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Ec3 Blog

Getting customers to stick

7/26/2022

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​Why do company's continue to hold onto a misguided belief that product alone will create that elusive "stickiness" and loyalty? As much as a perception of value and fear-of-loss / greed is a real factor, is this enough to keep your hard-earned customers from leaving?
Some time back I spoke with a large fitness chain who believed that churn was completely normal or even seasonal, and that because of discounts through associated partners their massive monthly churn was not much of a concern.
I was horrified at the senior person's attitude. Was this naivety or plain stupidity that "they will be back" almost regardless?
There are simply put, three basic reasons why customers choose to stay with you. One is pure laziness to make a change - let's call it ambivalence, and they pain of the change is more than the pain of staying in the same place.
Secondly, there is the handcuff method where companies have made it seem extremely difficult to exit planting exit penalties or red tape to keep you in stasis.
Lastly, there are those few companies who just make you fall in love with them. Like honey, there is a beautiful stickiness and reason to stick with them through thick and thin. This is because there is an intention to try to form a sincere relationship based on mutual compromise and trust. Making mistakes are almost always forgivable when your touchpoints take ownership to resolve and even delight you during the retention process.
Which one do you work for? Which one would you like to partner with? 
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Clutch Recognizes Ec3 as a Leading Voice Services Company in South Africa for 2021

10/26/2021

 
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​Business Process Outsourcing has become
a popular solution for many companies to improve their capacity for certain departments. One of the common areas where BPO shines is in voice services. In 2021, hiring a voice services company can improve your ability to reach out to existing and potential clients, hence, driving growth to your business.


Here at Ec3, we care about our clients’ satisfaction. Since 2013, we’ve been a trusted provider of affordable but effective BPO services to many partners. By outsourcing some of their functions to us, our customers get to focus on areas of their operations that need more attention. With our help, you can streamline your business worry-free.

As we aim to reach more customers that can benefit from our BPO solutions, we’ve been recently named among the top voice services companies in South Africa by Clutch!

For the uninitiated, Clutch is a B2B ratings and reviews platform based in Washington, DC. They evaluate technology service and solutions companies based on the quality of work, thought leadership, and client reviews. 

A rapidly expanding startup, Clutch has become the go-to resource in the agency space. Their review process is reliable and transparent, and we’re grateful to those of our clients who have taken the time to provide feedback.

We’re thrilled to be the recipient of this award because it highlights our team’s commitment to business excellence. Here’s what our Business Owner had to say after hearing the news about this recognition:

“Clutch is the world leader in verifying quality organizations. As such, we are privileged to be recognized by them.”
-- Juan Volschenk, CEO of Ec3

Take a look at the latest reviews of our work from our clients, as seen on our Clutch profile:

“They stick with what they do well, and it’s why they’re so successful.”

"You could never fault them for what you gave them; they always got things done."

For more information about our offerings, feel free to send us an inquiry today or call us at (+27) 31 941 8000.

Ec3 Records 5-Star Rated First Review on Clutch

4/28/2021

 
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Call centers seem like relics of the past. Most people remember being frustrated with calling a company for service. You’d ring up and then wait in the line forever. However, most businesses still use call centers. They’re still the number one way for customers to get in touch with a company. Whether you need sales, customer service, or quality assurance support, Ec3 provides an outsource call center solution for you. As a boutique specialist, we have the experience to deliver the best possible results and maximize your return on investment.
We’ve won numerous awards since our inception as a top specialist outsourcing partner. We may not be the biggest, but being owner-operated for the past couple of years means that commitment and passion to serve has not waned. We offer focused campaigns, protect your brand, reputation, and data.
We recently received a 5-star rated review on Clutch, a ratings and review platform. One of our clients that we’ve been working with since 2013 wanted to distribute their call center efforts to external partners. The client provided scripts but our adeptness as a retention and service partner gave them the confidence to trust our agents’ selling skills.
There are other service providers that are also working with the client, but our conversion percentage is the most successful. We achieved this with our deep knowledge, choosing carefully what we do in the customer renewal and retention space, and sticking to what we do well. 
Here’s what they had to say about working with us: “They’re exceptional — we couldn’t have those kinds of conversions without planning a very tight approach...The reason why they’re so successful is that they have a personal relationship at a very senior level with each and every customer.” – Former Direct Sales Executive, Cell C
Aside from this wonderful feedback, Ec3 is also featured on Clutch’s sister site, The Manifest, a B2B research guide that highlights leading agencies in different industries. The Manifest is also an awards and projects listing website where companies can browse and find the right service providers to partner with.
We’d like to thank our clients for such wonderful feedback and we’re happy to see them succeed. Their success is the main reason we continue to provide exceptional service and working experience for our clients. Let’s get in touch! We’d love to hear from you!

