Some ideas on phone readings

As with any other kind of gig, there are people who believe in their work, and those who are in it only for the paycheck. Tarot readings by phone are probably no different. It is my intention to get tools and resources to the readers; it is not my intention to praise or condemn the phone services themselves.

Disclaimer: I have never done a reading over the phone. And I'm not even that good a reader in person (I use the Tarot as a meditative device). I am basing this on my experiences running customer service and internet technical experience, as well as advice from my mentor, and NLP and practical occult studies. Some of the techniques below may raise eyebrows. Use what works and what is comfortable for you. Fill and empty your toolbox as you wish...

I'll be using gender-neutral pronouns here, though I usually don't. It's an experiment for me. his/her=hir, he/she=sie, etc.

This is very much a work-in-progress. It's rough. (Ruff! Ruff!) Your comments and suggestions are warmly welcomed, both here and in Tarot-l. All improvements to this document will be credited to the contributor.

Prolog

Working in a call center, whether a cube farm or distributed out to people's homes, is a uniquely modern activity. The upside: you can dress how you want, look like you want, and generally work when you want. Your greatest assets are a good voice and a good attitude. The downside is a bit more subtle: occasional feelings of separation, feeling pressured or driven by the incoming calls, and an industry-standard lack of benefits.

I read an article a few years back (when I was managing a 5000-calls-a-day phoneroom) that described the call center as an "electronic plantation". I may not agree completely, but that's an interesting model to use when studying the call center environment. The nature of data-routed phonecalls (called telephony) means that your number of calls, logged in time, logged out time, number of rings, and talktime can easily be monitored.
This may seem Big Brotherish, but can work for you, if you know exactly how your payrate is calculated. Make the system work for you! Ok, on with the show.

I will base these suggestions on some assumptions:

The best outcomes are fair outcomes; win-win. If anyone loses, that negotiation or deal is a failure.
The reader wants to make a fair profit. Do you feel entirely comfortable making money from your talents? If not, you'd be fighting yourself as well as the company and the querant.
The reader wants the Querant to receive reading full of value to that Querant. This means you'll want to find out how the querant judges value. You may want to ask if the client ever had a truly successful reading before. If so, what made it so good? Listen! The querant is telling you what sie needs...
The reader can suspend disbelief long enough to try different techniques. A new process can work only if you give it a real chance. Sure, it might not work for you. But then again it might. You won't know until you try. But if you go in doubting, it will fail. Pretend it might work. Act as if it does. Your intention is as important as the process itself.
The reader can discover what the querant's desired outcome is. What does the querant want to know? How will the querant know when sie has received a good reading?
The reader has a clear idea of hir desired outcome. Example: to have a call of sufficient talktime and of such quality that the querant intends to call back again within a month.
In the examples given below, the Querant is Bill, who's calling from his suite while on a business trip. You've handled a couple of previous calls from hir.

What's going on here?

The overall concept is to achieve the querant's desired outcome and in the process reach your own desired outcome. Find out what these two desires are. Guessing is sloppy and usually wrong, due to differing a priori concepts. When in doubt, ask the querant. Then LISTEN...

Beforehand

You're going to need some stuff, no way to get around that. Do you have everything you need to feel effective and powerful? Your reading decks, cloths, etc nearby? Within comfortable distance? Do you feel comfortable with them and love them? Do they help you tap your inner resources and powers?

Are your surroundings comfortable enough to let you focus on your querant? Are you happy in your clothes, as warm or cool as you like? Is your chair well-adjusted? Can you feel it support you as you sit?

Is your phone in serviceable shape and comfortable to use? I use a headset, and it makes a great difference in my ability to deliver quality service.

Do you have a smooth-writing pen and scrap paper to jot ideas down on? Many times your querant will blurt ideas free-form. Are you ready to listen and note the Big Points to backtrack later?

Do you have water or other beverage to sip on if your throat feels dry?

Start with yourself

In order to direct the call well you need to know what you want before the phone rings. Do you have a ritual or affirmation that puts you in touch with your resources and intentions? If so, take care of yourself before you log in.

If your intention is to (for example) help others down their own path, then make sure your every thought, action, and word during your session helps you achieve that goal. Focus, focus, direct your energy towards achieving your goal.

Finally, a querant!

When I ran a phoneroom, my previous boss there would force people to pick up the line by the second ring. This made the reps cuss and hate the phone. I wanted a way to re-frame the association of the ringing sound for the reps.

