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Go ahead, be rude. It will cost you $350k

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41–45 of 45 posts

Re: Go ahead, be rude. It will cost you $350k

#41

I have some anecdotal experience with this. I was at an Oracle event representing my company that managed Oracle for a very large number of customers. I met Larry. He treated me like I was an insignificant and why was I even talking to him . I considered that rude and highly dismissive. It became my goal to get our customers away from Oracle to which I had some success. Quite a few customers were able to move to MySQ…

Hell hath no fury like a customer scorned

How about when you piss off an entire state for your unethical practices?

IBM banned from QLD. 10 years in and there's still no IBM contract within the state government that I'm aware of.

https://www.itnews.com.au/news/queenslands-ibm-ban-lives-on-...

Re: Go ahead, be rude. It will cost you $350k

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would counter that if you are at a networking function with your customers that you should consider yourself the face of your company and act accordingly. I don't blame them for developing a dislike for Oracle after an Oracle representative mistreated them. Their whole purpose in being there was to put face time in with past and future customers and engender positive connections and they failed.

I would say two things were equally wrong in the OPs anecdote: one person was offensive, and one person was offended. While it seems just to entirely blame the offensive person, ego is a thing not good and taking offense is a choice. Unless physically striking someone, it is not possible to hurt someone's feelings. Feelings are important, no doubt, but feelings are entirely the responsibility of the feeler. One may h…

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Re: Go ahead, be rude. It will cost you $350k

#43
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Taking offense is just as bad as offending Why would you think that? If I, entirely by my own choice, take offense then I've only hurt myself. Hurting yourself should always be far less bad than hurting someone else.

Taking offence can certainly be weaponised.

True. I think we should not lack empathy, for sure, 'giving material offence' is much worse than feeling it obviously - but the aggrieved will weaponize it, and it's quite common.

Re: Go ahead, be rude. It will cost you $350k

#44

The first time I read the phrase "the customer is always right" was a book about aluminum produced by the Alcoa company when I was a kid. When I parrot this phrase to most people today they tell me the opposite is true, that any customer who isn't satisfied is an asshole and is doing you a favor if they switch to the competition. I remember reading a business book in the early 2000s that said as much and that you sho…

"The customer is always right" refers to the product design. If you sell shoes that you think are the best on the market, but customers think they're bad, the customer is always right. It helps direct attention toward selling what people want, not what you think they should want. Notably it does not mean that individual customers (or would-bes) are always justified in their complaints.

I believe the original phrase was, “The customer is always right in matters of taste.” It’s a shame that party got dropped.

Re: Go ahead, be rude. It will cost you $350k

#45

The first time I read the phrase "the customer is always right" was a book about aluminum produced by the Alcoa company when I was a kid. When I parrot this phrase to most people today they tell me the opposite is true, that any customer who isn't satisfied is an asshole and is doing you a favor if they switch to the competition. I remember reading a business book in the early 2000s that said as much and that you sho…

If you're always firing your worst customers, then sooner or later you won't have any customers left.
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