PRESS RELEASE: SA outsourcer nabs two international gold awards

3/2/2021

 
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Durban South Africa, February 26, 2021 – Ec3 today announced that the company has placed 1st in the annual Global Contactcenterworld.com Awards in two categories. Competing against 2000 entrants from 70 countries after winning the EMEA Awards in 2020 saw them go through as Finalists in two award sections: Best Outsourced Contact Center (med size) and Best Use of Social Media .
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Clint Waltman (Director) represented Ec3 at these virtual awards who described the event as unbiased and highly competitive for national pride. “Being a small Durban-based boutique contact centre, it was truly humbling to hold up our South African flag for fellow outsourcers at this event. We really hope that more business comes the way of South Africa after proving we can go toe-to-toe against international competitors.”
“These recognitions in the EMEA and World markets underscore the agility, innovation and flexibility of  Ec3 to provide world-class services on the greater stage.”
Now in its 15th year, these awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious awards in the industry and a few even refer to them as being like the Olympics for our industry as it's not just company competing against the company, but nation against nation!

The Top Ranking Performers Awards are the ultimate industry awards for the contact centre industry and are exclusively available from ContactCenterWorld.com - the Global Association for Contact Center & Customer Engagement Best Practices with around 205,000 members in 200 countries.

About ContactCenterWorld
The association is the World’s largest association for Contact Center & CX professionals with over 205,00 professional members. ContactCenterWorld.com was founded in 1999 and runs the largest awards program for our industry, the highest rated events, offers networking for members, has over 40,000 documents online and offers daily tips, benchmarking data, employee engagement and customer experience programs.

Tips for leaders in a WFH environment.

6/24/2020

 

Escape, was the office.

4/17/2020

 
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Be careful of what you wish for. Have you heard this prophetic warning before somewhere? Never before have so many people who wished for solitude; isolation; time-out and a break rued those wishes.

Working from home (WFH) has been a dream of many people across cultures and boundaries, often ending in despising non-officebound colleagues for the freedom gained by having a flexible lifestyle. Flexible often showing up as flexi-time at the office, or even being based at home and never schlepping into the work environment. Many an envious eye was glanced the way of sales reps and mobile / independent contractors and fellow employees.

What a few weeks have have done to change perceptions, and the novelty has probably started to rapidly wear off with ever evolving Covid-19 lockdown extensions! Why?

Human beings are naturally social beings, loving and hating interactions with people in offices around the globe.The gossip at the coffee machine or water cooler; the instant message texting under the boardroom table mocking the manager giving another boring lecture on XY or Z. People don’t enjoy the long commutes every day, let alone the costs involved to get to work yet life demands that we follow the routine to earn a living to survive and bring up our families and educate our children. Rince. Repeat.

It’s been fascinating observing dynamics in our own environment with staff attempting to adjust to this new normal of working from home. Having being home-based for 7 years already, I’m loving the new and more frequent interactions on House Party with staff whom I ordinarily don’t spend much time with, being that my real office is 1,600 kms away! It’s this unique voyeuristic vantage point that I’m observing some realisations afresh.

