Also, she had no interests in building a relationship with me. I was more like a resource for her to open up when she wanted and to put back on the shelf when she didn’t need me. I never had that experience before meeting her.

My clients always liked me and the idea of working for someone that didn’t like me or care to know me, was life changing. I found out that I like to build relationships with people as a way of selling. I don’t know if that make sense to you, but relating and connecting is a sales skill and when I can’t relate or connect, I suck at my job.

I learned that to sell to someone like that I have to be precise and ignore the negativity. I guess she didn’t verbalize any compliants, but her actions were lounder than words.

She ended up buying a house from another realtor and I was a little disappointed by this because I made appointments and showed her property on Christmas Eve. I went out of my way to meet her in her home town even though she was buying somewhere else. It took me a while to get over it as well. But, I’m better for it. Excellent Article!

steph’s last blog post…Finding Your Voice – And Sticking with It

Poor Letter Writer. He’s a closet Experience Designer. Trapped in a really, really tiny closet.

Later,

Kelly

Unless you live in small town, where if you complain, and you’re castigated by the Town Elders, because you dared question the Status Quo, and they label you “The “Letter Writer”.

But methinks that’s just a small micro-cosm, and the rest of society doesn’t necesarily work like that.

Friar’s last blog post…More Travels with the Bear in Northern Ontario

Yes, there is something wrong with this system, certainly. As with many large “systems,” the industry is crushed by its own weight here and in many other parts of the world (some aren’t so sure about Canada’s system, either, eh Friar?). Problems are huge, solutions… huger. (Huger?)

The President as the ultimate Experience Designer! I love that! Geez, I could really run with that idea. Not here, though, I don’t go political here.

Friar,

More justice—companies that do get it, usually rise to the top. I don’t think Bill Gates is an unbelievazillionaire because he says stuff like this, but because he believes it and built it into the culture at MS.

Steph,

The old saying is that behind every complaint hide another 99 people who didn’t feel like hanging around to tell you the very same thing. So listening to one person’s problems has the potential to fix a heck of a lot, maybe before it gets out of control. So why do companies ignore unhappy customers? Head in sand syndrome?

The other old saying is that one happy customer tells 3 friends (on average), one unhappy customer tells 10.

With the web, one unhappy customer can tell 1,000 and outrank you in the search engines for your own company name in under a week. Poof! Reputation destroyed. To me, looks like learning from complaints is way more important than ever before.

(And I’m with you on the personal lessons. I do take comments in and analyze/ adjust myself if necessary, but not as much as I used to. I’m getting to the “I am who I am” stage. It’s a good thing.)

Regards,

Kelly

I guess people just get their backs up when they hear a certain tone or a complaint in general. It’s our approach, then, and the way we word things. Offering solutions, too, makes people more open.

I imagine we can carry this over to our lives, too. When people complain about us, do we stand up and listen and try to improve, or do we ignore it and get resentful? Hmmm. It’s a great question…but I don’t feel like dealing with it right now!

I get so mad at organizations or businesses that act like they don’t give a flying fox what the customer thinks.

Whether it’s the local yokel restaurant, the DMV, or a company that treats its staff like crap. They don’t care, that’s the way it is, and they’re not going to change.

Dosen’t seem fair, either, because these places never seem to fail (probably because they’re often a monopoly).

But sooner or later, what goes around, comes around. Customers leave, bloated bureaucrats get laid off, a Factory shuts down…

I, on the other hand, an dancing with joy. HAH! Not like they didn’t see this coming. Serves ‘em right!

(After all, there has to be SOME justice in the world).

Friar’s last blog post…More Travels with the Bear in Northern Ontario

I know that the Canadian health system isn’t perfect — you’re right, we all know things could be better no matter where we live — but isn’t there something inherently wrong with a system where you can equate getting health insurance with getting cable?

I really feel badly for so many people in the US who can’t go to see their doctor when they need to because they don’t have the money and they don’t have insurance. Politicians talk about “socialized” medicine like it is one step away from communism. You have “socialized” road works to repair streets and a “socialized” military to protect American soil. Why then is helping people stay healthy so evil?

Perhaps I’m straying off-topic here, but then again maybe not. Seems to me with the election coming up, people in the US have an opportunity to voice their unhappiness if they really want to… Talk about choosing your ultimate “experience designer”!

~Graham

Thanks.

Eeek! Of course, the Department of Motor Vehicles. Didn’t think of them. A classic bad experience (ours isn’t too bad here, but I say that because I can compare it to lots of states I’ve lived in where it was a nightmare), and boy could the DMVs worldwide get feedback from those unhappy customers.

They’d get enough tips in a week to turn themselves into models of efficiency!

Regards,

Kelly

This is really good, you know. And thanks for the link back, too. But seriously, I read this and thought, “I’ve been there”. I’m thinking a drivers licence renewal…

-Brett

Brett Legree’s last blog post…george a. romero, inc.