The Benefits of "Mirroring"

 I talk about it often, how improv can be applied to life situations to great effect!

If I can find it again, I'll drop the link here; because I won't do it justice in words and I want to credit the creator if I can. So, just know this was not my idea but I love it and think it's a great example of applying improv to life.

I just saw a video in which a woman describes how she deals with disgruntled customers, she mirrors their energy and repeats back what the customer says.

For example:

Angry customer, stomps up to counter, yelling: "This is unacceptable! I drove across town to find 2 of these items and you only have one."

Sales Associate, yelling, as well: "This IS unacceptable! I'm going to look in the back!" then proceeds to storm off. When she returns, she yes, "Now THIS is REALLY unacceptable after you drove across town for these. We don't have any more in the BACK. This is so unacceptable."

This brilliant woman goes on to explain that, when she does this, typically, the customer completely changes and says, "That's okay. Really, it's okay."

This sales associate is just mirroring what the angry customer is doing.

Mirroring is a common theatre game, this brilliant sales associate just uses it at work with unsuspecting customers! She's actually, combining it with another improv game where you repeat back what someone says to kick off what you're going to add.

The funny thing is, when you mirror and echo in "real life", it often makes people more comfortable and receptive to you and is a great way to protect yourself from negative energy, you just push it back to the person who started it, rather than holding on to it. 

I will admit, I used this mirroring tactic with a former boss who, quite honestly, behaved abominably to anyone who had less seniority than she did. At first, I started by just physically mirroring her. It actually made me feel less "small" as her physicality was quite aggressive. Then, I started repeating her words back to her; some of which were quite mean. Sometimes she'd adjust what she said after I repeated them back. At any rate, it really did help me to deflect the negative energy.

I also kept detailed notes after every meeting and encounter to cover my ass!

Have you ever tried mirroring before? How did it go?