No technology or great communication apps can totally bridge the gaps and keep our beloved staff entirely happy. Look, it’s made a heck of a difference and we’re super-fortunate to keep everyone employed and our partners happy… don’t get me wrong. But, it’s becoming more and more apparent that work and the space it physically takes up is really the great escape for many people.

Being in this unique solitary confinement with families has possibly more cons than pros. Tempers are flaring more often between spouses and children just due to boredom and the forced physical co-location. It’s no longer possible to nip down to the shops / bar / surf / mountainbike / run for a few hours to let off that steam. Normal social interactions like BookClub or Boy’s Night Out have gone into limbo, with no natural easing of tensions or venting possible. Add fuel to this fire is the inability to smoke or have a light tipple.

This is where empathy and balance of routines to check-in with staff at a different level becomes essential. Emotional intelligence of even the best leaders is now being stretched further than ever due to necessity. The pressures of work, financial insecurity and uncertainty about the future requires a gentler way, balanced with a reminder that work must go on and standards are standards.

Encourage your guys to plug into their favorite music on their earbuds, watch enlightening YouTube or TED Talks and read (downloading) versus getting negative information media overload. The current Corona 24×7 news on every channel does nothing to lessen our stress hormones, which in turn wastes precious bodily energy best saved to fight off viruses and the like.
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BREATHE. RELAX. This too shall pass.

Keeping isolated staff motivated during a pandemic (COVID-19)

4/14/2020

 
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Cliches and superlatives abound in this strange new world we live in. The Oxford Dictionary will no doubt add these words and terms at the end of Annus Horribilis: "Social distancing"; Covid-19"; "Self-isolation" and "social distancing" etc.

We have entered unchartered territory. For most of us, staying completely confined to our homes without the ability to have physical contact with friends, let alone our own family members can be very stressful. Add to that the extra task of trying to maintain a normal life during this period where nothing is "normal" and everything we do has to be monitored to a certain degree. Life as we know it, at least for the foreseeable future, is completely derailed and if we don't make a conscious effort to maintain some sort of control over it, it can be very easy to fall into unhealthy habits.

As leaders in a call centre environment (read: "sales"), where staff are working from home it's especially difficult to keep staff motivated and focussed. How can you help yourself stay motivated for work and life while self-isolating? Here are a few helpful tips to keep you focused on staying healthy and positive:

1. Set a routine for your staff

Daily virtual dial-ins be it via Zoom, WhatsApp or House Party are essential. They should be able to set their clock to the meetings and if done properly, should be highly motivating and uplifting. In other words, are they looking forward to the touch-base in a toward state, or fearing a thrashing? If it's the latter, Houston, we have a problem!

2. Use WhatsApp or other low-bandwidth technology

Not only are team meetings valuable to vent and share challenges, leaders need to give individual members the power to choose whether a video or voice call one-on-one is preferred. Many people are for the first time allowing strangers into the privacy of their own homes, and this can be daunting in itself! Not everyone has a calm, clean environment at home where often screaming children and spouses are quite resentful to the intrusion. Be mindful of this, and empower your team member to make their own choices. One on one time is nonetheless very important, with video being the preferred channel to truly read their mood and motivation.
3. Multi-media YouTube videos
Share daily motivational videos and stories (limitless with the advent of YouTube) selectively. Their is no one-size-fits-all here, so be mindful that the right message to the wrong team member is the wrong message. Take the time to rather select subject matter which is bespoke for the team member requiring coaching.
 
3. Encourage physical breaks every 45 minutes

 It is well known that the prefrontal cortex can easily get overloaded, and taking  regular breaks in an office environment is not always conducive to remaining focussed. If however you create a context of "don't watch me, watch the scoreboard!", they will realise that focussed input is more valuable to achieve great output when people are empowered. If agents are able to reach their goals in 6 hours versus the standard 8, does it really matter? Rather let them keep the friction in a claustrophobic  environment at bay through spending family time with their loved ones.

