No matter how good your lift engineers are, or how often you arrange lift maintenance, there will always be some people who are simply too afraid to use your lift installations.
Fear of lifts is quite common, as it combines not one but two common phobias. Firstly, there is the fear of enclosed spaces, or claustrophobia, in which simply being enclosed in such a small space, often with other people, is a problem. Then there is the fear of heights, known as acrophobia, in which the rising or falling motion of the lift induces a fear of falling.
How Lift Engineers Can Help
In many cases, explaining the quality of your lift engineers and the regularity of your lift maintenance will only serve to reinforce the fear of your lift installation, as people with these phobias will see this as evidence that things can go wrong. So how can you help friends or colleagues with these phobias?
The first thing to remember is that trying to use rational explanations, such as statistics, facts about cable strength etc. is not going to work. Phobias are, by definition, irrational, and all the good sense and science in the world won’t change them. What you can do, however, is to help sufferers through their fears using baby steps. Try taking them into the lift without it going anywhere – just closing the doors with them in complete control. If this is successful, try riding up just one floor, again giving them complete control throughout. As they get through each step, they will come to see that there is nothing to be afraid of and may eventually overcome their phobia.
If this doesn’t work, then there are many professional techniques, such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) or Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), which can be a huge help in over coming phobias. And if even these methods fail, then there’s always the stairs.