"you mother f....., your system has just crashed. What the hell are you thinking to yourselves? who is the idiot that built this product and where is your support when I need them? Are they out for lunch or something?"
Most people I know will be very annoyed by this users. Some will not even bother to answer. Who wants to have such users? It is clear that they hate us. Why invest time in them besides the minimum?
Now consider another email:
"Dear support,
I love your product very much. Unfortunately, today at 1:00PM your website crashed and I could not save my work which greatly affected my doings. I appreciate very much if you could tell me when you fix it, what was the problem and how you are going to prevent it in the future to allow me to continue my work.
Regards,
Danny"
You love this kind of response, don't you? This is clearly a user that needs you and your product. He reports pretty much accurately of the problem and wishes to continue using the product. You are very likely to answer him in length, apologize. Hey you will probably offer him a compensation.
Why do we tend to like so much the second user and be disgusted with the first one?
The only major difference between these two emails is the attitude of the users. Clearly the first user is very negative while the second user isn't. So, we react to a user's negativity with our own negativity. Is this the right way for a company? YOU KNOW BETTER THAN THAT
Try to think of it from a different angle and put your feelings aside -
- Is it possible that the first user is much more passionate about your product?
- Could it be that he was so immersed in his work that actually his suffer is a great one?
- If the user did not care at all, would he invest any time in sending you email and cursing your mother?
Do not let your feelings and people's negativity affect the way you are doing business and remember
Complaining users are good ones!
Another good moral from this is to understand that when you are a user of a system, and you wish to report a problem, you better do so in such a way that will not block mentally the other side. If you curse, you are much less likely to get a response - The other party is less likely to understand your emotional state. Therefore, breath, count to 10, and write positively, yet accurately to provoke the positive response you wish for.
Now, I shall finish, but I do not know whether to say a nice good bye or start cursing because I do value my readers :)
Have a great week
Amir
You also need to be mindful as a service provider to the kind of answers you give. It's not ok to let the user wait over a minute to answer a question then send him to a URL to look for the answer. If it's a canned response, dish it directly. If your user is one of many that's complaining about downtime, treat him as if it's the first time a complaint is received. Always have an estimated time for a fix. Saying soon doesn't cut it. And the out for lunch thing is patented.. Cursing is unnecessary.
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