4. Physical wellness 
 
During your virtual video / voice team meetings, encourage them as best as possible to walk around or find a new room from which to chat. This works especially well on WhatsApp and if they can become involved from their garden or even kitchen it increases their blood flow and takes them away from the mundane computer screen. Obviously social distancing rules need to be adhered to and not everyone is fortunate enough from a space perspective, but having stand-up meetings or asking them to do 5 quick jumping jacks can be fun and break up the monotony.
 
It is a known fact that exercise releases the feel good hormones in your brain called endorphins. Endorphins are chemicals produced by the body to relieve stress and one way to tap into them is through exercise. The best part is when it comes to releasing endorphins, it doesn't have to be anything too intense—even moderate exercise can help the release of these natural body relaxants. Moreover, the most important key in this suggestion is to actually make time for your self-care, whatever it may be. Nestled in your daily schedule, make sure you make an appointment with yourself for your self-care so that the day doesn't pass you by without it!

5. Show empathy

It has never been more important to step up as a leader, and flex your emotional intelligence. Show more empathy and patience than you have ever shown before. People are on a knife-edge from the stress of lock-in, so cracks are often wider than they appear. Tread gently, because this too shall pass.
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God bless and stay safe!


7 Tips to improve your listening skills

1/28/2020

 

Tips to improve listening - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

"Is Voice dead?" - White paper from the Contact Centre Panel

7/4/2019

 
An excellent article discussing new technologies including artificial intelligence and niche operators.
is-voice-dead-a-white-paper-by-the-contact-centre-panel-.pdf
File Size: 989 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Trust, at the heart of retention

5/16/2019

 
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It is well known and generally accepted that the cost of acquiring new customers is 5x more costly than retaining existing ones.

In the typical sales funnel, when you factor in marketing costs & sales headcount this is becoming increasingly challenging. To top it all, very few prospects are amenable to moving suppliers or products unless the pain of change is worth it. In other words, margins are cut in the acquisition race - unless you have a great salesperson who sells on service/value etc. Ultimately this means it's tough to get a decent ROI.

The iceberg effect especially when acquiring B2C clients, is the associated risk of unknowns. New clients who are often first-time-buyers, bring the highest risk of credit default. Ironic then that most businesses still deem it prudent to upping the ante and throwing the angel, tree and tinsel at new clients.

Breakeven acquisition costs are being pushed into uncharted territories every day - it's not uncommon to see in breakevens only after two years! This is bad business however you slice and dice it. Sadly, where customer base size is still being seen as the primary yardstick for success, the red-headed stepchild of average revenue is truly where the gold lies.

Do you want bottom line profit or the vanity of a bloated customer base that costs you more to keep growing and servicing?
The elephant in the room is retaining what you have, and nurturing that like you would you own child. Would you over-feed them until they become sick and obese? Would you neglect them and only give them the bear minimum to survive? Probably not.... Balance is required, but the primary intention is that they grow into the adults you would be proud of.

Customers leave when they feel they are being abused or neglected, and the underlying essence of this is TRUST. By not proactively engaging with them to understand what they really want, you are laying yourself open to being ravaged by the Viking hoard! In the blink of an eye your hard-acquired customer base has leaked out like water from a bath.
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So how do you keep the bath plug in place, or at least secured enough to minimise the leakage?

The fish rots from the head. Until the shareholders and Boards have RETENTION at the core of the business and are committed to throwing everything at it, this will only be a buzzword. Paying lip service to customer retention strategies are unfortunately commonplace, and they continue to default back to chasing the new numbers of acquisition. Don't get me wrong - it's critical you keep topping up the bath and growing, but it's so much easier when your boat doesn't have leaks!


February 13th, 2019

2/13/2019

 

Mix Telematics and Ec3 sign strategic partnership

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Managing Director of Mix Telematics, Gert Pretorius and Clint Waltman concluded a strategic retention partnership agreement in Durban 2018. 

It is the first time in Mix's illustrious history to outsource a portion of it's business to an external provider, and is testament to the faith that a dual listed company like Mix Telematics has with the reputation of Ec3. A long and successful partnership is envisaged, with a win:win outcome for both parties.

