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Tag: helping others

Call centric

Call centric

Published December 29, 2021

We’ve all had to call customer care at some point. Something breaks, something is not working, something needs to be returned, some parcel needs to be tracked, some refund needs to be appropriated – the reasons are many.

But do you really like speaking to customer care?

Most of us hate it, don’t we?

But those folks are so polite no?

They say “please”, they say “thank you for calling, have a nice day”, they also say “sorry to keep you waiting for such a long time”

So very polite. But we still don’t like most customer care experiences. Why?

Because these are mostly empty words. The commanding language or flowery vocabulary really doesn’t matter.

The only thing that does matter, is the deep desire to help the other person. If that is there, then nothing else is necessary.

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Placebo

Placebo

Published July 13, 2021

We know the placebo effect. For those who are sick, sometimes even just pills that have nothing in them seems to do the trick.

The recent vaccination drives for Covid also has led people to talk about this. “I had no side effects whatsoever. Maybe I was just given saline, who knows, haha.”

There are many other placebos in life too.

Like the presence of a mother for her baby. The baby crawls a few steps ahead, and then turns back to check if the mom is looking. And then crawls forward again. The crawling is done by the baby only, not the mommy.

Keeping the light on, for someone afraid of the dark, is a similar example. What lurks in the dark would lurk in the light too. But the light gives comfort.

On calls, sometimes we can’t hear the other side clearly. And we let them know. And the other party after 5 seconds says, “Is it better now?”, without having done a thing.

Placebos abound, and they are good. Especially from a mental health point of view. Sometimes, many times, we cannot be of any real help. But just being there, even as a statue, if someone really needs us, that passive presence can make all the difference in the world to them.

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The cleanse

The cleanse

Published June 20, 2020

A scraggy and scruffy man knocked on the door every weekend. His ask? A few morsels of food for his workday.

His task was unenviable, perhaps even pitiable. Cleaning all the public toilets and septic tanks within his catchment area.

The lady at the door would oblige. Always providing him a decent meal. And also giving him some money to take care of his daughter’s education.

It became fairly obvious that some of this money was being used by him to buy cheap alcohol and get intoxicated.

While others objected with the usual, “He’s not putting the money to good use!”, the lady was firm in her decision to continue her dole outs.

Her rationale? “It is so difficult to even clean one’s own toilet. Here is a man who has to clean 100s of toilets, and that too of others. It is his job yes, but at least he’s doing it well. Maybe the alcohol gets him into a state where he is at least partially unaffected by the stench.”

It is easy to think for ourselves, but often impossible to put ourselves in other’s shoes.

The lady was my wife’s mother. She passed too early. But her life’s actions continue to inspire and live on.

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