What worked for me was this:

When the phone begins to ring, use the first ring to really realize the phone is ringing. "The phone is ringing. Someone wants to talk to me". This may seem silly, but try it anyway with a sense of imagination and adventure.
Use the second ring as a reminder to clear and center yourself for a fresh, new call. "The phone is ringing. I am clear, centered, and ready to meet this call free of any other experiences I may have had today". This was extremely important for my people, who had been transferring hostility over from a previous caller onto the present one. :-o Empty yourself to make room for your caller.
Pick up before or during the third ring, using a fluid and relaxed movement. Move toward the phone and pick it up with a graceful motion. Your caller can hear everything as soon as the button is pushed, or the receiver comes out of the cradle. Answer however you like, and go neutral again, an empty vessel capable of totally listening to your caller. Remember to make sure that everything you say and do in this call is working toward your desired outcome. Everything. You will be magnificent, a valuable resource for your caller.

Try this. If it works for you, fine. If not, tweak it until it does, or discard it completely and do something different.

Once you've got the phone answered, establish rapport with the caller as soon as possible. Get on the same side; This can be as simple as asking a question you already know the answer to, anything that will elicit a "yes" response. "Your name is Bill, right? Short for William?" Patter, patter.
Simple, huh? But it aligns the two of you. You're on the same team, the same side.
The most important tool to staying on their side is to listen. Then listen some more. The querant will divulge what's important to them if you give them an opportunity to do so. This is so important that my business partner have this as our Business Meeting Motto: "SHUT UP and listen!" :) It really works. Try it next time you get on the phone.

Listen actively. A "yes" or meaningful "mm-hmmm" from you is effective and allows the querant to continue talking. Remember your notepad? Take a few notes if you need to (especially if the caller is gushing information or upset). When you make a back-reference to something later sie'll know you were really listening to hir.

Agree on the Query. This is critical. If you don't know the target you can't hit it, no matter how hard you work or how talented you are. Understand the query, restate it and get the Querant to agree when you've nailed it down. "Good, Bill. I think I've got it. You want me to do a spread about your house, to see whether or not it will sell this year. Is that right?" Listen to hir response. Correct your understanding if you need to. Write the query down. You'll need it throughout your reading, and in the call's closure.

Learn how the querant processes information

While you're doing all this listening and focusing, pay attention to how the querant handles information. Ask questions then listen. The caller will leave cues about which representation system sie uses to understand the world around hir. It's your job to move into hir world and see it from hir Point of View.

Once you learn the querant's preference, work in the querant's reality as much as possible, by following their own representational system above. Be subtle. If your querant is visual and a frequent caller, like Bill, it might be worthwhile to fax hir a picture of the layout you're using. If Kinesthetic, you might want to describe the layout in terms of nearness or position to your body, etc.

Remember to speak clearly and slowly. Many people rush and mumble on the phone. Think healthy thoughts at your querant. If you are thinking nasty things about them, it will come out in your tone and word-choice. I promise.

If you ever stumble or get lost, re-read the query you wrote down and start from there. It will come back to you.

Closing the call

Make sure the querant knows the call is about to end. "Before we wrap this up..." Begin to summarize the results of your reading as it applies to the query. Phrase this in terms of the query you both agreed to earlier. This shows the querant you've been on track all along.
For your summary you may to reinforce those aspects of your reading the querant identified with closely. This will remind hir of those exciting moments throughout the call.

Only if you liked it and you would do the call again (most callers will repeat their own patterns, whether pleasant or unpleasant), then set the caller's intention to call back again. If the querant stated what caused them to call, you can set intention that way. "Well, Bill, next time you're [fitb] give me a call. Ask for [fitb]."
If you don't know what the querant was doing when sie decided to call, you can future-pace a situation he's likely to find hirself in again, and suggest sie call then. "Ok, Bill. It's been a pleasure reading this for you. I see we had a great reading. Very clear, obvious almost. Next time you're traveling pick up the hotel phone and give me a call. Do you have this number written down? You might want to put it in your DayTimer. Ask for [fitb]. I look forward to your calling."

After the call

Whew. Good job! And it's not over yet. Log out if you can, so another call comes in only when you're ready for it. It's time to reflect back on your call and tune your process.

Did you achieve your desired outcome? What worked? What didn't work. What "set the caller off", and what soothed hir? Make a mental note to keep what works and discard those processes that don't.

The most powerful tool for tuning your phone readings is to tape them and play them back later. This is agonizing the first few times, and well worth it. Your improvement will be immediate and steady. Please use these tapes appropriately, and erase them as soon as you're done with them. >As I understand it you may tape your own calls legally unless your state has law about it. I dunno. I'm not a lawyer. Radio Shack makes a tap that will start your recorder when you answer the phone. ~$15. #43-236B. A VOX tape recorder is worth the money, IMO.

Well, there it is. I hope some of it was of use. Please let me know your thoughts and suggestions.

$Id: phonereadings.orb,v 1.1 2002/09/16 16:15:57 mouse Exp $

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