Store Owners to You: F-OFF!
Friday, October 10, 2008 | 
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Ari Blackthorne™
Nika Dreamscape of "Through My Eyes" posted on her blog a wonderful subject. It has a lot to do with attitudes and personas (real or perceived) within Second Life, particularly merchants and creators. It has to do with 'customer service' - or rather, the perception of customer service.I've run into this myself and it seems to be turning into a regular culture. Many creators come-off as rude and obnoxious elitists, requiring you to jump through hoops and basically take your problems elsewhere, even if the problem is with their own creations and there is nowhere else to go. That's what their profile instructions seem to indicate anyway.
I agree that it's getting pretty bad, though I know it's far, very very far from the majority of creators and other people who have such curt statements in their profiles. However, it appears to be more prevalent because this is what you will likely come across in the profiles of more popular or well-known creators in Second Life, thus, more people are seeing these statements on the fewer locations where the statements are located.
Nika says...
Store Owners: How to Provide Better Customer Service « Through my eyes..: "Lately, I’ve been noticing a growing trend with really bad customer service. Out there in the real world, you don’t see as much of that as I have in Second Life. Maybe its that more people consider Second Life a game than we realize, or they don’t take their business or their customers as serious. But think about this.. how many times have you looked at the profile of a store owner, and see some of the following examples written there.I see this a lot, too. Above, I say the perception of customer service because I use statements like these, too. But I do it in order to better my customer service. yes, really. I really want to help you out if you desire it.
**DO NOT send me an IM, read my picks before contacting me.
**DO NOT send me random friends request. I will not accept.
**DO NOT IM me to say hello, are you there, or can you help me. State the nature of your message in the IM or it will go ignored. Kthnxbai.
**If you don’t like it, find somewhere else to shop."
Here is my reply to this wonderful article (and I mean it - awesome article, Nika):
"The problem I have is that there isn’t enough room in profile to state what needs to be stated. A shame really.Anyway, since this is MY blog (and you've read it this far... and you haven't run away - yet... oh, and you do know you are my only reader, right?) - I get to elaborate even further...
I try to put it simply: ALWAYS send an IM - but please don’t send an IM saying “are you there?” - it’s a waste. Simply type out your entire message and I will respond, because I do get IMs through email - which works even if IMs are capped.
The problem is when you IM me to simply say “are you there?” or “Hi” - that’s anew IM conversation - which helps cap the IM queue. The more ‘conversations’ the faster the cap.
I invite people to friend me. But please send an IM FIRST. Otherwise - I decline it. Not trying to be rude, it’s just that there are too many bots that do this. Especially with landmarks and notecards.
Please DO drop a notecard. However, if IMs get capped, so do object drops! So DO IM me FIRST. So that even if IMs (and object drops) get capped, I will have an email record of it - and if I don’t see it in inventory or the IM that goes with it - I can IM bvack to YOU. (Because I really DO want to give good customer service.)
So - how do you explain all of what I just said within 256 characters, including spaces and punctuation? Sure, I could put it into picks and tell people to look there, but many rarely even read the profile before just dropping a notecard or friend request to begin with.
And for goodness sakes - please NAME your notecards (so I don;t end-up with 50 “New Note” items in my inventory and ALWAYS put your full SL name INSIDE the notecard LOL.
The problem is people do follow these ‘rules’ then IM me totally pissed-off later on proclaiming piss-pour customer service because I am ignoring them because I never replied to them.
That’s when I drop the hammer and the full curt reply comes: “Have the damned courtesy to at least read my profile since you are staring at it anyway before you can do any of these things”
For me one rule applies: The world is a mirror. You will take from it what you give. Politelness with me will be returned ten-fold.
meh"
Here is what the front page of my profile looks like:
Resident: Ari BlackthorneSo I ask you: does this seem rude, crude and downright unfriendly? If you answer 'yes' - then I apologize. Th problem is that I spend the first 15 minutes on login just handling IMs and notecards. And large chunk of that is handling those that don't follow these rules. Such as five to ten notecards that are all titled "New Note".
Born on: 2006-10-28
STOP! READ FIRST
Do NOT IM me with "Are you there?" or "Hello" - Just type your DETAILED message BEFORE you hit 'enter' the first time - OTHERWISE YOU WILL BE MUTED. IM BEFORE DROPPING INVENTORY OR FRIENDING ME. Name notecards with NAME: SUBJECT or it will be declined. (I get too many 'New Note' garbage.)
