The one word IM...

Hi all...

You know... there's like eight or nine unfinished posts associated with this blog... I start writing them and get sidetracked... or don't feel I can continue and actually publish my thoughts; but this is one I actually intend to get on out there. Maybe I shouldn't because its a highly personal opinion that some may be offended by, but its been something playing on my mind for a while...

I own a business in SL... a little hair place that if you're reading this I'm sure you know about... and naturally I get customer IMs for various things - missed deliveries, inquiries of various sorts... that sort of thing... I also get a hell of a lot of IMs that run along this line...

"hello"

That's the complete communication... really... that's everything. In fact I'd go so far as to say I get as many of these as I do content-containing messages from people I don't know.

Naturally, I've gone to a lot of effort to chase these people up and find out what they want - I want to give a good impression of customer service (even if there's actually little I can do about certain problems), and am a little subservient at the best of times, and like to avoid ill-feeling and conflict...

One would assume that maybe its people who are not overly au fait with business dealings in SL - the new users, or the casuals; but this is very rarely the case. Most new users who approach me with questions or comments tend to be essay-writers - going into depth about what's up, what they want or whathaveyou. I very rarely have to chase anyone less than 100 days old in-world.

What I have observed, with very few exceptions... in fact I can only think of one off the top of my head; is that the use of an unsubstantiated 'hello' as an opener is little more than a powerplay. It is designed to throw the ball into the recipient's court so they are obliged to chase the original sender to discover what's up... It automatically puts them on the back foot.

I check the profiles of ALL people who open comms in this way; and from what I've observed, they more often than not state in their profiles that they are naturally dominant, have SL slaves, or SL families in which they are a parent. Presumably this means that they're used to being in control in all their SL dealings and possibly get some sense of self-validation from the merchant having to chase them.

Even so, IM chains that begin with an unsubstantiated 'hello' require more effort to resolve and take longer - often becoming drawn out over two or three days as before I or any merchant can action a solution, we have to go through the steps of chasing the person to actually get a jist of what's the matter. Naturally this reflects on the "speed of customer service" so not only do I feel its taken more of my time than it should, the person at the other end is likely to be less satisfied with the outcome because its taken so much longer to resolve... While I can turn around a "missed delivery" IM in 30 seconds or less without another word, when I have to chase someone about what's the matter, I'm usually adding another day or two to the cycle... sometimes longer if they're a weekend only player and IM me on a Sunday night.

I honestly wish it wasn't quite so obvious, and I know its probably a very bad idea to judge people based on the use of five simple letters in an IM - but I've dealt with around six hundred of these over my time in SL, and I have some innate ability when it comes to pattern spotting and trend analysis.

Now... I'm never going to be one to deliberately ignore IMs - the impetus to chase them for me is too high - but when I go into a situation like this, I'm instantly mistrustful of the person at the other end's motives...

What was so secret that they couldn't come out and tell me directly? In fact, if they spent their time looking up my information to send me the 'hello' in the first place, wouldn't have been more time efficient for both them AND me to just say 'hello - I bought x from you and it didn't arive' or 'hello - I was wondering if you're doing custom work' or ' hello - I have a mall in an RP sim that I was wondering if you'd like a booth at' or whatever, rather than let it hang on a greeting and a long and awkward silence because, of course, the 'hello' IMs always seem to arrive in the wee small hours (local time) when I'm asleep and actually AFK, so by the time I do get to replying, they sender is offline instead.

*breathes*

OK... apologies. I'm going to shut up whining and cut the ranting now. I guess, to cut a long story short, what I'm saying is that I wish people would just come clean and tell me what they want when they get in touch with me... or ANY designer for that matter. This is a regular bugbear from what I've observed on Plurk, in forums and from personal communications with a number of builders, pose and clothing makers, artists and so on in pretty much any area of SL. Some designers and store owners choose not to respond and that's their perogative. I can't see myself doing that, but it seems ironic to me in a world where everything is based on communication, that people choose NOT to when looking for help...

Just saying... oh... and 'hello'

Kalli