Appreciating Customer Stress Levels as well as your own

Appreciating Customer Stress Levels as well as your own.

Part of serving farmer customers effectively is building an appreciation for the stressors that farmers face.

By Treena Hein

Great customer service is both an art and a science and involves many factors.

However, many would say that at its heart, customer service is all about putting yourself in your customers’ shoes.

That means, in our case, understanding the stresses that farmers face, which are obviously many – and learning to be more comfortable talking about these stresses, when appropriate.

The more you can understand what a farmer is going through, the better you will able to interact with him or her and help them solve the problem they’ve come to you with.

When talking about stress, we’re really talking about mental health, so let’s all get comfortable with that term.

Mental health issues are no different from physical health issues – that is, we might have a cold, break an arm or suffer from congestive heart failure or diabetes in the physical realm for example, and in the mental health sphere, we might suffer from depression, or stress effects such as exhaustion, neck pain or inability to concentrate. “We all have physical health and mental health, and we’re going to have issues with both on an ongoing basis or from time to time,” notes Darren Howden, Farm Credit Canada (FCC) senior vicepresident of Prairie operations.

A couple of years ago (after being part of a panel discussion on mental health at an ag conference) Howden began working with Kim Keller, a Saskatchewan farmer who started the ‘Do More Ag’ Foundation and created a ‘Mental Health First Aid’ course to offer in communities across Canada. He notes that everyone knows about physical first aid, but aren’t clear on what to do if someone is having a panic attack, for example.

Beyond partnering to provide the First Aid course (and there have been 120 requests this year from various communities) and training its own staff, FCC is having more discussions at ag organization meetings and has made business cards for its staff who serve farmers directly to hand out, cards which have the number of a mental health hotline.

Howden notes that now that many FCC staff have been through the course, they are comfortable stepping in and asking questions with clients – and are grateful for the training. They are also (including Howden) better aware of their own stress levels, allowing them to perform more effectively in their jobs and also have a better life outside of work.

Stressors abound

“The stressors on farmers are many,” Howden says. “Weather, the markets, trade barriers and currency exchange rates, disease, new regulations, finances, workload, family dynamics. Farmers run their own businesses but unlike most business owners, so many factors are out of their control. You have to find ways to deal with these things as they come at you, including taking breaks as you can.”

Many don’t know that the warning signs that one’s stress level is getting too high include a wide range of things, from being more reactive and/or irritable than normal, sleeping trouble, being forgetful or having a reduced ability to concentrate, experiencing physical pain or muscle tension in part of your body, headaches – the list goes on and on.

Howden notes that you most often will realize degree of stress after you aren’t as stressed anymore, and that others will pick up your cues before you might.

But in the end, Howden believes everyone should take heart with regard to stress.

“No one can control things like the weather,” he says, “but we can control the way we manage stress, whether that’s through better self-care, delegating, taking breaks, prioritizing or other options.”

And everyone should build their level of self-awareness.

FCC has a personal assessment tool that allows people to review their stress levels by classifying their stress on a scale of red to green with the red zone representing illness/depression and the green zone representing optimal mental health. The tool also offers strategies for each stress level to help people consciously work on improving their mental state. The tool is a good reminder of the importance of monitoring your own stress levels and taking active steps to resolve issues as they occur. You can find the FCC assessment tool here: https://www. fcc-fac.ca/fcc/knowledge/wellness/mhdashboard-e.pdf

“Try and become more mindful of how you’re doing and don’t be judgemental, just know what you’re up against and make a plan to deal with it,” he says. “Try to laugh and do what you enjoy. Trying to just power through it is not the answer, and women tend to innately realize this more than men do. And try to socialize. When I grew up, there were lots of social activities with family and neighbours and that’s really gone by the wayside nowadays. I think we need to get that back.”

We can all help each other, as well, by talking about mental health as much as possible and foregoing judgement of each other, just as we would with noncausal physical health issues.

Howden believes that while the internet has helped us all to connect and more easily access support and tools for mental health, there can be a lot of judgement online that we should be careful to avoid. “There is nothing to be embarrassed about,” he says. “We are all human and doing our best.”

FCC’s wellness resources, including the publication ‘Rooted in Strength’, can be found here: www.fcc.ca/wellness

FCC is also involved in the 4-H Canada ‘Healthy Living Initiative,’ as well as a partnership with Farm Management Canada to explore the connection between business management practices and mental health.