Rational Behavior

From a CD I found while cleaning out...old CDs...

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Michael Beane PSY211 Report #3 4/16/2000

Rational Behavior In A Irrational World

My current position at my place of work is handling inside sales for a welding supply company. The sales team handles both over the counter & over the phone inquiries ranging from simple stock questions to technical how-to’s from day to day. My time there puts me as the newest addition to the crew, and my knowledge base the smallest amongst everyone else. The group is always willing to lend a hand when they are available to do so and the days usually go on without incident. Usually.

This morning I received this call:

“I have a welding gun that ain’t working.”

“I see, would you like to speak to the Technician?”

“No, no, here are the part numbers….[insert barrage of multidigit numbers here].. you got these in stock?”

“What is the model of your machine?”

“I don’t know, they’ve had it for years. Ain’t those numbers enough?”

“Hold on for a moment Sir while check these out”

---[manic keyboard typing, number re-arranging, cross referencing, of course, the other salespeople are tied up at the moment]—

As with nearly any stock system that uses numbers, there are just as many ways of ordering the numbers as there are numbers. This makes it some what difficult when a customer drops off a cluster of them without linking them to a machine. For example, 1664162 4 would be a Makita part, while 1664 1624 would be an Airco part. The problem here is that not one of his numbers have come up in any combination.

“Sir, would it be possible for you to find out the machine type? None of the numbers have come up in the system….”

“[Expletive] What is wrong with you? I gave you all the numbers, isn’t that enough? You have some [expletive] problem?”

“Perhaps you’d like to speak to the Technician? He may be able to help you better than I have.”

At this point my blood is boiling and I’ve started to panic just a little. We handle accounts anywhere from pocket change upwards into the near millions, and it is hard to tell who you are dealing with and what is at stake. Either way, this is a customer and I can’t handle this situation. He has been vulgar, rude and insistent. I can’t handle this.

“Sir, let me check one more thing…”

I put him on hold and sat back. There I was, sitting right in the middle of my irrational self talk. At this point I had convinced myself that I couldn’t deal with this caller, that if I failed it could cost the company money and I panicked in the situation. So, I started a little more self talk.

“It’s not true that I can’t handle this call. He may be a rude and difficult caller, but it is not an impossible call. I am still new here and while I may not have a grasp yet on the inventory system here, I do know how to use the computer to assist me in my search. I have been able to help others in the past given the proper information. Finally, I am good at relaying information as it stands to others, and this is a situation just like that. I can handle this call.”

“Sir, I’ve ran the numbers you have given me and I haven’t been able to come up with a match. If you would like, the technician is here, but if you do not want to speak to him, the only other way is for you to find out the Make and Model of the machine you are trying to get parts for. Ok?”

“Well, I suppose [grumble], I call you back”

“Thank you.”

If anything, RETB does two things noticeable. The first is that it gets your self-esteem back up into a positive area. I believe the example in class was:

• One good comment to stop the negative at –1 • A second good comment to get you back to 0 • And the third places you in the positive mood at +1.

The second is that it allows you to get your wits together in a situation. While you’re coming up with the three comments, it forces you to focus on digging up each one and making them count. Everything else seems is put on hold while the RETB is taking place and you come out of the thought process calmer than you went into it.

RETB seems to be helpful. I did feel better talking to the person, no matter how rude he was after that point. To close the story, he did call back. It ends up that he was looking for parts for a model that is found in nationwide store chains that is more known for its cheap price than its dependability. The irony, we don’t even carry parts for those types.