The Truth Hurts!

Only 3 more actual days of working for the Comcastic. Coming soon, I'll do a long "lessons learned" piece as a sendoff so gear up for that!

On to tonight's "lesson". I've concluded that people don't want to hear the truth, they want to hear what they want to hear!--Funny, now that I write that sentence, all types of memories from the mission pop into my head.-- I've frequently encountered customers that misunderstand a promotional offer, and then become upset at me when I explain what the real deal is. Why are you getting so upset at hearing the truth? You don't necessarily have to accept it, but as Rachel loves to say right now, "It is what it is."

I can understand being disappointed when something turns out to be different than you originally thought, but wouldn't you rather have somebody be up front to you about it instead of finding out the truth later when you get your bill? My policy is to be honest up front and take the short-term pain for the long-term gain. Interestingly enough, one of the key points I've learned through all of my accounting studies is that honesty is the best policy! Sure you might take a hit up front for delivering bad news, but the long term payoff is better than letting people find out the bad news some other way.

Which circles me back to the Comcastic. Would you rather I pretend your misunderstood interpretation is correct to get the sale and let somebody else deal with you when you call in screaming mad about a different bill amount than you originally thought, or would you rather I just get the facts out on the table up front? Let me tell you from the customer service end I LOATHE reps who lie to close the sale and then I end up dealing with the screaming customer later whose bill is not what they were promised up front. So even though it's frustrating to deal with people who get upset with me for telling them the truth, it's actually much less frustrating than dealing with people who have been lied to. Either way you have to deal with the pain sometime, you might as well deal with it up front.

Now, how can I communicate to people in a gentle way up front that "It is what it is"? A lady tonight suggested that I was trying to drive her away from signing up for service because I was telling her the true details of the ever important "deal." Hmm, it is my JOB to try to get you to sign up for service; however, I certainly don't want to lie to you about it. Maybe on my next call I'll let them know about the incredible new "We'll pay you to take our services!" offer and let some other rep deal with the consequences when they receive a bill instead of a check. I'll be long gone by then anyways, right?