[One more beatitude in this series—Be Non-Argumentative. Perhaps the most important, avoid arguing like you would earthquakes and rattlesnakes!]

Be Non-Argumentative: According to All Business, you can reason with a customer, offer solutions, try to empathize with a customer and try to solve a customer’s problem, but you should NEVER argue with a customer.

The goal of a customer service associate is to find solutions to the customer’s problems. Arguing is the process of trying to prove that you are right, while the other person is wrong. It will be difficult to get the customer to discuss their problems with you when you are trying to tell them they are wrong.

Avoiding an argument is about getting to the core of the problem and accepting responsibility for making the customer happy. In Dale Carnegie’s words: “You can’t win an argument, because if you lose, you lose it; and if you win it, you lose it.” You might feel fine about winning but what about the person who just lost? You have made that person feel inferior, you have hurt his or her pride, insulted their intelligence, their judgment, and their self-respect. They will resent your triumph. In fact, the offended person may even strike back. Ultimately you will never make him or her want to change their mind. In Benjamin Franklin’s words: “A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still.”

Carnegie says that, “There is only one way under the high heaven to get the best of an argument—and that is to avoid it. Avoid arguments as you would rattlesnakes and earthquakes.”

[In my next post I’ll share some key points from Dale Carnegie on how to keep a disagreement from becoming an argument.]