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The 5% Rule

jonpauluritis.com

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Re: The 5% Rule

#91

Post by sodapopcan »

thewebcount wrote: post #48

While I’m sure this is a real problem, I’ve been on the other side of this equation where you’ve tried your level best to get a problem resolved, and not only haven’t had it resolved, but have been repeatedly screwed even more. For example, many years ago, I signed up for a landline phone (when that’s all there was), and signed up for a particular special service that Ameritech was offering that would allow me to hav…

None of the examples given in the article make me think it would consider screaming at a representative of a company that’s wrongfully cost you thousands of dollars after you’ve spent months trying to rectify it as part of the “5%”. That’s totally reasonable, even if it want directly the representative’s fault. Screaming at a service worker because of a hair in your food isn’t—that’s psychotic.

Re: The 5% Rule

#92

Post by aeturnum »

I think this is true, but the way I would put it is:

While you have influence over 95% of what happens to you, you can only really survive the other 5%. Take solace in the fact that, sometimes, when it seems like there's nothing you can do - you are right! That said, often the path to self-improvement is in situations we've misunderstood as "we can't effect" and are actually caused by us.

Re: The 5% Rule

#93

Post by kshacker »

motoxpro wrote: post #53
thewebcount wrote: post #48

While I’m sure this is a real problem, I’ve been on the other side of this equation where you’ve tried your level best to get a problem resolved, and not only haven’t had it resolved, but have been repeatedly screwed even more. For example, many years ago, I signed up for a landline phone (when that’s all there was), and signed up for a particular special service that Ameritech was offering that would allow me to hav…

I think the rule applies in both directions.

Speaking in colloquial English, basically 5% of time, you have to say : Enough is enough, I have had it with these MF snakes on this MF plane :)

Re: The 5% Rule

#94

Post by gizmo »

In 20 years of dealing with customers I've had to deal with maybe 3 people who were real jerks. Maybe my experience is unusual, but my customers come from all over the world. Rich countries, poor countries, non-profits, startups to fortune 500. Practically everybody is friendly and respectful.

Occasionally people are irritable or upset, but I don't take it at all personally. I just assume they're having a bad day or that they're angry for valid reasons I just don't know. When people figure out you actually want to help them the anger dissipates immediately.

Verizon treats their customers with contempt as a business practice, and when you call their support the phone operators are not authorized to actually resolve your issue anyway. So yeah, that makes people angry. They would leave if they could, but where would they go? AT&T? It's a racket.

Re: The 5% Rule

#95

Post by semireg »

I handle 100% of my indie app's email and telephone (yes, telephone!) support. My app is designing/printing labels. Printers in general, and label printers specifically are awful and inconsiderate robots, unable to perform the simplest printing job when you need it most.

Sure, 2-5% of my users are nasty/mean, but let me tell you a little secret: They are immensely frustrated with their life situation and they know how simple the solution should be. If you can show them the light, if you can "flip" these users, they will become your most loyal customers.

I start by telling them, "Hey, every month I get a call like yours where you are so frustrated you want to scream, and let me tell you a secret, if I got a call every day like this... I'd quit this business, but calls like yours are rare and I want to help you through this."

Boom. They're listening, and they're often listening to advice they don't want to hear. What kind of advice? Oh... like, "you will have to work through this and tweak the measurements until it works, because some printer drivers are mysterious and terrible. But once you get it, you'll be rewarded with it working for a long time until you have to buy a new printer."

Still, 50/1000 seems high to me, I like to think I earn the trust of 90% of my nasty/mean customers. Sometimes I'm lucky and I just paste a URL to a FAQ. After 4 years in business I had my first person hang up on me because they kept demanding a simple answer and I would say, "sorry, it's more complicated than that, I don't have a simple answer... I just have two complex answers that contradict each other until you can choose which one is the lesser of two evils."

It could be a book that no one would read: Zen and the Art of Label Printing

A quick video of my app Label LIVE, narrated by yours truly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnqUP1CZd24

Re: The 5% Rule

#96

Post by kshacker »

kilroy123 wrote: post #22

This has been my experience as well. I, too, have met and talked to thousands of people from every possible background on seven different continents of this world. From the poorest people on Earth to some of the richest. I've seen the same thing. About 5% are nasty and about 1% are truly bad people who commit horrible crimes.

Saying this from my personal experience [ workspace related not familial ] : What happens is that some of these bad people have charisma, can make you follow them, for their ulterior motives. So if you get trapped in that circle, because you tolerated for so long, you probably did not get to experience the 5% bad, but maybe 20% bad over your lifetime. So my lesson there is ... walk. You recognize a problem, you walk, rather than try to fix it. Of course you should give a chance, but that is it - just one chance and then none.

Re: The 5% Rule

#97

Post by andreyk »

"between the years of 2009 and 2013, I talked to something like 13,000 to 15,000 people while I was doing retail and SMB sales for Verizon. I learned a lot from that period, but one of the things I learned that I did not expect was what I now call my "5% rule."

No matter how kind, warm, thoughtful, amazing, cheerful, consistent, and perfect I treated people roughly 5% of them would just be terrible (yes, I have the numbers to back this) ... this number has held up in other parts of my life too (dating, restaurant customers, etc).

...

the take here - 3% to 5% of people for whatever reason just plain suck."

Sounds easy enough to believe. Of course, social conventions and so on influence such things, these people are not always terrible - I am not sure I buy the latter part of the thesis. I certainly haven't had this experience dating or in grad school. But, there is a reason "karen" is now a commonly used noun.

Re: The 5% Rule

#98

Post by mustafabisic1 »

I feel like this guy is my therapist and just told me a fantastic insight that's perfect for me at that moment.

As I was reading it, I came to the same conclusion as the writer -

You really have permission to free your mind of those people and just focus on taking care of the people who don't suck. Just expect it and move about your day.

That's freeing for me.

Re: The 5% Rule

#99

Post by akira2501 »

Ozzie_osman wrote: post #32

Many laws, company policies, etc exist to prevent those 5% from causing damage to the rest of the population. So 95% of people have to live with restrictions and bureaucracy that merely exists for those small group.

That might be the wrong way to look at it, or rather, it doesn't take into consideration the natural minimum.

It may be that just 5% of people will continue to break the rules _despite_ the bureaucracy.

So, how many of the 95% are following the rules _because_ of the bureaucracy? I suspect it's much higher than most people would care to admit.. just look what happens when the system or enforcement mechanisms break down.

Re: The 5% Rule

#100

Post by msrenee »

galangalalgol wrote: post #80
thewebcount wrote: post #48

While I’m sure this is a real problem, I’ve been on the other side of this equation where you’ve tried your level best to get a problem resolved, and not only haven’t had it resolved, but have been repeatedly screwed even more. For example, many years ago, I signed up for a landline phone (when that’s all there was), and signed up for a particular special service that Ameritech was offering that would allow me to hav…

Yes, this was my question. Are 3-5% of people horrible all the time, or are we all horrible 3-5% of the time? Or more likely at any given time 3-5% of us are horrible, with some of us entering the group more often than others.

Off the top of my head, I can think of a half dozen people I've known who are just horrible all of the time. Nasty to their family, nasty to coworkers, nasty to strangers. I can think of another half dozen who are just in the habit of mistreating service workers.

Some people you're just catching on a bad day, but there is definitely a portion of the population that are just crappy people.

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