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Idiotic Customer?

by Halcyon
23 replies
There is a difference between a communication breakdown and an idiot.



Instead of asking for "H2O also" the guy asked for "H2O2 (too)"
For the non-chemistry folks, H2O2 is Hydrogen peroxide.

Who's at fault in this case?
If presented with this exact situation in real life, most people would say the server. Surely he knew what the customer meant and who would ask for Hydrogen peroxide in a bar?


But this comic hints toward a serious problem with some internet marketing techniques - the large chasm between what is delivered by a seller and what the customer expected.

There was posting just the other day where someone offered an outlandish Fiverr gig and was offended because someone took them up on it. The seller believed that the mere ludicrousness of the offer was enough to identify it as a joke when in reality the customer fully expected to get what was offered.


Don't misunderstand me; there are some real idiots, serial refunders and all around cheats in the world however we must recognize the distinction between our communication breakdown and an idiot customer.

Our real customers buy products not to be idiotic but with the hope that we will solve whatever problem we said we would. Imagine what a kick in the teeth it is when the product not only fails to solve the problem but to be told "Well you should've known it wasn't going to solve it really."

Whose fault is it if your customer doesn't recognize your lingo or action words as salesy embellishment? Theirs or yours? Should the stick guy have known that asking for "H2O too" was going to result in him receiving a cup of peroxide?

For those of us who do this full time, IM is second nature; we know the lingo and can recognize salesy embellishment right into bald-faced lies. You can't always assume your customer has that skill. Especially in niches outside of MMO.

Every time a seller fails to communicate properly or assumes that the customer "should have known" something, the chasm gets a little wider and it gets a little harder for the rest of us to make a sale.

Please don't think I'm saying that the customer doesn't have a responsibility to understand their purchase but sellers must work to properly manage customer expectations.

Just my two Cents.
What do you think?
#customer #idiotic
  • Profile picture of the author LoganCoolBike
    This is something I think about a lot. It's nice to be casual, but I never assume someone knows what I'm trying to say, or knows the expressions or abbreviations I might use. I'm always as clear and explicit as I can be, and although I can friendly and casual to a degree, I really shy away from joking with a customer. Everyone's got a different sense of humor, and you never when they just won't get it. Stay on message, communicate the information you need to get across clearly. And when there's a point of confusion, just touch base with the customer to clarify. "OK, so water for you, and peroxide for you, right?" Simple as that.
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  • Profile picture of the author tim_buchalka
    I think there is no doubt that many marketers "mis-use" words or imply certain things or are deliberating vague so that the potential customer makes a presumption about what a particular offer can do for the customer.

    Yes more care should be taken to be clearer on offers in general outlining exactly what the customer is and is not getting in order to better meet customer expectations.

    Sometimes this is hard to do because if you do not use certain "take action" words you might end up selling very little even if the product is a great one.

    A fine line sometimes to balance everything.

    Love the image by the way, took me a few takes to release why the 2nd guy died
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  • Profile picture of the author Dan Allard
    Great post Halcyon, reminds me of the importance of becoming skilled in Copywriting. Definitely one of the most important skills to have as a marketer. Many internet marketers forget to stop and think how their marketing messages are being perceived by their audience.
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  • Profile picture of the author jamesrich1
    I think that this is a brilliant observation. The make money online niche is being destroyed by the process of exactly what you spoke of. I recognize crap when I see it but I didn't when I started marketing. I will give you an example of what I got sucked into in the beginning.

    I was introduced to a marketer by the name of Mack. I won't say his full name. His headline was something like "Here's how I make $172,345.23 a month and how you can copy my methods" Well I believed that maybe I can make money with this. My instinct told me that it was hype but I bought the program. Well much later I realized that mr Mack was getting rich off of telling every person that came across his page that promoting his page would get them rich. The way he was getting rich is from thousands of affiliates promoting him.

