Image Source: principle of design
Few days ago, I talked about who is reading your blog? Why do you care? If you are an online store owner or blogger, you probably already experience the power of your visitors or readers. In the online world, you have to build close relationship with your visitors. Many blogger or online store owners fail at the end, because they ignore their visitor’s power and influence.
It’s a small world. People know people, who know about you. A rumor will circulate and come back to hurt you!
Whatever you said against your visitors will come back to you one day. If you ignore your visitors or bad mouth about them, they may just share their bad experience with many others. It will end up hurting your reputation. There is chance that you will run into some very bad visitors or customers. They do bad mouth about all your hard working and efforts. One small word can damage your entire business. We need to learn how to deal with it.
Here is an example. I was working on government related auction site project. The project manager from the client was a jerk who always uses F words on the phone. He thinks he got the power because he holds the contract. He always has points about how the project goes out of his control and how the project should be done. As an IT consultant, I provided the best solutions to the customer and to make sure they will eventually happy with my service. I was not in the position to argue with him about being a human being. I was called “Fxxxxxx Chinese Pig” many times on the phone and in face in the meeting. I have never felt angry and upset; because my goal is to finish the project and make sure the person who signed the contract and pay for the money are happy.
At the end, I finished the project on-time and made his boss so happy. I got the award I deserved without even being mad about him. Yeah. I have learned how to deal with people like him and finish what I need to do without upsetting him.
It’s a small world. A year later, I got a big project that were referred by him. At the end, I guess I turn my worst enemy into my best friend.
Here are the things I do to lower the possible damage and make my customers my best friends.
- Put up Smile – It’s no big deal. Smile is the best healing medicine and best weapon for your first line of defense. A pretty smile will confuse your enemy, making them uncertain about their own act.
- Don’t get mad – Madness will put you in the angry and unconscious condition. You will lose the capability to think straight and find the resolutions. It also shows your personality weakest point.
- Listening – Without understand what exactly they are complaining about, you miss the points to be a better person. I have learned a lot from people who argue with me. I did not learn about the fact of the argument. I did learn how not to be the same person on the human side. I learned not to be the same bitch to others.
- Be responsive – Ignore your enemy will make you a weaker competitor. Response back to your visitors with a calm tone and warm heart.
- Be Nice – Be nice to your visitors. You will lose the first battle in the impression driven online world. If you give out a bad first impression, you have no second chance to win them back.
- Be positive and open minded – People always look things from different angles. A negative thought will change your attitude facing challenges. You them lost the power come back up.
- Be consideration – Not everyone are handling thing the same way. That’s just the human nature. The person who treats you bad may be having the bad time. They just don’t know how to deal with things all at once. If you be more consideration to them, they may appreciate your kindness. You are making a friend, not an enemy.
There are also other things I do to make me look more like a millionaire. Do you look like a millionaire? Train yourself first! We all have some good time and bad time with the people we meet online and offline. If you want to be a better person, you got to learn how to deal with a bad person. Learn from them and don’t be one of them.
The point of this post is to learn how to deal with the bad situation and learn to make your enemy your best friend. It’s very hard to be a successful business man. So the less enemy the better chance you will get there.
Do you have thoughts to share with me? You can write a post about your personal experience and how you deal with it. You can leave comment and link to your post.
Terence, I admire your fortitude. I wish that I could be like that. Being humble in difficult situations, as long as there is some favorable outcome possible at the end of it all, is alright. This does not mean that you can be treated like a door mat by any one. If someone was to call me names the way you were called, I doubt that I would have just kept quiet. I would certainly investigate possibilities of going over his head with a complaint to start with.
Any way, the overall thrust of your post is very true. All of us have to draw our own lines to maintain our self dignity.
@Dining Tables:
I had even worst experience in the military camp. So I know where my bottom line is. In the business world in my opinions, I don’t want to piss anyone who may bring me potential. To be honest, being a victim in a fight in the office environment may make you a winner at the end.
May be you can have a better way to describe that.
How right you are Terence. Some commenters can be bitchy.
I’m a ninja now!
http://stevesmit.com
@Ninja Steve:
Not to worry about me. I won’t bitchy your comment.
I like your new domain. Already subscribe to it. Looking forward!
It’s tough to listen to a person just abusing you right, left and center. But I guess that is what we need to learn from your this article as to how to stay clam and compose in such situations.
@Dandruff Cure:
In the business world, creating enemy is not a good thing. Try to find a way work around them and make them your best friends.
This is how I feel – you have to have respect for all people regardless of how they may treat you. If they do however do or say things that are untoward there is nothing wrong in letting them know that they have offended you. But get the point across in a civil manner.
If you are the kind of person who treats people badly and thinks that you are all high and mighty it will come back to bite you (HARD!) one day [that is what I believe]. It might feel like you are in a position of power but the opposite is true. The people around you will have no respect for you. Your attitude and the way you interact with people can make or break you. You reap what you sow.
Thanks a lot Terence Chang for your wise suggestion. I’ll always keep that in mind.
@Gerri:
Thank you. You made a very good point.
@Dandruff Cure:
Just like Gerri said above. You have all the rights to be silent or speak out for yourself. Just do not to be the same person who treated you the way you hated.
Terence – brilliant post and great tips. I wish I could be as gracious as you when dealing with such rude people.
@Catherinel:
Thank you! I have learned in the hard way in the past. So I have to put up my smile and control my anger. I do have my bottom line, but I try to convert my worst enemy to my friends before standing up against them.
Hi Terence – you give some great tips here! My number one rule is to always remain humble, even when dealing with rude people.
Kind regards,
Mark
@Mark:
Humble is one of the key to success, at least I thought so. Especially in the business world, one less enemy is better than no friend. Thank you for stopping by.
Yeah mate. The thing about respecting your visitors definitely helps in the long run. A word of mouth advertising is very important for commercial sites such as ebay or yahoo or be it online stores from easystorehosting.com etc. Also for me as an seo freelancer I really take extra effort to communicate every small bit of information to my site visitors. Ultimately if you are close to them they would commit to you on a long term basis and also would recommend you to others.
@Memanth:
You are right. A word of mouth is very important. It’s all about building your reputation and brand. Thank you for visiting.
I am wondering why your comments are always blocked by Akismet.