Bad mouthing my product cus the customer was to inferior to read instructions

Francis,

I love the dominus. Infact everything you do in SL seems to change the bar of expectation of the game of what an end user CAN do. Are you working on anything new and innovative?

i don't remember that abuse reports cover the sale policies and business laws of SL?

there is none right? just ethic?

Explain to him nicely that nothing stops the expensive bullets.

Anytime you deal with the public a certain number of them are going to be unreasonable. I get numerous requests for help setting up houses and doors by people who have not even bothered to read the instructions and are not even certain how to move an object around. Yes most, but not all, of these are only a few weeks old. I generally try to do everything I can to help if they are relatively new. I usually try to teach them how to do some stuff in the process. I have meet some nice people this way who have become repeat customers.

If they are completely unreasonable, its less trouble to ignore them then to argue with them.

It is in any case, nothing gets done about, anything.

*PVP ABUSE INBOX + End/Start of day = Delete all reports.

Is all that ever happens

I added a little note in red text. Wonder why it's not selling as well...
Meh, it was a bit of a joke anyway.

The thing is Burke you actually probably have the beginnings of a decent shield system there, change the orbit protector into a non phys vehicle (could be done in a few seconds) and add a second outer shield that derez's on movement..... you would basically have protek lite without the interceptors.

Like I said, nothing stops the good bullets, the most useful feature of my protek is it lets me know who's shooting me, and the interceptors give me a pretty good idea of "From where"

On the subject of documentation.

Its a well known phenomena that if the documentation is perceived as being too complex for the estimated ease of use - Customers will routinly ignore them.

Basically if its an item someone thinks something is simple to use - the instructions need to be very concise or they will be ignored. (Like a rotary Dial phone should have about 1 short paragraph of instructions.)

If the itme is more sophisticated then the documantation can be longer and still read. However theres a certain point where someone will decide the documentation is too cumbersome and try the item out on their own. (like a cell phone - it might have a book, but most people wont read the whole thing)

Perhaps it might help for sellers to organize their notcards with the basics of an items operation at the top. And advanced features below or even on a seperate card.

Ive found stating the obvious is better than assuming a basic working knowledge also.

Just some thoughts -


Also New people - remember even things that seem simple might be complex in SL - the people who are bringing us the "Wow cool" devices of the world are experiementing with an arcane scripting language and might be doing things the Lindens hadnt even thought of. So having patience with instructions benifits all.

Customer Service even in RL is an emotionally hard place to be for many people, and it doesn't help that customers often feel a sense of entitlement since they are spending the money -- they often think this means you need to do exactly what they want.

I think one of the biggest helps is to not take things personally, even when the customer is being personal and rather mean.

If you can with a clear conscience tell yourself that you listened to the complaint, did your best to fix it and/or help the customer, have been reasonable, and are sticking to your guns now in order to be fair both to them and yourself, then there is little choice but simply to stand your ground as kindly as possible and somehow end the discussion.

Some customers are just confused about what they were getting or how it works, and working with them will help them feel better or fix things.

But some people will just never be happy. They will just make your life hell, because they want what they want, and there is no way to compromise on anything.

Report the harrasser if they refuse to stop; trust that your faithful customers can see the truth for themselves and you don't need to be mean or vengeful in return; and otherwise just kindly ignore them.

But really, I think it's the "taking things personally" is the hardest part to get over. You are not the problem, they are... The goal is to let it go and not let their problem distract you or consume your energy to do the things you love to do.

--

With online documentation, use the shortest sentences that make sense. Use shorter cleaner words, not longer or more complicated words, where possible. Use paragraph breaks liberally. Any paragraph that you can convert into a short list (bullet or numbered) of steps, etc., should be.

The goal is to be as clear, concise, and easy to read as possible. The purpose of the writing determines the writing's format. If it is documentation, don't make it into poetry or prose -- the goal must always be clarity.

If you can, give your documentation to someone you trust but who does not know the product, and see what they think and where they get lost.

Best comment I've seen in a long time. It mirrors my own thoughts well enough I'll just back what you said.

Let someone else write your doccumentation.

A few items I have bought lately the documentation is written from a creators standpoint, or from teh standpoint of someone heavily familiar with the product (orbz anyone? Great toy, impossible to use as the documentation basically assumes you had an earlier version and know what you are doing).

A lot of people get the "Do it yourself" mentality and think they have to build a product from A-Z. While some folks can do this (Luc Aubret has some of the best documentation) others cannot, if you can't divorce yourself from your product and write the documentation as if you just bought the product and don't know how to use it? Then get someone else to write it. Theres a reason most R&D people don't do technical writing for customers. They either don't know how, or aren't divorced enough from the product to write anything that makes sense to a new user.

Great point -

This is why tech writers exist.

An expert in whatever the item is coming from a different perspective than most users. If the User was an expert they could make their own gizmo.