dealing with instructionally-disabled people 2

[langleymass]

An "instructionally-disabled" person is simply a person who has little or no ability to follow simple instructions. How do you deal with instructionally-disabled people?

Last year, I moved my business address to a mailbox. About a month before the move, I notified many associates of this change via postcard. I taped my new business cards to the postcard, simply saying: "Please direct all future correspondence to:"

I would say that about half the people messed it up in one way or another. In some cases, I still got the mail. In some cases, I did not. In some cases, it took multiple phone calls to resolve the problem.

How do you deal with instructionally-disabled people?

 

[Toshilap]

These people...

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I finally got it all together and forgot where I put it.

 

[MasterRacker]

An unfortunately large number of people are so clueless that they wouldn't even notice if you kicked them in the face with a Flaming, Electified, Poison-tipped, Spiked Iron Boot^TM.

All you can do is make a reasonable effort with them and move on. The thing that scares me witless is that these people each have a vote that counts as much as mine.

<sub>Jeff
[purple]It's never too early to begin preparing for [/purple]International Talk Like a Pirate Day

"The software I buy sucks, The software I write sucks. It's time to give up and have a beer..." - Me</sub>

 

[grande]

I can't imagine someone with such distain for people in general owning a successful business...

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Just call me Captain Awesome.

 

[sleipnir214]

Sleipnir's Law of Strategic Laziness states, "In the long run, it always requires less effort and fewer resources to do it right the first time."

When I jumped through all the hoops informing my clients of my change of address, I saw the action as being in complete compliance with Sleipnir's Law. Had I not jumped through those hoops, I would have had to spend more effort and resources getting back in touch with my clients, smoothing feathers, regaining goodwill, etc., than I did informing them multiple times of the change in advance.

Also, I knew that for every client that did not make the change with me, that was that much more effort I was going to have to put out to get new clients. And since I run my life by Sleipnir's Law, I know that it requires much less effort to keep current clients happy than to get new clients and make them happy.

As I see it, it all boils down to the quesiton: Is it more important to be right about the brain-deaded-ness instructionally-challenged-ness of people in general and one's clients in particular, or is it more important to effortlessly keep your clients and maintain good relations with them?

As I am in the latter camp, there is no way will I ever think that sending a postcard is enough to maintain the customer base of my business. Even without Sleipnir's Law, I would have to think that keeping clients would be a good thing, just out of enlightened self-interest.



Want the best answers? Ask the best questions!

TANSTAAFL!!

 

[MasterRacker]

I would say a good corollary to Sleipnir's Law (or possibly a prerequisite) would be to be as selective as possible when acquiring clients.

When first dealing with them, pay attention to their cluefullness and try to make a good estimate as to how much care and feeding they will require. There are certain clients that cost you more than you get out of them. In those cases, you're better off not contracting with them in the first place (better yet, send them to a competitor.)

<sub>Jeff
[purple]It's never too early to begin preparing for [/purple]International Talk Like a Pirate Day

"The software I buy sucks, The software I write sucks. It's time to give up and have a beer..." - Me</sub>

 

[sleipnir214]

Oh, certainly. Expectation management (both yours and the client's) can be a part of compliance with Sleipnir's Law of Strategic Laziness.

Want the best answers? Ask the best questions!

TANSTAAFL!!

 

[svanels]

Sometimes when I mail order stuff. I will write in the "instructions" field: "Write out address exactly as you see it."

This is an insult to any client or prospective client. The only thing I would to is recommend the services of the writer to my worst enemy.

Steven

 

[MasterRacker]

<slight tangent>
sleipnir, is your law abbreviated SLSL or (SL)² ? ;-)
</slight tangent>


<sub>Jeff
[purple]It's never too early to begin preparing for [/purple]International Talk Like a Pirate Day

"The software I buy sucks, The software I write sucks. It's time to give up and have a beer..." - Me</sub>

 

[flapeyre]

My theory on these people is that they have gotten yelled at so much that they have gotten used to it. They really don't know what it would be like to live a life actually being fully aware and present. These people really do just sleepwalk through their existence.

My experience, not theory, has shown that you reap what you sow. One should not expect service to improve if one is demanding, patronizing, and condescending towards service people (and McD, BK, Wendy's, Taco Bell, etc., do qualify). They'll give such customers lousy service just to be rid of them.

