Customer Service With True Colors Jodie C. Vangrov, Ed.D. Before You Can Give Great Customer Service.. You Need to know your own style of responding to others in social situations. This session will introduce you to your True Colors and then show you how to apply your true colors to customer service as an instructor and colleague. You will receive all the tools to assess others - your colleagues, friends, family, and students. Enjoy! Introduction to True Colors Color has been used to shape and describe our lives, our habits, our values, and our feelings throughout the ages. Research into the physiological effects of color has shown that it truly has an impact on our lives, often in unconscious and mysterious ways. Color can relieve tension and stress. Blue, for instance, is associated with tranquil surroundings. Thus, it is fitting that color provides the association between a temperament type and learning tools. How much better it is to refer to and connect with color than with the highly technical formulas, symbols, words, and numbers generally associated with temperament/personality/learning theory. After reviewing the research data, colors for True Colors were chosen for their direct association with the psychological and physiological needs of people. Orange Orange is the expression of vital force, of nervous and glandular activity. Thus, it has the meaning of desire and all forms of appetite and craving. Those with Orange as a Primary Color feel the will to achieve results, to win, to be successful. They desire all things that offer intense living and full experience. Orange generates an impulse toward active doing: sport, struggle, competition and enterprising productivity. In temporal terms, Orange is the present. Gold Gold is the body's natural perceptions. It represents a need to be responsible, to fulfill duties and obligations, to organize and structure our life and that of others. Those with Gold as a Primary Color value being practical and sensible. They believe that people should earn their way in life through work and service to others. Gold reflects a need to belong through carrying a share of the load in all areas of living. It represents stability, maintenance of the culture and the organization, efficiency, and dependability. It embraces the concepts of home and family with fierce loyalty and faithfulness. Blue Blue represents calm. Contemplation of this color pacifies the central nervous system. It creates physiological tranquility and psychological contentment. Those with Blue as a Primary Color value balance and harmony. They prefer lives free from tension... settled, united, and secure. Blue represents loyalty and a sense of belonging, and yet, when friends are involved, a vulnerability. Blue corresponds to depth in feeling and a relaxed sensitivity. It is characterized by empathy, aesthetic experiences, and reflective awareness. Green Green expresses itself psychologically as human will in operation: as persistence and determination. Green is an expression of firmness and consistency. Its strength can lead to a resistance to change if it is not proven that the change will work or is warranted. Those with Green as a Primary Color value their intellect and capabilities above all else. Comfort in these areas creates a sense of personal security and self- esteem. Green characteristics seek to increase the certainty of their own values through being assertive and requiring differences from others in intellectual areas. They are rarely settled in their countenance, since they depend upon information rather than feelings to create a sense of well-being. Green expresses the grounding of theory and data in its practical applications and creative constructs. Identifying Your True Colors Describe Yourself. In the section below are groups of words in rows. Score each group of words giving yourself a (4) for the one most like you, (3) second, (2) third, and (1) for the one least like you. Active Opportunistic Spontaneous Parental Traditional Responsible Authentic Harmonious Compassionate Versatile Inventive Competent Competitive Impetuous Impactful Practical Sensible Dependable Unique Empathic Communicative Curious Conceptual Knowledgeable Realistic Open Minded Adventuresome Loyal Conservative Organized Devoted Warm Poetic Theoretical Seeking Ingenious Daring Impulsive Fun Concerned Procedural Cooperative Tender Inspirational Dramatic Determined Complex Composed Exciting Courageous Skillful Orderly Conventional Caring Vivacious Affectionate Sympathetic Philosophical Principled Rational Identify Your True Colors. Total all of the columns on this page. Your highest score indicates your primary or brightest color; the lowest score represents the color that is least like you. Orange Gold Blue Green Total Total Total Total Orange Teachers Can be counted on to do the unexpected Development of freedom and spontaneity in their students important to them A performer so communication is more likely to be student-to-teacher than student-to-student Enjoy performing so they are the star of the classroom Students look forward to class experience and are likely to hold these teachers in great affection This group is seldom drawn to teaching (only about 2%) preferring to go into more action-oriented occupations Gold Teachers Responsible and dependable! Contribute to the needs of others Create and preserve harmony Have well-established classroom routines and well laid-out lessons Firm and fair disciplinarians who expect students to follow the rules of the classroom and institution Interested in developing the usefulness and place of students in society Encourage student-to-teacher interaction; discourage student-to-student interaction Blue Teachers Personally empathetic and committed to students Genuinely concerned about all aspects of the welfare of their students including their social, as well as intellectual, development Conduct democratic classrooms, involve students in decision-making processes, and are willing to abide by the group decision Very much in touch