True Talk #2: Conflict Thursday, March 04, 2021

Issac: Like when you say conflict, most people think like negative, right? Like you're like, there's gonna be a fight. Or there's something wrong? Conflict has no negative or positive.]

Mark: Conflict could be reduced massively just by talking and communicating. He would always say, well, the customer's mad. I don't think they're mad or they might be mad. Well just call him. Has somebody called him? No, Nobody called him, so we don't really know. I think communication really connects a lot of dots.

Issac: How we solve 90% of our conflicts is rock, paper, scissors. The easiest way to do it if he wants black shirts, I want yellow. We just say, OK, let's go and he won see black shirts. That's why we wear black shirts. No, I would say conflict. It has a... like when you say conflict. Most people think like negative, right, like you're like, there's gonna be a fight or there's something wrong.

Conflict has no negative or positive. It's just... somebody told us one time it's the difference between what was expected and what actually happened. That's where your conflict takes place. It's not a negative or a positive thing. It's the spin that we put on it, that makes it negative or positive. It's just the difference between what's expected and what actually happened. That's it. That's where your conflict lies.

And so like, he said, communication. The more you communicate them, or somebody understands what's expected of them or what's expected of you. And then there are no false expectations, you know, then I can't get hurt because I expected him to do that. And he didn't do that. Well, I communicated with him. I need you to do this. So that's a big thing. It's a daily challenge there.

Mark: It reduces the puffed up... what we call it, conflict is puffed up. That's all it is. When there's conflict, somebody's puffed up. Could be you could be that person could be both of y'all. How do you let the air out? You communicate, you talk. You tell them you're mad. You tell them you're happy. Explain your situation and you move on.

Issac: And there's a lot of techniques to that, like, let's I'll give you an example of a customer calls in and they're really upset. Like you said, they're really angry. We've learned in our business about 90% of the time they really just want to be heard.

So what we do is say, what's the issue? What happened? Why? And ask him a million questions and let him talk about it. If they believe that you really listen to them, then you can start talking about how to resolve the conflict.

Mark: Problems almost solved just by listening to him. The communication is so powerful. Once they get done talking, you're like anything else? "No. And actually, you know what? I think we're all right. I don't think we have any more questions."

It's like they solve their own problems by talking it out. They just wanna be heard. Communication is important.