    He will never tell you that. That page will continue to gather more people who have no leverage providing traffic to Mack. That is just one example. All of the software 7 click products are making the internet marketing niche in whole look like complete BS for the industry. Solution: Give value on the front end. Gain people's trust before they spend any money with you. Identify yourself as being a gold nugget verses a pile of crap and you will not be labeled. Yes you do have to go the extra mile but it forces more marketers to be better marketers.
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  • Profile picture of the author HarrieB
    Its Not just customer who is at fault.
    There are people who sell crap and I mean purely crap in the hope to earn a few bucks to get themselves up and running.
    Everyday we see tons of WSO'S and all of them have reviews [ or they wont sell].
    And many of these salesletters are purely hype or over exaggerated coz most of the people here are looking for quick , one click solutions to earn money online . They dont wanna spend 15 days to get a result..

    Just my 2 cents.
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  • Profile picture of the author pilotgardens
    Most of the problems in the world come about because of miscommunication. It would be nice if everyone understood eachother, and that you could take someones word as truth. Unfortunantly when money is involved, and people see the internet as allowing them to rip off people without any reprecussions, there will always be a number who go for the short term gain over the long game. There will always be misunderstandings, especicaly when different ethnic groups are involved.
    As marketers its our job to minimise them and to be honest about our products so we get repeat business and referrals.
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  • Profile picture of the author BryanZ
    This is indeed a great post, I believe that the responsibility to communicate properly relies in the hands of the salesman, sales-page, sales-video. This can be easily fixed if the sales person knew how to describe the product as if the buyer was a 6 year old, that's how steve jobs did it... he manage to covert pretty much everyone in the room by allowing people to feel like a kid again and then he explained it in such a way that the valued perceived was immensely increased and didn't have to worry too much about the closing.

    Miscommunication is no ones fault, but its everyones responsibility.
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    • Profile picture of the author Halcyon
      Originally Posted by BryanZ View Post

      ...

      Miscommunication is no ones fault, but its everyones responsibility.
      I like that.

      Is there such a thing as too much honesty? Would someone buy a product if the headline said:

      "You Will Have to Work Diligently and be Very Patient.
      After a While of Trying Very Hard Only Then Will You Begin to See Results"


      I'm no copywriter, but even I know that this does NOT sell the sizzle.

      But where do we draw the line between sales sizzle embellishment and outright lies? Does the line even exist? Can we assume our customers know the difference?
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      • Profile picture of the author Daniel Evans
        Does that same stickman walk into a jewelers and request some AU only to be asked "who the hell you talking to?".
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      • Profile picture of the author NicoleBeckett
        Originally Posted by Halcyon View Post

        Would someone buy a product if the headline said:

        "You Will Have to Work Diligently and be Very Patient.
        After a While of Trying Very Hard Only Then Will You Begin to See Results"


        I'm no copywriter, but even I know that this does NOT sell the sizzle.
        It may not sizzle, but it's darn honest. To me, that alone might actually make me more willing to buy the product. It shows that the marketer doesn't think I'm gullible (like so many of them do, with their hyped-up guarantees and ridiculous promises).

        There's a fine line between making an informative headline a little more "sexy" and distorting the facts for the sake of "sizzling". Too many marketers fall into the latter category.
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        • Profile picture of the author Sandor Verebi
          Originally Posted by NicoleBeckett View Post

          It may not sizzle, but it's darn honest. To me, that alone might actually make me more willing to buy the product. It shows that the marketer doesn't think I'm gullible (like so many of them do, with their hyped-up guarantees and ridiculous promises).

          There's a fine line between making an informative headline a little more "sexy" and distorting the facts for the sake of "sizzling". Too many marketers fall into the latter category.
          Nicole, I know what you mean. I think, you are one of the few exceptions. Here's my story.

          I tried to sell an ebook in 2006 with similar honesty Halcyon suggested. I advertised it several times, but sold only 1 piece of it. I didn't see a chance to reimburse my expenses.

          After two months (against my conviction) I slightly modified the headline toward the 'sizzling' direction. Sold 53 pieces, with 1 refund.

          It is proved to me that the book was not a crap.

