2% Of The Population Are Not Happy About ANYTHING!
If you ask 1,000 people to pick their favorite day of the week, 980 of them would chooose one of the 7 days on the list. But 20 of them would pick "none of the above". Interesting to note, about 2% of your customers will have a similar approach to anything you do. On any given day, some of your customers will be unhappy with anything you do.
I can relate a few stories about this phenomenon, but for now, let's just assume that this is true. (I'll prove it in a minute for those of you skeptics) But for the moment, assume it's true.
How does this affect you as a web business owner?
I open my emails every day and find someone that is unhappy about something. The more customers you have, the more of these emails and phone calls you get. If you get a LOT of them on the same topic then you may want to look at your operations and do some improving, but if you are getting about 2 for every 100 customers, then the chances are you are just hearing from one of the "Two Percenters" in the crowd.
The trick is to not get discouraged by these people. Here's how I keep it all in perspective. I look at the total sales income for the day and multiply that times 2%. I mentally set aside that amount for today and then look at the contacts from unhappy customers. For example, if today's sales are $1,000 then I put aside $20 mentally and look at the emails. Hmmmm... 4 of them. Each one takes about 3 minutes to handle. So I'm trading 12 minutes for $20 income.
Not bad! That makes today a winner in my book!
On the other hand, there are days when the numbers come out the other way. Oh well. Keep it all in perspective. You just can't make everyone happy all the time. Or as someone said in a song... "Some days your the windshield, some days your the bug!"
Proof about the 2% rule? Check this out...
Hey Larry, great article. However, the survey monkey link shows 18% have no fovorite day of the week and 0% said all are bad. I'm not sure what to look for on the survey.
P.
Posted by: Perry Lawrence | November 06, 2006 at 05:12 PM
Larry,
Enjoy your posts, looking forward to the next one. Have a great travel vacation.
Mike
Posted by: Mike | December 13, 2006 at 09:38 AM