Human beings have something that I call “The Generalization Point”. It seems it only takes two or three experiences before people generalize. If we meet two or three people in a bad mood we say, “Everyone is in a bad mood today.” This is what I call the generalization point.

You can use the Generalization Point on purpose. Whenever you hear yourself say, “I understand.” Follow it with two to three specific statements of what you actually understand. Anyone can say they “understand” without actually understanding anything.

Let’s say a team member says they are overworked. There’s a big difference between just saying, “I understand.”

Verses saying, “I understand you are overworked because it doesn’t seem the workload was downsized along with the workforce. And the demands from our Customers are increasing. Not to mention the seemingly endless stream of meetings.”

In the second example, because of the three statements you made, you hit the other person’s generalization point and he or she will feel completely understood by you.

Today, a woman came up to me after a Love Thy Customer program to tell me her customer dis-service horror story. Without going into too many details, it was over a $79 chair at a furniture store (where she already spent thousands) and thee company’s unwillingness to have the chair moved from the warehouse to the store so she could pick it up. Although she subsequently stopped doing business with them, went on to spend thousands at a competitor’s store, and of course told over 100 people, she wanted to know how she could have communicated more effectively to get satisfaction from them. If you have been wronged as a customer and you want to make it right, then this post is for you. I have developed a formula to write a letter as a customer that will get results. The first time I used it, I not only got a 90 day warranty on a set of speakers turned into a 5 year warranty, but I got a policy change that gave every owner of those speakers a 2 year warranty. Most recently I had the president of DirecTv respond to me in 17 minutes and my issue, which was a month old, was resolved in 12 hours in a way much greater than my expectations. I have recorded the strategy as a podcast. Hearing it will be the quickest way for you to get it. After you listen you can write me and I’ll send you a written summary. The podcast is 28 minutes in length. http://rickbrinkman.com/podcasts