Why Keeping Updated on Politics Improves Your Customer Service

0:00Why keeping up on politics is good for your consumer relations management. Hello and welcome to Communication Psychology and Human Resource. My name is Gihard Orbent. I'm a psychologist from Hamburg, Germany, here in the Republic of Moldova for many years. I'm specialized in international intercultural and multi-language contexts. Now, I know lots of people who say that they don't follow the news because it's too negative and I can totally relate to that. I myself am engaging regularly in so-called information diets. So I am a news junkie or a politics junkie or have them and I try to limit the input I get. So I can totally understand that. Now, what's the problem? For many, not being interested in politics, translate actually and ask them further to not be interested in anything that's going on in the world. So it's not only that they are not

1:04interested in party politics, Republicans versus Democrats or what parties in your country maybe. But they're also not interested in what's going on in the economy and society, internationally, they're not interested in any kind of intellectual developments, debates going on. And this is quite dangerous. Why? Because if we work in a business environment, so almost every company has so-called mission statement. And most mission statements that's a very elevated, majestical place for the customer or clients. So we are very customer-oriented, customer-centric and so on. However, I have a looming suspicion that those that shut out anything

2:04going on in the world outside may likewise be quite less inclined to be interested in what's going on in the lives of the consumers and clients. Because the same applies here. It's not only always positive. It's not only consuming of motivational speeches, reading self-development books and making team buildings and our company is showing off on LinkedIn how great a family we are. Well, our customers are also in different situations. And they have experienced problems, they are affected by the economy. And even if they are not affected by anything that you could read in the news, keeping up with the news or ideally not watching the news, but debates, talk shows or reading in-depth articles, at least you get into the habit of taking the perspective of another person. And that's crucial to understanding your customers better. And even if the

3:08topics are totally different, their concerns, problems, intentions are completely different from what you can consume in economical, social or political debates. In any case, this will train you of being more receptive, perceptive for individual differences. And you can be more empathetic. And this is so often heralded as the key to good customer relations. Empathy, what the question is, how to develop it. And empathy is typically not developed by just being hanging around your own office members and making team buildings and picture selfies for LinkedIn. But actually engaging with people that are very, very different from you. So you need to have this exposure to different and often unpleasant positions, people, problems. And if we want to hide from problems in general,

4:09then probably we will transmit this attitude to our consumers and clients. And even if we don't express it, the consumer or client will feel, well, here is such a positive environment. I don't want to disturb this poor customer relations expert with my problems. They are probably not interested. So I hope this was interesting for you. Please, your comments and criticism. And I will come back to that. Bye-bye.