posted
when you're at a party, and someone comes up to you, takes your drink away, pours half of it into their cup, and then gives you back half of your drink.
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Sales reps for vendors we DO do business with who call up "just to touch base" or to "introduce themselves."
If I want to buy something, I'll call YOU. I don't want to talk to you and I don't want you talking at me. I'm busy and I don't need your crap.
Posts: 7085 | Registered: Apr 2001
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quote:Originally posted by The Pixiest: Sales reps for vendors we DO do business with who call up "just to touch base" or to "introduce themselves."
If I want to buy something, I'll call YOU. I don't want to talk to you and I don't want you talking at me. I'm busy and I don't need your crap.
No kidding.
I signed up for Oracle's tech support site so I could look up some information (or maybe download a utility). My company pays Oracle a lot of money and there are purchasing people who deal with the Oracle salespeople. So I was surprised to get a phone call from an Oracle account rep one day. I kept trying to figure out whether I had done something untoward to cause them to probe and make sure I wasn't going outside the licensing agreement(s). Nope, they just wanted me to know their name, and ask if there was anything I needed. I had a hard time explaining why I didn't think it'd do them any good to develop a relationship with me. (Well, I didn't want to say "I have no budget and no influence with anyone who does, so this is a waste of your time and mine.")
Posts: 4287 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
How about we wait to see what kind of president Mr Obama is before we make him a national holiday.
Posts: 7085 | Registered: Apr 2001
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Pix and Scifi, despite what you are outwardly feeling about the reps being intrusive or annoying, the truth is (probably) that they are doing something business savvy by contacting you. Just your awareness of them as people will probably humanize them, or make their job easier when it comes time to really have to deal with you. Plus, what's the harm in trying to establish a friendly relationship with lower-downs who may one day be higher-ups? Seems smart to me to lay the groundwork anywhere you can.
You may not like it, but I bet enough people respond to it in the ways that count.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Orincoro: That's what my hubby says. He's a sales guy.
However, such a procedure is wasted on me. I forget their first names before they finish saying their last. I only pretend to write down their numbers. I will never be a higher up (I don't WANT to be a higher up.) All it does is annoy the crap out of me.
You'd think they'd get a hint after they identify themselves and all inflection leaves my voice.
When my phone rings, it means someone needs my help. Taking me away from my important projects (or interrupting my "cool down time" with hatrack or fark) in order to try to sell me something is farking annoying!
Annoying me is bad business. I have canceled services at home simply because they called me and annoyed me. (can't get away with that at work or I would.)
And while we're on the topic of things BUSINESSES do to annoy me.. Those stupid "Convenience Checks" that credit card companies include in every correspondence under the assumption that you'll transfer all your balances from your other cards to their card... The only thing Convenient about it is for the crooks who steal your mail. I'm getting tired of having to shred every bit of junk mail these pieces of kuso send me because they Conveniently included a way for crooks to empty my bank account.
Posts: 7085 | Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
Hmmm. Seems you are just a casualty of business as usual. I bet those salespeople you're talking about make their companies profits they would otherwise not have. And the alternative, btw, is living in the Czech Republic, where the notion of "customer service" is largely foreign. Here you can *really* spot someone who has been trained by or is employed by a western company.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by The Pixiest: Continue to explain the problem after I have given them the resolution.
*snaps fingers* I just realized I do this from time to time. My desire to be cool will certainly prevail over this habit.
It's very uncool when people talk loudly about opinions they think are ridiculous loud enough that somebody who actually feels that way may hear. Polysci students are notorious for doing it.
Also making groaning noises and exhaling deeply while somebody states their beliefs on a topic to the teacher is very uncool. Take a nap, it'll make everyone happier.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by The Pixiest: Sales reps for vendors we DO do business with who call up "just to touch base" or to "introduce themselves."
If I want to buy something, I'll call YOU. I don't want to talk to you and I don't want you talking at me. I'm busy and I don't need your crap.
Oh, right there with you. We're not even allowed to decide what vendors to use, so it makes their efforts that much more pointless. The client (via attorneys) do that.
There's this friend of my brother's who always leaves doors and drawers in the kitchen open when he's over. One time I rounded the corner right into an open drawer. I was so mad (and in pain).
Posts: 691 | Registered: Nov 2008
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quote:Originally posted by The Pixiest: Continue to explain the problem after I have given them the resolution.
Corollary:
Assume they know the solution to a problem before I've finished explaining the solutions I have already tried that didn't work.