ALL NOTICES CAPPED OFTEN - Wait until I am online. If you are in Laura - use MESSAGE BOX. (at house) .
Sorry to be so curt. Too many RUDE or LAZY people in SL.
http://shop.onrez.com/Ari_Blackthorne
Before I get into my rant, I'll explain what I feel is the cause of all this rudeness in profiles: entitlement.
Yes. That is the answer: entitlement.
There are too many 'basic' accounts (read; freebie) that have made a huge influx into SL. The vast majority of all SL residents are on basic accounts, and the primary reason is that Linden Lab doesn't provide any incentive to go premium. None whatsoever.
There also is some kind of weird culture coming from the international community. Since the SL account is free, everything else should be free. These are the ones that run around hunting the SL freebies. And if something isn't free, it should be. But, because it's not, they learn to beg and scam:
"can I have L$10 so I can buy a shirt that I want?"
The problem is these people all have a hugely selfish entitlement attitude. The world owes them everything whey want. It doesn't matter what effort you put into creating or otherwise providing it. This is the liberal utopian socialist attitude.
I have had people actually bitch me out because a freebie I (used to) offer didn't have the features as a similar product from another creator - which sold for L$450! Jeezuskryste!
Now, back to the unnamed notecards called "New Note": Are you so goddammed lazy you can't even at least name a new notecard that you send to people? If you are so lazy you can't immediately type the name of your notecard as soon as you create it, (the name of the notecard is already highlighted, ready for you to type in the new name the instant you create it,) then I am too damned lazy to read it. Especially when you don't include your name inside the damned thing. I don't have the time or inclination to locate the correct "New Note" notecard among the 20 I have in inventory to right-click it and select properties just to see who the lazy idiot is that created it.
No IM for YOU.
On top of that, IMs seem to cap a lot sooner than they have a year ago. It's as though the queue is shorter, less tolerant. I suspect that each conversation (individual IM from someone) shortens the queue exponentially. I don't know this, I just suspect it. Let's say each conversation that is started when you are off-line is allocated a specific amount of space - say 500 characters before it fills-up and is capped.
Now, suppose someone IMs you to say "Hello" - they discover you aren't on-line so that's where they leave it. Not only is it irritating, but suppose the full 500 allocated characters remain reserved for that conversation. You get ten such IMs. All IMs become capped.
Thusly this: besides the irritating factor, I do request you at least use IMs properly. Rather than doing this:
Hello? {enter key] (User offline, message saved)Okay, ummm... I get IMs in email when I'm offline. Even when I'm online, I am usually in three or four or sometimes as many as 15 or 20 IMs all at once. If you want faster service from me, simply type out the entire message and description before you press enter for the first time:
I bought such-and-such and I have a problem {enter key] (User offline, message saved)
Okay, I'll IM you when you are online again {enter key] (User offline, message saved)
"I have a problem with the product I bought from you today. it seems when I click on it nothing happens. I am in script-allowed land and I think it needs to be reset or something. it's giving an error called 'stack-heap' something. I appreciate your help! {enter key] (User offline, message saved)There. One message, message received. Even if my IMs are capped, when I get it in email, I will reply and advise you on what I can and will do. Sometimes, depending on the situation, I will even pop in-world to help if it's something quick and dirty.
Warning (for myself, anyway): when IMs get capped and stop coming through on the in-world queue, so do object drops. I mean to say that the objects do not appear in inventory.
They literally go into digital oblivion.
It is why I have since learnt (the hard way) to never, ever make offline purchases through On Rez or SL Exchange to myself when I am offline. I can't count how many times the item was 'delivered' - reported to me and the seller as delivered and simply was not there - anywhere - in inventory when I logged-in.
So, as for my profile being rude: I apologize. However, at least in my case (I can only speak for myself, no one else, I set these rules so I can communicate with you.
Of course, the problem is too many people are so goddammed lazy they don't even read what it says there before they start dumping "New Note" notecards on my profile with no IM warning and bitch and piss and moan how rude and uncaring I am that I never respond.
Go figure.
What does your profile say?
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Socially Disgraceful
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