in the 1970s. Working in the IBM research laboratories in 1982, Rangaswamy Srinivasin, James Wynne and Samuel Blum saw the potential of the Excimer laser in interacting with biological tissue. Srinivasin and the IBM team realized that you could remove tissue with a laser without causing any heat damage to the neighboring material. But it took the observations of Dr. Fyodorov in a case of eye trauma in the 1970s to bring about the practical application of refractive surgery through radial keratotomy.