Make Magic with Millenials in 5 steps

3/6/2018

 
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​It’s well known that folks born in economic prosperity of that post-war aftermath are called Baby Boomers. Their children comprise Generation X, born in the 60s and 70s, who grew up in the 80s. I fall bang in the middle of this, loving the fact that I can say I’m a 69er…

New Romantic music like Depeche Mode, Duran Duran and U2 still fill my playlist daily as I drive to graft. I need this to put me a in a better mood whilst I ponder the day’s challenge of herding cats. No, not quite. Managing Millennials isn’t really like this, but certainly feels this way to  most “ballies”! 

Don’t give up hope, you just need to know WHY they are the way they are….and gurus like Simon Sinek have it pretty much taped that WE are to blame for creating Frankenstein! WHAT? SHOCK! HORROR!
This part certainly resonates the most with me…“failed parenting strategies” he calls it. I agree – we WERE told we were special – like Pinocchio? A real boy?

The age of the 80s and 90s meant we were inundated with business books like Tom Peters and positive thinking YES!YES!YES! speakers. Just because you want it, means you must go and get it. Did you necessarily deserve it is beside the point….

We in turn have told our children that everyone like would be getting something under our chair ala Oprah…everyone is equally special and clearly deserving. Just believe in the Secret, put it “out there” and the universe will automatically deliver you genie-like wishes. LOL if only it was so simple.

So what do we as employers do?

#1. Manage their expectations. They WON’T change the world in three months, feel enlightened or get promoted by just showing up.

#2. Seek prospective employees who have the grit and old fashioned “no quit” gumshen!

#3. Do give them “likes” and encouragement. “Old men die for it and babies cry for it” hasn’t changed across the generations even though Instagram seems to define how much they feel they are valued in society.

#4. Definitely try to adopt a more flexible working environment if you business allows for it. These precious creatures love flexibility and probably value this above commissions and other long term perks like medical aid.

#5. Do embrace their difference and dependence on social media, gadgets and travel experiences they crave. The longer you try and force feed  traditional carrot and stick methodologies the more frustrated you as cat-herder will feel!
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If you LISTEN and are prepared to ADAPT, you make this work in a country where there is an abundance of unemployed (not unemployable!) youth.

returning messages - a lost courtesy?

1/19/2018

 
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Most of my over - 45 business colleagues have a belief that it’s only Millenials who won’t return phone calls, emails or messages. For a long time I’ve also been one of this group who stereotype young internet / Netflix-and-chill / online lighties as not having manners or respect to return messages. OK, I exaggerated a bit: Some people return messages—quickly and informatively. But most do not.
I understand that in this always on, wired-in world that there is so much noise out there that something can get lost in the matrix…. point taken. I also admit people are really busy – but seriously, too busy to pop a quick emoji of acknowledgement? What disturbs me is that people don’t seem too disturbed about this…
Call me a “ballie”, but I always felt that like opening doors for ladies, returning messages was important, a sign of reliability, a good thing in business. I’ve always made it a point to return all messages regardless of whether it was an unsolicited email or Whatsapp message. I might have left just a very short voice mail or a brief email, but I still returned them. I viewed it as a responsibility.

It comes down to two things that leave a bitter taste in my mouth: People are lazy or just plain rude.
  1. The lazy kind probably would rather avoid the hard stuff. Perhaps they are passive aggressive, or just don’t know how to react when confronted by direct questions… Conflict is unpleasant, as is the notion someone might not be doing something all that well. So if there’s not a clear expectation that a definite answer is required, it’s easier and less stressful to ignore and forget it.
  2. The rude kind – blissfully unaware or uncaring due to their self-imposed power or status that they can keep people in suspense. Personally, do we need to deal with people like this, or just suck it up and pander to their self-aggrandized egos?​
I always felt responding to messages was kind of the unglamorous basics of how business got done. Unexciting and tedious, but a necessity…. kind of like shaving (I choose not to). But I sometimes wonder what the longer-term business implications are for productivity in a world with diminished responsiveness.