          - Sandor
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          • Profile picture of the author trevpen
            Sure there are many examples of deliberate deception, but communication is indeed a tricky thing, and is even a subject studied at university level. What is clearly intended as the message is often not "received" that clearly, and not because of any attempt to misinform or deceive. Effective communication of a message is often a two way process, where understanding and intent are compared by both parties until agreement is reached on the proper meaning. So, my message is (lol)....clarify your understanding with the sender of the message, until you are sure you are talking a common language. Hope that helps!
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  • Profile picture of the author rooze
    I can't think of another industry where over-promising, embellishment, wild exaggerations of the truth and downright lies, are the so frequently rewarded with success (sales).

    I honestly can't think of another industry that would tolerate the style of marketing that is commonplace in IM. So naturally, there's often going to be a wide gap between what the customer thought s/he was buying and what arrived in their little PDF.
    "Whose fault is it if your customer doesn't recognize your lingo or action words as salesy embellishment? Theirs or yours?"
    Well it's hard to blame the customer, after all, in many cases they're in a weak emotional state or simply overwhelmed by jargon (as is intended), and therefore easy prey to unscrupulous marketers. I think one day the FTC will try to get a hold of IM, or they'll work in cahoots with the Gov to just plain outlaw a lot of what goes on.
    I'm not being critical of everyone, I know a lot of folks have a solid reputation, but they're in a minority when it comes to IM.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennisknows
    Yea I recently had this happen. I sent out an offer and one of my subscribers was mad because it said it was free but after putting what the course taught into action.

    I felt his pain because I was once in his shoes.. Seeing something say free, then telling you to give up your credit card number for a 1 day trial that 9 times out of 10, you'll forget about.

    Made me really look into the products I market to make sure they don't rub my followers the wrong way..

    At the end of the day, without our visitors, were nothing..

    Great point you made
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  • Profile picture of the author thekaver
    fantastic observation!

    thekaver
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  • Profile picture of the author sarconi
    A very good question indeed! But if i see it's for free i already have some doubts if this offer is any good or just a money making machine for ....
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  • Profile picture of the author bulldogzg
    Yeah, you do have a valid point, but of course the marketing is gonna sound/look a little different when you're trying to sell to advanced IM-ers or just IM-ers then when you try to do it to general public.

    As often as you see sales pages made without attention to detail (and leaving many questions unanswered) you also see costumers who don't even bother to read the entire thing and just make assumptions :/
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
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    Unfortunately, I don't think that most sales pages are a matter of miscommunication, but more a matter of deliberate deceptive copy.
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    • Profile picture of the author djleon1
      Originally Posted by sbucciarel View Post

      Unfortunately, I don't think that most sales pages are a matter of miscommunication, but more a matter of deliberate deceptive copy.
      I agree - same with so many of the fake testimonials, doctored screenshots of clickbank accounts, fake traffic and over the top sales copy.

      Then some honest folk reads it all and says "If you are making so much with this method why would you sell it" and of course the answer is something like "I believe in giving back". lol.
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  • Profile picture of the author Matt Huggins
    Giving description to the exact specification breakdown that you would explain to even a child is a good way to make sure you are being thorough enough. () around the longer form though it takes more time shows more dedication to your work
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  • Profile picture of the author MattBrighton
    I've had experience behind a bar and sometimes orders can be confusing. What you need to remember is that even though you completely understand and know what your trying to say. Sometimes (not even to idiots) there might not be an obvious meaning to it. What you are trying to put across could be seen as ambiguous so you need to be careful. The tip really is to spell it out letter by letter to the customer and 'treat them like an idiot' without patronizing them. This then gets your CLEAR point across
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  • Profile picture of the author hotwebwords
    Helpful post with a positive message. I will keep this in mind when I write copy. I always aim for the factual.
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  • Profile picture of the author wfhblueprints
    A great post!

    Personally I think its about being transparent...

    It's the one thing that some marketers in the IM niche are not at all good at.

    Transparency is key in this industry and it can help prevent misconceptions and help to manage expectations.
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