Woody Wonders

What do you think of when you hear the words 'customer service' ?  There's numerous definitions floating around but more often than not we associate customer service   with companies. "the assistance and advice provided by a company to those people who buy or use its products or services" I started thinking about this topic in more detail following two very bad examples of customer service from two separate high street banks and two very different experiences. The first experience involved a complete breakdown in communication between a number of bank departments yet every single person I spoke to was polite, friendly and understanding.  All very well and good but nothing ever got actioned and the whole sorry state of affairs dragged on for almost 3 months.  By the end of last week I'd reached my tolerance limit and I was practically begging and pleading for someone to help me.  I was trying to sort a very sensitive and distressing issue and by this time, urge...

Ah yes, that age old topic of communication skills, don't we love to bang on about this subject.  We're criticised of under-communicating, over-communicating, being too positive, being too negative, not enough detail, too much detail, talking too much, not talking enough blah blah blah. It is however, hugely important to us as humans to be able to communicate effectively and we all have little traits or gestures that can be interpreted in the wrong way so we need to be aware of how we communicate. So what are the basics we need to be aware of: Voice Our voices are unique to us so we can't change them as such but we can change the pace, tone and volume of how we speak.  In this day and age, things move so quickly and we all want to get our point across that most of us speak way too fast.  So first of all, let's slow down a bit.  The tone of our voice matters too, it can show 'coldness' towards someone or it can show 'warmth and empathy' - read your audi...

Have you noticed that when you do something for someone else, it gives you a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling inside. How often do you do that for yourself?  Do something to brighten up YOUR own day?  I'm guessing not as many times as you do something for someone else right?  We're often that busy taking care of the needs of others, whether it's colleagues, partners, friends, parents, children, pets, that we often forget to do something to brighten up our own days. Well, this week I'm going to be doing just that, brightening up my own life with a little ME time.  I have a whole week off work - woo hoo, first break since Xmas so I'm in desperate need!!  Yes, there'll be times when I need to do things for others but on the whole I'm planning some ' be kind to me' time. No time like the present so I brightened up this morning with a run through some very colourful fields! So, what else am I planning this week? More running! Catching up on my reading Going fo...

Are you struggling with the challenges of lockdown  or using it to your advantage? Every week when it comes to writing my blog, I'm determined not to mention the 'C' word.  No!!!  Not that one.  But the fact is, I can't get away from it, none of us can, it's now intertwined in our lives and has changed everything we previously thought of as 'normal'.   The question I've asked myself recently is how the situation has changed me in terms of my personality and how I now look at things from a different perspective. I always used to describe myself as an 'extrovert introvert' as depending on the situation I can be either very outgoing or painfully shy.  Turns out I'm an 'ambivert' - who knew?!! Aah, it all makes perfect sense now.  On the one hand I can lead a boot camp session, talking and cracking jokes non-stop and generally driving people insane for a good 45 mins; yet on the other, I can barely speak when asked a q...

Emotional Intelligence "The capacity to be aware of, control, and express one's emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically" According to some studies, 'emotional intelligence' is the key to both personal and professional success.   Fabulous, I'm off to the shop to buy a sackful of EI.  Some time later .... damn it!  So what can we do to develop EI?   Before we start though, can I just point out the empathy component.  My fitness clients will know that I ooze empathy so I really don't need to work on this part!!  😬 Although there are a few different variations on the components which make up EI, the ones shown in the picture above seem to be the most popular.  Their definitions are as follows: Self-awareness - 'ability to recognise your moods and emotions, as well as their affect on others' Empathy - 'ability to understand the emotions of others and skill in dealing with ot...