Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Panache

At the adoption event last weekend, we were situated near the entrance to the store, which was also near the checkout aisles.  And when you're posted right near the checkout aisles, you can't help but overhear the conversations of people waiting in line.

An older woman was standing in line, and then a man got in line behind her, and they recognized each other as friends who hadn't seen each other in a while, and they got to chatting.

"So!,"  the woman said.  "How's your family?"

The man hesitated for a moment, then smiled and said, "You know what?  That's not a really great question for me right now.  How's YOUR family?"

I love that answer.  I plan to use it in the future.  "That's not a really great question for me right now."  Perfect.

2 comments:

spiffi said...

That is excellent - I will have to remember that one.

The other response I like, and try to remember to use, is "I'm sorry to hear that" - when someone complains about something to me, with the intent that I should, clearly, *do* something about it.

It works well, especially for those of us, who tend to feel that when someone tells us something, that we need to *fix* it - sometimes we don't need to jump in to fix it, we just need to express empathy :D

Sadly, when it comes to my customers, (I do tech support) they *do* expect me to fix it :)

rockygrace said...

I like that, spiffi. And thanks for stopping by!