Smells Like NFTeen Spirit
Earlier this month, I won a drawing for an NFT of a previously unseen photo taken at a Nirvana show in Philadelphia with a crowd of just 150. This show took place just a week after the release of their seminal album, Nevermind. Within 3 months, the album would be #1 on the Billboard charts and selling over 300,000 copies a week. The lead single, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The album has since sold over 30 million copies worldwide, making it among the top selling records of all time. I definitely bought two of those albums. One was a gift for my best friend's sixteenth birthday.
For those of you unfamiliar, Wikipedia defines NFT as:
A non-fungible token (NFT) is a non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a blockchain, a form of digital ledger, that can be sold and traded. Types of NFT data units may be associated with digital files such as photos, videos, and audio. Because each token is uniquely identifiable, NFTs differ from blockchain cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin.
NFT ledgers claim to provide a public certificate of authenticity or proof of ownership, but the legal rights conveyed by an NFT can be uncertain. NFTs do not restrict the sharing or copying of the underlying digital files, do not necessarily convey the copyright of the digital files, and do not prevent the creation of NFTs with identical associated files.
If that sounds confusing to you, you're not alone. In fact, it got me thinking a lot about ownership. Ownership in the world of NFTs is, as far as I can tell, murky at best. I'm not even entirely sure what I own given that the photo can be copied, shared, and even turned into another NFT that someone else owns.
Luckily, demonstrating ownership in the context of a contact center is much simpler!!
Demonstrating ownership is a great way to establish trust, de-escalate upset customers, and move more quickly to resolution.
Ownership is all about focusing on what you can do to address an issue rather than what you cannot do. This can seem challenging when a customer specifically asks you to do something that you know you cannot do. Sometimes, automations, processes, or policies will prevent us from being able to meet a specific demand. Even so, there's a simple technique that works surprisingly well, despite not being entirely intuitive:
Ignore their request. Yes, you read that correctly: Ignore their request. You might be tempted to say that you cannot honor their request or that what they want isn't possible - don't do it! Instead, simply tell that what you can do. Put stress on the can. This is you stepping up to resolve their issue and focusing on a solution, even if it's not the solution they had in mind.
"What I can do for you is..."
This doesn't mean act like you didn't hear them - you can and should express empathy and acknowledge the issue. This lets the customer know you're listening and you understand. You may even need to buy some time before you present your solution by saying something like, "Let me look into this a bit further," or "Let me see what I can do to resolve this for you." Just don't make excuses or blame the issue on one of your peers. The customer typically does not care whose fault it is or why it happened - they just want a resolution. If you do need to discuss why an issue occurred, make sure you also own that by using "we" and "us" language. For instance, "It seems we mistakenly…"
When you consistently demonstrate ownership with your customers, you'll find that you can move forward to resolution much faster! And when you figure out ownership in the world of NFTs, let me know!
