Yesterday I spent most of the day emailing back and forth with a new client who was extremely clueless. Actually, he was more than clueless. He did not know what he wanted, the terminology, or really anything more than the fact that he recorded 30+ songs. After I realized these back and forth emails were not going anywhere or accomplishing anything, except adding to my frustration and headache, I decided to call this new client.
I had to start from the very very beginning... I had to explain everything in detail, which I was not in the mood to do, but I did it with a smile. Since he could not see my smile over the phone, I made sure I was being overly courteous and kind. I made sure every few minutes to ask if he had any questions or needed me to slow down the flow of information I was filling his head with (not sure if a brain was in the head on the other end of the phone). You never know who someone knows, and you never want someone calling your boss and complaining about you.
The last question from this new client was about a pick-up date since he would be in Chicago on September 8th. I informed him that we do not ship from Chicago, so he would not be able to do a pick-up here. He revealed that the reason he would be in Chicago was to attend the White Sox game that evening. White Sox... now this was a subject I could talk about. Perhaps I just needed a good baseball conversation to better connect with this new client. Nope. When I told him that I was going to the game that night, and I have season tickets, he suggested that I should give him my tickets. He then said to me, since these were the company's tickets, I should give him the tickets. Now wait... these are my personal tickets. The company does not pay for them. So he decided a new approach: He told me (not asked) that I should sell him the tickets since his seats sucked and were in the nosebleed section. I said no. I told me a few more times that I should sell them to him. What a complete asshole this guy was.
And through all of this I not once blew up and told him to go f himself. I kept smiling and thought to myself that he is probably a lonely lonely person with no friends at all.