Posts: 4287 | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Originally posted by The Pixiest: Continue to explain the problem after I have given them the resolution.
Of course the corollary to that, which I encounter more often, is "Listen for 10 seconds, assume they have understood my problem, insist I accept their solution to the problem they think I have, and refuse to listen to me explaining the problem I ACTUALLY have."
Posts: 2762 | Registered: Sep 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Orincoro: Pix and Scifi, despite what you are outwardly feeling about the reps being intrusive or annoying, the truth is (probably) that they are doing something business savvy by contacting you. Just your awareness of them as people will probably humanize them, or make their job easier when it comes time to really have to deal with you. Plus, what's the harm in trying to establish a friendly relationship with lower-downs who may one day be higher-ups? Seems smart to me to lay the groundwork anywhere you can.
You may not like it, but I bet enough people respond to it in the ways that count.
A few points:
a) Email is a good way to establish awareness without being intrusive or annoying. Since I made myself known to them through the web, they can act in kind. They can provide their phone number, fax number, geographic coordinates, and their autobiography through email and I won't find it annoying unless they do it more often than once or twice a year. (Just yesterday, a different vendor's account rep sent me an email introducing himself a few hours after I signed up to view their knowledge base. I have no complaints with that.)
b) I'm talking about cases where there is an active, ongoing relationship with licensing and consulting, with other individuals in my company. There's little need to put out feelers in these situations.
c) You're no doubt right - they are doing things that they think will have a good result (increased sales or whatever). However, the gist of your response seems to be "don't complain - obviously it works." But how are they going to know how well their relationship management techniques are working if we just grin and bear things we find annoying? Any one-size-fits-all approach to sales & business relationships is inevitably going to annoy some of the clients. Perhaps it's an acceptable tradeoff from the point of view of vendors - but that doesn't really make it less annoying to the minority.
Posts: 4287 | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote: Also making groaning noises and exhaling deeply while somebody states their beliefs on a topic to the teacher is very uncool. Take a nap, it'll make everyone happier.
Not that I've ever audibly groaned in a class, but I'm imagining many ways in which a student could state their "belief" on a topic that would maybe make me exhale loudly or have a similar reaction.
In certain classes, in certain fields, a student's belief on a topic is relevant to the lecture. In others, your beliefs won't matter to the teacher or the rest of the students, so wasting class-time talking about them is groan-inducing. Especially if this is college, where the students are being charged good money for the wasted minutes.
Your initial description is pretty vague, and I'd counter that in some situations, its the stating of your beliefs that's uncool.
Posts: 5656 | Registered: Oct 1999
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I remember the students who used to make me roll my eyes though I rarely did more than that. It was the ones with a pet peeve or idea or something like that that they related every lecture to so that they could hop on their usual soapbox. I remember one girl who related everything to the Bible and from the Bible to her particular brand of religion.
Posts: 1751 | Registered: Jun 1999
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quote:Annoying me is bad business. I have canceled services at home simply because they called me and annoyed me. (can't get away with that at work or I would.)
And while we're on the topic of things BUSINESSES do to annoy me.. Those stupid "Convenience Checks" that credit card companies include in every correspondence under the assumption that you'll transfer all your balances from your other cards to their card... The only thing Convenient about it is for the crooks who steal your mail. I'm getting tired of having to shred every bit of junk mail these pieces of kuso send me because they Conveniently included a way for crooks to empty my bank account.
Oh, I completely understand this. In fact, I called the company and asked them to cut it the heck out. They almost did, but the problem resumed a few months later.
Posts: 1813 | Registered: Apr 2001
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In certain classes, in certain fields, a student's belief on a topic is relevant to the lecture. In others, your beliefs won't matter to the teacher or the rest of the students, so wasting class-time talking about them is groan-inducing. Especially if this is college, where the students are being charged good money for the wasted minutes.
I was in a class once where one of the students kind of tried to give mini-lectures in the form of questions that never actually had a question mark. She'd go on for a minute or two, and the teacher would start to try and interrupt, and the student would raiser her voice and talk faster. It was really annoying.
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posted
- People who don't realize (or don't care) that when I'm walking with slumped forward shoulders, my head hanging down, and my eyes focused squarely on my feet, I don't want to be talked at.
- People who grab me in the halls to tell me a problem their having with their computer. Obviously their issue is more important than the issue I'm on my way to resolve. Usually, if I can't resolve their problem immediately, I ask them to send me an email about it so their problem doesn't get lost in the shuffle. They almost never follow up. (Bonus annoying points when they're asking a question about their home computer.)
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