As a service provider, the first thing you need to do is qualify the people who deserve to be serviced.
I used to entertain top people, CX levels, and I follow their instructions to the dot. I did it because I wanted to maintain good customer service. Good service leads to more opportunities.
Boy I was wrong.
Because they ...
Which in turn did not turn to referrals, nor was I able to deliver a very good job.
Some people are just assholes. (short and sweet)
Before enrolling them into your universe, consider the following.
Because if you don't, these assholes will wreck your life. They will take up your mental space (which is expensive), dictate the project, call you at odd hours, fight tooth and nail about everything. No one has that kind of capacity.
No matter how desperate I am, I will never take on projects from these people.
Some people think, "I have money, therefore I am your master".
What they didn't know, they are exchanging money is value. Know what the problem is worth to them, because if it's worthless, then you probably be treated that way.
Set an imaginary hourly rate, say RM500 per hour.
When petty things start to surface, and if it's less than RM500, forget about it.
They don't deserve you. You don't deserve them.
Find more leads. Do whatever it takes to get people to know you. All else fail, pay for traffic.
The more leads, the more you can qualify them.
That's also the reason why I wrote Laman7 home page differently.
I want to solve specific problems. I want them to explore my universe. I want to have the guts to tell them, "I've solved this, this is how we do it". Then we talk about business. Because it makes no sense to buy from me (or my team), before understanding what we're capable of.
Another way to think about this is, 'how can customer find me?'.
We can promote as much as we want, but not everyone will be a good customer.
We want to avoid buyer remorse - feeling shitty after we paid for it. When they are unsatisfied, they will come back with vengeance.
Choosing the right people to work with will determine your future.
The more you accept low paying jobs and bad customers, the more you'll feel unhappy about your work. The more question you ask, 'why am I doing this again ?'.
It makes you want to quit.
And quitter you are not.
