Final answer:
The statement about responding positively to upset customers by controlling one's behavior is true. Self-regulation is key in managing reactions to stimuli like customer feedback, and practicing this can lead to professional growth and better customer service.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement 'Responding positively to upset customers involves making a conscious choice to control your behavior' is true. In the world of customer service, it's essential to have the ability to manage one's reactions in order to provide a professional and constructive response to upset customers. Metacognition, which involves reflecting on one's own thought processes, can indeed be a tool to understand why we feel a certain way. However, choosing the behavior that follows is a conscious effort aimed at maintaining customer satisfaction and de-escalating potential conflicts.
Rothbart, Ahadi, & Evans (2000) discuss personality traits like reactivity and self-regulation, which play crucial roles in handling interactions in a customer-service environment. Self-regulation is particularly important, as it helps to control our natural reactivity to stimuli, which can range from anxiety to irritation upon receiving customer feedback. A person with a high level of self-regulation might choose to respond calmly and constructively to an upset customer, whereas someone with lower self-regulation might not respond as positively.
An example of learning a new response to manage one's behavior is when a person decides to leave home earlier after witnessing a coworker being reprimanded by a boss for tardiness. This proactive adjustment is an exercise in self-regulation, preparing oneself to avoid a negative situation by changing one's behavior.