CX - The new battleground

12/22/2017

 
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Don’t you love these acronyms? CX, or Customer eXperience has morphed over the years from pursuing WOW (sorry Tom Peters) to simply giving better customer service. So what’s the difference?

Experience – the expectations that consumers have today have gone Warp Factor 5 since the advent of the internet, and more so mobility combined with social media.

Everyone has a voice, and more and more people want to be heard or at least feel that someone has heard them and has acknowledged their gripe. But being heard above all the noise and the 7+ billion people on the planet is difficult. The frustrations escalate – quickly. A mild emotion can go into full-blown rage if there hasn’t been a response on Facebook, Twitter or an online chat request. Gone are the days of waiting patiently for a few days as the ante has seriously been upped! HelloPeter here we come…

What’s the big boo-ha then? E-M-O-T-I-O-N. And this isn’t a Zulu word for “go”!

Emotions are directly linked to an experience, good or bad that clients have when they interact with you. But there are two important factors that influence their lifecycle or intensity. TIME and EMPATHY.

As time ticks on without any response to a request, invariably mild frustration leads to irritation which leads to anger. Unless tempered early on, companies are faced with the very real risk of losing a client or churning, and along with it the invariable foghorns on social media or around the dinner table. Sadly everyone’s patience has evaporated. This is not unlike seeing two blue ticks denoting read, when sending a WhatsApp message. This frustration of not even receiving a thumbs-up emoticon of acknowledgement drives people into a frothing frenzy. So, be warned – ensure you have a multi-channel strategy to service your clients, but don’t be a Doris…make sure they are MANNED with people who have EMPATHY.

Purely having a pulse and responding to these channel interactions is not enough. If you are merely ticking the box for the CX Director you are missing a trick. Without a sincere and deep understanding of the client’s emotional roller coaster they are going through, you may as well hire a bot or an auto-answer responder. With no EQ. these bums-in-seats are as useless as ejection seats on a helicopter.
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TIP: there are thousands of experienced or even retired people out there who probably are desperate for extra income. Hire folk who have been around the block, and have years of being frustrated consumers.
If you want to retain your hard-earned customers, then get serious about the experience they receive at every touchpoint 

Listening - a lost art form

7/25/2017

 
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Don't you hate it when you're excitedly telling someone a story, and before you've finished they've interjected and taken the wind out of your sails with regaling their own story?
It isn't merely being disrespectful for the person ....it's shockingly reflective of the me-myself-&-I narcissistic world we live in.
Are parents today teaching their children proper manners...or is it just me who is feeling exasperated at the insincerity of it all?
Has Instagram or hey-check-how-amazing-my-life-is-on-Facebook turned it's users into 3 second goldfish? Click-click-click-NEXT! Clearly it seems we're not getting enough dopamine or happy drugs with our likes and responses. :-( (emoticon)
This has filtered down into how we interact with people, be it face to face or over the phone. The impatience of it all in our rushed lives means we barely give people the real time and respect to tell their own stories with unbiased judgement, or "well-you-think-THAT's-amazing....let me tell you a story of what happened to ME!"
Here are a few tips to help you to not only improve your listening skills, but will result in you being perceived as a nice guy (or conversationalist).
  • Be present - look them in the eye (if you can), and keep focussed on their story. Forget about the waiter lurking in the background, or the Tinder click you just heard on your phone. Don't be a douchebag - respect the person enough to remain in the moment.
  • Acknowledge them - don't be tempted to one-up them, but rather nod / smile / laugh or respond appropriately with non-verbal body language that says to the other person - "GREAT STORY!"
  • Ask open-ended questions around their story. Encouraging more from the other person signals your true interest and sincerity. Be patient, and wait at least three seconds before opening your mouth when they have finished to avoid them just taking a breath.
If we can all tear ourselves away from our mobile phones and screen-time when having a chat, it will give you far more insight into other people, but more importantly raises their level of respect for you.
Just being a good listener isn't hard work, but it does take discipline.


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