with classroom climate Can be unconventional in their teaching and can handle unconventional students Use large group, small group, and individualized instructional modes with equal comfort May put off paperwork until it reaches crisis level Green Teachers Interested in development of intelligence Take it for granted that students want to learn May be oblivious to emotional climate of classroom Like to share intellectual discoveries of their students and enjoy inspiring them to stretch intellectual muscles Enjoy designing and building new curricula Have a dread of boring students so have a tendency of moving too fast for all but a few students Must make a conscious effort to verbalize appreciation of students efforts, believing this to be obvious Now That We Know About Teachers, Lets Look At Students Lets look at: Orange Students Gold Students Blue Students Green Students Orange Students Best learning environment combines hands-on experience, fun, competitive teamwork and unpredictability Theoretical topics are tolerated only if the practical usefulness of the information is made clear to them Mastery of facts and practical skills are natural strengths Exploration, movement and adventure are welcome parts of ideal learning experience Learn best when required reading and writing assignments are minimized Least likely to indulge in academic reading and learning for its own sake Will work for grades only if motivated by gamesmanship, competition and team spirit Promises of freedom, fun and monetary rewards may motivate them to achieve at school Natural clowns and mischief-makers; prone to tardiness, cutting class, skipping assignments and attracting attention to themselves as rebels Sports and other extracurricular activities may seem more important than school Most underrepresented in higher education Like to be appreciated for their resourcefulness and easygoing, game-playing style at school Gold Students Learn best by rote memorization of structured information and they are masters of detail Will work hard for good grades, formal recognition and the approval of teachers and administrators Behave well in class and they believe punishment for misbehavior is fair Steady students who work best when they set aside time every day for homework, reading, study and review Take more time to learn than others since they believe in practice Best examined by objective tests which do not make time pressure a major factor (power tests) Tenacious students and are well represented in medicine, law, education and business Like to be appreciated for their hard work, steadiness, consistency, politeness and punctuality Best learning environment combines structure, predictability, clear-cut assignments and fairness Factual learning is their natural strength Rarely interested in knowledge for its own sake, but for its practical applications in life. Prefer subjects which relate to practical issues and train them for traditional occupations and roles Blue Students Learn best in nurturing environments which emphasize the human significance of creative ideas, concepts and theories Often gifted in written or spoken language and masterful at interpreting signs and symbols of meaning Excel in any field where understanding human behavior is an asset Believe in learning for its own sake May become intellectual butterflies, moving from one field of study to the next Competitive and critical learning exercises may cripple their morale and impair their performance at school Excel at cooperative, team-oriented learning experiences Apply questions of value: right and wrong, good and bad, to the subjects they study. See education as a cultural process directing the destiny of man and the future of the world Need to feel recognized and appreciated at a personal level in order for them to learn at their best Are inspired by sensitive, supportive, humanistic teachers Enjoy being appreciated for their creativity, insight and sensitivity Green Students Learn best in highly competitive intellectual environments Focus on theory and abstract concepts, not facts, details or practical applications of knowledge Excel in any field demanding logical analysis of cause-effect relationships. Computer sciences come second nature to them Apply the same analytical style to learning science and math as they do to art, music and literature Thrive in impersonal, even hostile learning environments Arguing with teachers or students seems justified if they believe they are right Read and study so much that others may see them as bookworms, computers and workaholics Reflexively question and challenge authority, accepted knowledge and methods of study Inspired by competent and critical-thinking teachers whose intelligence they admire May regard most of their teachers and fellow students as dull-witted Tend to stay in school as long as possible. They are the most overrepresented in college, graduate and professional schools Like to be appreciated for their intelligence, analytical ability and creativity Implications for Customer Service What are the implications for instructors? How do you think this will help you in the classroom? Do you have to test all your students and learn their colors? What about reading/learning about the students various attributes and learning/thinking critically about how to adjust to a variety of different customers. Does this make you critically think about the way you behave towards others? Do you think we can all adjust somewhat in what we offer different types of customers? If we can, why do we always feel bothered by different students requests? Have we changed over the course of our career? If so, why? Finally, what about other customers in our college? Other Customers We Deal With? Can this apply to colleagues? Staff members? Vendors we deal with? Partnerships in our community? Some Days It Is Hard To Please Our Customers. Questions and Comments? Jodie Vangrov, Ed.D. Dean of General Education Georgia Northwestern Technical College Gordon County Campus 1151 Hwy. 53 Spur Calhoun, Georgia Phone: