"Earlier in my guest services career, I had a couple of visitors who would be very aggressive on the phone with their reservation requests, and I would sometimes get tripped up on my words when they called. I made myself a telephone script related to those specific instances and memorized it. This script helped me to remain on track with my thoughts when those more intimidating hotel guests would call."

"When someone intimidates me, such as an upset customer who is demanding a special request that I cannot give, I will focus less on how I am feeling and more about how they are feeling. I remind myself that they are possibly having the worst day ever. By empathizing with them, the situation becomes less scary, for sure."