$10 Doesn't Give You A Free Pass...

4 replies
Last night I was talking to a great Warrior friend of mine that has had some awesome success running WSO's...

These aren't 'info' products but tools you can use to get clients. It's good stuff, he puts a ton of time and effort getting everything together.

He's one of the most generous people out there and genuinely wants people to succeed.

We talked for 2 hours because he was thinking of taking a 'break'...

Why?

He forwarded me some of his support emails....

$10 doesn't give you a free pass to treat people like **** and I pray to God you don't act like this in 'real life' because, chances are, you'd either get punched in the face or charged with disorderly conduct if you would act up like this in a brick and mortar business.

If Starbucks gives me the wrong order, I don't throw the coffee in their face then stomp around their store having a tantrum.

I actually feel sad for these people because if they did things the right way, chances are, not only would this marketer resolve the issue quickly, but would spend some time with you on the phone talking about YOUR business (for free).

Instead some people ignore the opportunity that exists for building relationships and decide to go insane.

A good 50% of these issues could have been resolved by the customer simply reading the instructions.

Not everyone is out to 'scam' you...

A year ago when I would get some over the top email from a customer I would give it right back to them.

Now I just simply ignore them and delete their emails.

The only people allowed to scream at me are my wife and parents.
#$10 #free #give #pass
  • Profile picture of the author JasonParker
    Whenever I get one of those knuckleheads in my inbox, I fire them as a customer.... which means I refund them and then blacklist them from my list.
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  • Profile picture of the author retsced
    Unfortunately it has gotten to a point where people believe 99% of what is being sold out there is just plain rubbish, and i'd have to agree with them. Some people are genuinely out to help others succeed but in most cases that's not true at all.

    It is quite sad when people act like this and send abusive emails, but you have to keep in mind, these people are not business people, they are simply opportunity seekers looking for a magic tool to help them make lots of money. You and i know that these tools do not exist for $10.

    You get what you pay for in this industry and the sooner people wake up to the fact that you have to make things work for yourself, they will find it very frustrating on their journey. This frustration has come out through the emails your friend got. It's the price you pay for dealing with opportunity seekers and not REAL; entrepreneurs looking to set up a sustainable online business.
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  • Profile picture of the author TheArticlePros
    This is why I finally got out of retail. I spent 15 years of my life working in various stores, and the last 5+ of those years owning the store in which I worked.

    It never failed to amaze he how petty and ignorant people could get when there was even $1 involved in something. I've had people spill their coffee on my shirt, cuss at me, spit towards me, threaten to beat the @#$% out of me...and I actually won awards for my customer service.

    When I finally rose to the level of being a business owner, I chose to go with a no refunds policy for my store. This, in turn, forced me to learn to talk with extremely negative customers who wanted their money back for all manner of reasons, but would NEVER tell the truth at the beginning of the "discussion."

    I learned to weather their initial tirade (by completely ignoring them without them realizing it), and then I would do something that caught them completely off-guard:

    I'd look at them. Then I'd smile. Then I'd say, "OK now that you've had the chance to vent your obvious frustration that you're feeling in some other area of your life, let's talk about what your real issues are with this perfectly good car charger for your Motorola RAZR that I sold to you yesterday." (Or some variation thereof.)

    I never quit smiling, and I'd often start cracking jokes at them...and after about 5 minutes, I'd get them laughing and 80% of them ended up keeping what they bought and then buying more stuff (at a nice discount for them) and becoming lifetime customers of mine.

    A customer who comes at you in extreme anger and/or frustration is NEVER mad at you so long as you delivered a quality product. Someone in their life convinced them that they wasted their money or mad a bad decision, and you're an invisible target. Talk to them, feel them out, and you'll often find a great person behind the angry facade.

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    • Profile picture of the author Kay King
      A good 50% of these issues could have been resolved by the customer simply reading the instructions.
      I ran into a couple of problem with physical products and online service in the past week that made me see this type of problem a bit differently than I had before.

      You will have this kind of customer on occasion but if you have several, it's a good idea to look at your "instructions" to see if they can be simplified or clarified.

      Can you provide a quick start guide? Can you provide links to answers to the most common installation or new user problems?

      People are impatient and if they have to work too hard to understand the instructions, they get frustrated and angry. They also react in anger if they fear they've "been had" even when the product is great.

      In one case this week, the answer to the problem of installing some new hardware was simple....but you had to get deep into the problem before the answer was provided. Could have been made easier for users. The product was excellent - but the instructions seemed to be written without thought to a cohesive approach.

      I think every marketer selling products that need installation or have use instructions should test those instructions just as carefully as they test the products themselves.

      Some complaints come from buyers who were born without a clue - but some of the problems could be avoided by tweaking instructions. Remember for a buyer your product is totally new - make it as easy to understand as possible.

      A customer who comes at you in extreme anger and/or frustration is NEVER mad at you so long as you delivered a quality product. Someone in their life convinced them that they wasted their money or mad a bad decision, and you're an invisible target. Talk to them, feel them out, and you'll often find a great person behind the angry facade.
      Excellent advice for customer service.

      kay
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