Imagine the following scenario: You’re having a really bad day, dealing with tons of irate customers. You’re at a breaking point, when an aggravated customer you’ve been dealing with comes back at you, flaming.
That’s what happened to a Delta Air Lines representative this past weekend. On one of the worst travel weekends of the year, Memorial Day Weekend, Delta canceled or delayed hundreds of flights. Needless to say, Delta customers weren’t happy.
Which led a Delta representative to give the following response, after dealing with one especially irate customer who appears to have had their flight canceled last-minute:
“Can you calm down and allow me some time to work please??”
This response may not have been the best one, but it’s real–and it helps teach some lessons about emotional intelligence, an ability that can help you run your business more effectively, especially when the stress levels begin to rise.
Let’s break down this conversation, and see what you can take away from it all.
(By the way, my colleague Jason Aten shares his own customer service lessons from this event in another great piece, which you can find here.)
The emotional hijack
It’s impossible to say for sure, but it’s probable the Delta employee’s response came as a result of an emotional hijack.
An emotional hijack refers to what happens when the amygdala, the part of the brain that serves as our emotional processor, hijacks or bypasses the normal reasoning process, which takes place primarily in other parts of the brain. When you feel an emotional threat, the amygdala jumps into hyperdrive, pushing you into a fight, flight, or freeze response.
As a business owner, you may face frustrating, high-stress situations like this on a daily basis. With time and effort, you can train yourself to reduce the amount of times your emotions get hijacked; however, no matter how good you get at managing your emotions, you will continue to say and do things you regret, at times.
What should you do when this happens?