eKourier July 2020

FEATURE

CAN YOU HOLD YOUR BREATH FOR ONE MINUTE? W hat happens when you hold your breath: inebriated (common among deep-sea divers or D - DISC profiled storage customers). • Decompression sickness which occurs Most people can hold their breath for somewhere between 30 seconds and up to 2 minutes…. but is it safe to do so?

be answered. I experience this frustration constantly when endeavouring to contact my telecommunications supplier. Most people (our storage customers) are normal healthy people (and yes I know this can be debatable at times) who may be able to hold their breath for one minute. However, when the ‘hold Your breath for one minute’ time frame expires, especially in a business environment, just simply waiting on the telephone to be answered or an email to be responded to will make the most calm person feel a little unwanted, anxious, annoyed, frustrated or even depressive. The list of words to describe how we feel when not responded to in a quick and efficient manner can be exhaustive. Why the conundrum ‘could you hold your breath for one minute’? One of our ‘Blue’ cultural experiences is the ability to form relationships with your specific centre customers. Capturing calls at centre level is a known fact that customers want to speak with people associated to a specific centre, not be transferred to another department or person not generally associated with/to a particular KSS Centre. It is interesting to note that in the vast majority of cases (over the past three months) most KSS centres have recorded an upward trend in capturing calls at centre level rather than mobile call diversions to CCC. Yes, Covid-19 has had an effect with a reduction in enquiry numbers enabling us the opportunity to answer a call or respond to an email earlier, but it is quite evident we are all making an effort to capture these important calls and emails more efficiently and effectively at centre level. Remember, one minute is a long time to hold your breath! Wayne Birch VIC Operations Manager

0:00 to 0:30 sec: You might feel relaxed as you close your eyes and tune out to the world around you. 0:30 to 1:00 min: You’ll start to feel uncomfortable and experience pain in your lungs. The most common miscon- ception about holding your breath is that you are running out of air — you’re actually not, however no-one has helped you breath so you start to feel annoyed or even panicked. When holding your breath for long periods of time, the consequences can be dangerous because carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) is building up in your blood from not exhaling. You start feeling anxious – “I wish someone would just help me with my breathing”. This feeling can be very similar to waiting on a phone call or a reply to an email. Have you ever had to wait on-line whilst a missed call was being redirected? I recently time measured a centre call and it was 58 seconds (one minute) from the initial call made to a KSS centre until CCC at THQ responded (and I was answered very promptly by CCC). Until the telephone is answered by a real person or your email is responded to, it’s just like holding your breath. The side effects of holding your breath when the telephone is not answered can have disastrous effects not just on individuals but also on our business. Asking customers (new or potential) to 'hold their breath' for too long can have some side effects including: • Low heart rate from a lack of oxygen (causing anxiousness). • CO 2 build up in your blood (symptoms of stress). • The feeling of being disoriented or

when nitrogen in your blood forms bubbles in your bloodstream instead of clearing out your blood when water pressure decreases (called “the bends” among divers and in the storage industry we know it as “the ORDS” – Outrageous Requests for Discounted Storage). • A Loss of consciousness may lead to your customers not listening to a KSS Team Member once the telephone or email is eventually answered. • Complete loss of blood flow to the heart, which can cause a person’s heart to stop pumping (Cardiac Arrest). Any holding your breath time can result in a storage customer exploding on the phone. • Build up of dangerous reactive oxygen species (ROS), which happens due to long periods of low oxygen then breathing oxygen back in at high levels, which can damage DNA, and in the case of Kennards damage to our company Brand. • Brain damage from a protein called S100B that breaks out from your bloodstream into your brain through the blood-brain barrier when your cells are damaged. This brain damage can result in ES - elephant syndrome. A customer will never forget that one time they had to wait (or hold their breath) for a call to ON-LINE WHILST A MISSED CALL WAS BEING REDIRECTED? HAVE YOU EVER HAD TO WAIT ‘

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16 Kennards Kourier July 2020