Troubles when you are rich and successful

We’ve thrown a blitz into handling support tickets. With Amy away on vacation, a backlog quickly built up, despite putting several staff onto it. My concern was to get people the help they needed as fast as possible. Nothing affects a business more than the way its after-sales care is perceived.

And I do mean “perceived” because it doesn’t matter how conscientious and honest you are, people only care about their own interests. If you keep them waiting for more than a couple of days, you start to read words like “scam” and “crooks” and other unpleasant accusations.

It’s not a requirement that customers seeking support should be polite but if I had my way, it would be.

Many customer support problems are quite genuine (you would be surprised how many are ridiculous or trivial) but that does not mean that the person who has to deal with the tickets is the cause of the problem or in any way to blame.

I feel sorry for Amy when she has to take the brunt of really rude remarks from people seeking answers. It does not serve the cause which, at the end of the day, we all have in common, which is solving the problems encountered.

And another point: I’ve sold tens of thousands of products, good products, knowing they work and work well. The army of satisfied users attests to that. So when some unpleasant character, who often can’t or won’t read the instructions or can’t or won’t carry out the assignments to get the results we are guaranteeing, starts claiming the product is nonsense (or worse) I know we are dealing with a buffoon.

Yet we are supposed to take these obnoxious tirades politely, without retaliating, and still come up with answers that satisfy.

It’s something you folks are going to have to learn when you get successful and, believe me, it’s not easy.

Don’t get me wrong. Millions of dollars income solves lots of problems and it’s a salve for a lot of wounded pride. Join me, won’t you.

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