Challenging Interaction At Claire's Accessories Store

As an employee at Claire’s accessories store, I experienced challenging interactions with customers and co-workers. I now understand how my communication could have diffused a challenging interaction with demanding customers. I recall when I was piercing a young girl’s ears and the instrument malfunctioned during the piercing. Various factors, like age, culture, and personality played a role in the interaction between the girl, her mother, my manager, and myself. I could have used therapeutic techniques to improve the interaction between the involved parties and myself.

I realize the challenging interactions I experienced with customers at Claire’s accessories store prepared me for a career in healthcare. I understand I must first identify

The primary customer was the little girl receiving the ear piercing. At the time of the incident, the child was between 5-7 years old. Children may react negatively to medical procedures due to a lack of understanding, which leads to fear; this theory applies to the situation with the girl and the piercing gun. The young girl lacked understanding of why the cartridge was stuck in her ear and why the pain would not stop. Tamparo & Lindh stated when communicating with children, healthcare professionals should use short and simple explanations, be honest, and to pay attention to the verbal and nonverbal cues (p. 85). I explained to the young girl that the pain would quickly go away but I failed to completely and concisely explain I would fix the ear-piercing gun very soon and her pain would stop. My age played a role with my interaction with the customers, especially the customer’s mother. Due my youthful appearance, the customer’s mother was skeptical of my capabilities before I began the piercing, but I reassured her I could properly perform the piercing. When the piercing gun malfunctioned, the mother lost all trust in my capabilities. Actions and communication earns the trust of clients (Tamparo & Lindh, 2008, p. 63). Though I properly explained the procedure to the customers, the malfunction of the machine and my inability to remove the cartridge caused the mother to lose trust in my

I am an African American woman and the customers are Caucasian. Though the customer and I both share a Western culture, our cultures have a few differences. In the Caucasian culture, challenging medical opinions is a generalized communication trait (Tamparo & Lindh, 2008, p. 45). The customer’s mother asked many questions before and after the procedure and challenged a few of my statements. For example, I explained to the customers that the saline solution would clean the piercing. The mother stated “How are you sure this solution will clean her ears and keep it from infection?” I further explained to the client that the solution kills germs without hurting the user’s ears. She accepted my explanation and allowed me to continue explaining how to care for the ear piercing. In both of our Western cultures, both use low context communication and prefer direct eye contact. During our interaction, I kept eye contact with the customers and smiled while I explained the procedure in short and simple sentences. When the gun malfunctioned, I stopped smiling and did not use direct eye contact when I spoke with the customers. My communication before the piercing was clear, concise, courteous, complete, and cohesive, but after the gun malfunctioned, I forgot all my communication skills. I must remember the communication traits of the client’s culture during the challenging