Purpose: Helping you retain your clients. You will retain if you are an angel, you will lose if you are devil. And there is no real devil or angel, you can either at the same time. Read on.
We generally have a perception that devils have little horns and angels have white feathered wings. I am also trying to get the same answers here.
I generally give this example to our sales team, account managers, project managers.
Real Story: It happened some 2 months back. I was traveling from our office to our client’s office in Salt Lake where we do SEO consultancy for large clients (Search Engine Optimization for better ranking). It is generally a 20 mins drive through Rajarhat road which is connected to the Airport. You generally get shuttles (people who are willing to give you a lift for a minimum amount). The rates in these routes are almost fixed. It generally costs me Rs xxx (I will reveal the exact amount after some time as the story is all about the exact amount).
I entered the taxi and was about to reach my destination, just before 2 stops, one fellow passenger asked the cabby to stop.
- There the main character gets down.
- He took a Rs 10 note and offered it to the cabby. Cabby said to the guy, kya yeha thak ka Rs 10 hai kya (Is the charge to this place Rs 10)?
- Since I was the only guy there and the question was not directed to me, I did not say anything (as I am fed up playing the good guy role for last few months, nobody wants a good guy).
- Cabby took 10 Rs, the guy goes and cabby starts again. 2 stops to my destination? Only I and Driver was left.
- Will I be called an angel or devil? It will all depend on the next two stops.
Devil: If the driver stops in between and asks anyone about the right price, he will come to know that it is Rs 15, not Rs 10. He will call me devil as I did not raise my voice for right (and also he is not aware that I am not going to cheat as I would be paying Rs 15 anyway). Even if I would have given Rs 15, he will always assume that I was to cheat but he caught me and thus I am paying Rs 15. I will remain a devil for him throughout.
Angel: Now if he doesn’t stop in between and when I get down, I hand over Rs 15 and tell him that the charge is Rs 15 not Rs 10, “Sir, please do charge Rs 15 now onwards”. He may consider me an angel as I did not cheat when I could have easily and also helped him learn from his mistakes.
Another scenario: Now if I would have raised the voice and said that the cost is Rs 15 at that time (when the other passenger was giving Rs 10), it would have created a tussle between me, cabby and the guy. It is cabby’s responsibility to know the right price (business rules: Know or learn from your mistakes) not my responsibility to correct the society.
Now my question is? Did I do anything right or wrong? I was silent till the last moment but still I could have been labeled a devil and an angel in one taxi. Whereas I travel daily as pure human being by paying the same amount.
I learned that being perceived right or wrong is also about timing. I work very honestly but if my boss only comes to my desk twice a day and finds me on my facebook, he is going to get me devil wrong. My dad visited our hotel only 5 time in 3 years span and surprisingly all five times all our roomies were sleeping including me (he came at different times too). He always feel that our friends don’t study they sleep throughout the day. He told many people :). Coming back to the point. Was I devil or angel?
Let’s take business communication. We have a client, Pune based, we worked really hard for him, we prepared a lot of documents for him and asked our team to arrange a meeting to discuss things. Since the project needs a push, client is also worried about our initiatives. Now if we mail the client first about the meeting, our efforts will be considered angel good but if he mails us first then all our efforts will be labeled “Worked under pressure”. The timing in communication does play a very important role. As in the same taxi, I was consider a devil and an angel based on 2 stops, similarly I will be considered an angel or a devil with this client based on who mails first.
There are perceptions and other things that contributes to a good vote or a bad vote but timing is also very crucial. As I mentioned in my facebook status that there is no good or bad life, only there are good and bad moments.
Moral of the story:
You can control a lot of develic and angelic work by playing right. Only God can judge people right without any additional information but people make judgment based on the information they collect (things they saw, heard, felt etc). A good person also needs to learn the art of sending right signals. You can watch all the daily Soaps that my wifey watches where a good person is always taken wrong based on what others saw (where as she was to do good). A good example that I remember, this soap star goes to prostitute hub to save her family and her fiance sees her and refuses to marry her considering her character to bad. Soaps will ultimately respect the good fellow but real life can be really painful. So better learn some art of sending right signals for good.
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