Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by cldrope 5118 days ago
Thank you for using the word human.

I'm all about the "Don't kiss others' booties on the off chance that it will come back to you" because if you're doing it for that reason, you're doing it wrong.

Just treat people well, take everything one step at a time, and look at it from their vantage point. These things in mind and everyone will walk away from the table happy the majority of the time.

If your customer service reps are trained, mature and willing then there's no difference between the experience with them and you.
1 comments
cheatercheater 5117 days ago
> Just treat people well, take everything one step at a time

You can only take so many steps each day. Forfeit too many steps for some guy who won't pay off and you lose out.

link
cldrope 5117 days ago
Sometimes I wonder what it's like to pretend that you aren't affected by the mannerisms and maturity of all living human beings. To believe that there's a good rationalization to finding a short cutoff of helping people.

This article's true evil is this: He puts helping the guy with a technical problem as a favor, not as a simple kind duty.

We don't want to spend everyday as tech support, that's reasonable. But if people were better educated instead of taken care of, perhaps they wouldn't need as much.

link
cheatercheater 5116 days ago
The "duty as favor" part of your comment was very insightful. This is a recurring theme in all actions that ultimately cost the person performing them without foreseeable payback. This is, in my experience, displayed by people with shaky moral fundament and questionable values. There's always speak of how e.g. "white lists", the inclusion in which is awarded to persons or companies that act correctly, is detrimental - because they should not be handling incorrectly in the first place, and being normal should not be incentivized.

However, when you're running a business, especially during its infancy, your values need to be questionable and questioned in order for your approach to adapt to the environment. Following questionable values in this case is not only admissible but even required, and you'll need to reinvent yourself quite often. There is no "normal" when you're trying to break the mould.

Definite upvote from me for bringing this up.

link