Why You Shouldn’t Smile Too Often
By Riverwind | November 10, 2008
Every customer service or sales book has literally mentioned that you should keep smiling despite the odds. Smile when you have a good or bad day. Smile even if the world crashes down on you. In everybody’s subconscious we all want to be smiling always, but in reality, life is not so simple exactly. People forgot how to smile naturally.
In pursuit of monetary or power accomplishments, if you’ve observed carefully, you will notice a lot of people around you are smiling when they have no answers to a specific situation or simply, the wish to avoid answering due to reasons such as lack of knowledge, cover ups, privacy etc.
There are people who literally use smiles to show others that they are confident, unaffected after a conflict or confrontation. Some conceal their anger by using smiles. Some kept smiling because it seems smiling people are on top of situations. Some smile because they don’t have a clue.
If you observe carefully, you could really tell a genuine smile apart from a fake. Just like watching a movie, look out for the speech, lips and especially the eyes. The Chinese has a interesting way of putting it as the art of “Using a smile to direct sarcasm or nasty intention”. There is standard solution, but the best way is treat the person seriously with all due respect, ask him about the meaning of his words, give answers where necessary, apologize if it is your fault. DO NOT return the smile to preserve your pride (otherwise you will be stooping to his level), understanding the situation helps to preserve the relationship.
So now, does a smile mean a person is happy? The answer is a big fat NO. A smile can be devious or an early warning about the credibility of a person.
Whenever you spot a person who is always smiling DO NOT take it that they are allies YET. In fact, you should proceed with caution with any business venture or deal. Chances are you will have longer lasting relationships with friends or clients of whom you can tell their serious and fun side. If it’s just the fun, then be careful.
A person who continues to smile at you after a confrontation is a master of disguise, DO NOT mistake a smiling person has no pride but rather a person who continues to smile at you AFTER a conflict has more pride then an average person! They use another layer to conceal their angry/ hurt feelings. For fear of other outcomes which may disadvantage them, they continue to smile without SOLVING any real problem. “Smilers” often think of smiles as omni powerful and the first tool of diplomacy. Therefore, smilers are also manipulators by nature. Overusing it has its distinct disadvantages.
These “Smilers” basically aim to please to compensate for their lack of knowledge in other areas; acceptance by others is a core truth in their lives. Afterall, a smiler will require a huge amount of respect from others. Any lesser will throw them into the dark depths of insecurity and self worth. In many situations, you will find that a smiler is also a person who cannot handle serious situations (or give serious answers), they could be either very strong OR very weak in personality, but both drawing power by smiling it off. The smiler’s ultimate aim is sometimes to throw you off by “smiling” the upper hand, but it could be them foolin’ themselves BECAUSE they still don’t get the problem SOLVED. Therefore, employers too, never hire a smiler, it could kill.
The Nuclear warrior learns that every relationship is different and develops real long lasting relationships by integrity, honesty and wisdom. Business is for serious people making serious decisions.
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Private No. To Be Or Not To Be
By Riverwind | August 14, 2007
Your phone rings and after some scuffle in your trouser pocket, the call ended the moment you were just about to pick it up. You checked the last call on your phone, only to find that it is a private number. That’s it, no damn way to call back.The Nuclear warrior will never use a private number, unless absolutely necessary. Keeping your number secret tells a lot about your personality and modus operandi , especially when you are dealing with clients. A Nuclear warrior must always understand that not all clients are vocal. They may not like it, but that doesn’t mean they’ll ask you about anything that they don’t understand about you. In short, don’t worry about those who asked you, worry about those who don’t.
For private number callers, here’s a piece of advice. Do leave a voice mail or SMS or else hold your peace. Never accuse the innocent about not returning your calls. To further elaborate, why do they like private numbers?
1) Operation prank calling. This group aim to disrupt your normal activities by posing as customers that are unusually persistent, inquisitive and impatient. Don’t fear them, answer all their questions with tact, intelligence and poise, give them all they need to know and you’ll be surprised, they will back off. Never get into a fight with them because this is one of their objectives.
2) Gathering intelligence. This group gathers intelligence and is usually of the same trade as you. They want to know why you are successful, why your products are hot and of course, learn something from you so they can better theirs. In short, they want to learn a free lesson from you. My advice is don’t judge, even if you already suspect foul play, treat them like what you’ll do for your customer!. Convert them with enthusiasm. Yes, you may be wrong as some highly knowledgeable customers are often mistaken for your competitors. Never ever, over react.
3) Debt Collectors. This group can be complicated. They usually represent their clients, but when they do the calling, they will rarely use their real company name for better impact. Ask them upfront about their identity. Yes, it is perfectly legal to ask your caller to identify themselves until you are satisfied with the answers. Primary reasons for using a private line are mainly to prevent customer backlash, as practices differ amongst them. Shall you feel threatened, don’t hesitate to call the Police.
Now for the truth and conclusion. I will never give priority to pick up calls which is private because any self respecting caller should know the basic manners of identifying oneself first and letting people have the freedom to decide whether to pick it up. And private number callers will always feel edgy when someone don’t pick up their calls, some think they are “the watchdog” of some kind of syndrome “if you scared to pick up then you owe people money is it” but let me correct this thinking.
Firstly, find me a person who doesn’t have debt. Secondly, private number owners are usually insecure and defensive bunch; they hide under the guise of a private number so that they could get away with something. Remember, I said something. That something could be different from person to person.
The Nuclear warrior convenience other callers by calling responsibly and with your numbers people can save it easily to their hand phone. Nobody in the right mind will seriously call you all day. In addition, you save money! Why? Cos you make less outgoing calls to remind others your number and you don’t pay telco for any private line service. Last but not least, more people will like you!
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SMS- A Brave New World
By Riverwind | August 7, 2007
SMS is a very common thing in this modern world. It has some obvious advantages. For example,
1) When you don’t want to disturb another at an inconvenient time, usually good for after office hours.
2) When you know you are late.
3) To avoid direct confrontation or a discreet request to be made.
4) To whisper sweet nothings to your romantic one.
5) To make excuses in text you wouldn’t sound like it in real life.
6) To spam others with festive greetings.
Though SMS is pretty common, it could be a brave new world for our respectful seniors, elders, clients, family for example;
1) Client calls you back and asks you “ya? You looking for me? what’s it regarding? ” It’s funny because the SMS already SAID what you need to say, when you expect a return SMS, he gives you a phone call back to ask you a question about your answer. No wonder the telcos are prosperous!
PS: If your client don’t understand English then CIA must be wrong as our literacy rate is among the highest in the world.
To call it ironic, the client may not pick up your call if it is after some bad news you sent via SMS.
2) Some clients do get agitated over SMSes that they will say “Don’t use SMS lah, I no time to read, you want call better”. My analysis is that if you got no time to read, how to have time to talk?. SMS is supposed to be short and informative, period. Businessmen should be flexible and learn new communication, such as video calls.
3) There is the big boss syndrome in SMS, whenever you sms him, you actually get a reply from his secretary or assistant mobile. If you are like that, please put a DON’T SMS ME in your name card so others won’t waste money messaging you, after all it is a message directed to you in personal, unless you want your client/ supplier to mistake you for arrogance or whatever you wouldn’t like others labeling you as.
4) There’s the busy bee boss, whose HP will ring once in 15 minutes. Not only it is hard to have a meeting, it is usually disruptive. That’s the primary signal that this boss is under staffed, unable to delegate etc etc. Never send SMS to these type of people.
Remember, the Nuclear warrior is flexible and is always the frontier of the brave new world. SMS, MMS, Video Call? No problem mate!
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