They certainly do know what's going on. I've been in their shoes, and they are fully aware of their customers' demeanor, and their service level will reflect that.

I still remember what menial work is like. I treat these folks as I would expect to be treated by them, and as a result, I usually get good service in return.

Feles mala! Cur cista non uteris? Stramentum novum in ea posui!

 

[chiph]

I can't imagine someone with such distain for people in general owning a successful business...

This thread is about the internal mental conversations you have with such people. In real life, one should not do anything like what you read here.

Chip H.


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If you want to get the best response to a question, please read FAQ222-2244 first

 

[BocaBurger]

Sometimes it's not the persons fault.
Actual cases, names changed to protect all involved:
Tech Support: "Hello Tech Support"
Client: "Hi, can you tell me how to make a dot jar?"
TS: "Do you mean a JAVA .jar file?"
C: " I'm not sure, the head programmer was fired yesterday and they told me to take over."
TS: "How long have you been programming?"
C: "I started today, I worked in Finance and they thought that since I could run Excel, I could do this."

TS: "OK, open up the log file and tell me what's on line 5."
C: "How do I do that?"
TS: you could use "vi"."
C: "What's Vee Eye?"
TS: "Could you get the sysadmin.?"
C: "I am the sysadmin!"
TS: "How long have you been the sysadmin?"
C: "Since yesterday when the old one quit."



BocaBurger
<===========================||////////////////|0
The pen is mightier than the sword, but the sword hurts more!

 

[Toshilap]

Thanks, flapeyre.
First responce that shows IT people can have heart.
I am very surprise by heartlesness of most posts.
Yes, lots of people with some disabilities run very successful businesses, indeed.

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I finally got it all together and forgot where I put it.

 

[Trevoke]

IT people need to have a heart; after all, there are only a select few people who don't understand because they don't care enough. Most people are genuinely stupid. Any user is a luser, and this applies to all of us, including me. The only thing one can do is make the responsible person's job a tiny bit easier by not being a pain in the arse.

Like flapeyre said : there are both sides to a fence, two sides to a coin, whatever.. But the guy in front of you is a human being, too, and if you didn't understand, would you want to get yelled at?

-Haben sie fosforos?
-No tiengo caballero, but I have un briquet.

 

[flapeyre]

Here's a sign that I remember seeing many years ago at an office:

In one day, Samson slew 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of an ass.

Every day, ten thousand sales are killed with the same weapon.

Feles mala! Cur cista non uteris? Stramentum novum in ea posui!

 

[langleymass]

I worked in the hotel business for almost 33 months. The most common complaint hotels get is "reservation not handled properly." Sometimes this is just because people at the hotel simply make promises they can't keep. It may be a case of telling the customer you have non-smoking or first-floor rooms when you actually don't.

I hate to say it--but, yes, hotels will lie about this. However, we also had plenty of customers lie about it the other way. I had customers walk up to the desk and ask for a non-smoking room and then light up as they walked out the door of the lobby. We probably broke even.

As a general rule, however, we realized that we were in business to serve customers, in spite of the customer's appearance, demeanor, attitude, or tone of voice. We saw that we had a job to do, and we did it. For me, it was just a matter of pride. The kind of job I do is up to me, and I can do it right or wrong. I don't see what I gain by doing it wrong.

Back in the 1980's, I remember quite well that I could walk into any Wendy's with full confidence that they would get my order right. As a result, I always chose Wendy's if I could. Somewhere around 1997 or 1998, Wendy's approach to service changed. Now, Wendy's is probably the worst hamburger place when it comes to getting my order right.

If you work in any service industry like this, you are not entitled to the respect of your customers. If you do your job, you will get it from most people. You will also get respect if you sincerely apologize if you make a mistake. If you blame the customer or your fellow employees or say garbage like "It's not my job" or "I only work here," your customers will never respect you.

 

[jaymaechtlen]

Back to "instructionally disabled people":

If they have one or more problems, and are willing to MAKE THE EFFORT to deal with these problems, they get my respect.

If they are temporarily confused, but are willing to accept help, and work to learn (make/read notes, etc), they get my respect.

If they are too lazy to make the effort, they deserve (and get) no respect.

A friend was promoted, and training another employee to take over her job. The trainee seemed to have multiple problems (emotional, attention, intellectual?)
She'd say 'I know' when she obviously didn't, etc.
I'll have to ask back and see if she has actually to do the job...

cheers
Jay