To begin with, a little about myself, so that it would be clear why I suddenly climbed into the department.
Initially a lawyer by training, for more than 12 years out of 15, he taught security and law enforcement officers to do their work without creating problems for themselves and others. Due to my health and interest in mobile technology, I am now engaged in mobile retail. He worked in several companies. The total experience of this kind of activity is 4 years.
This opus originated from a discussion on Twitter.
Evgeny Vildyaev wrote that he felt sorry for '… some people aged (60+), whom the children stupidly beat. Those. just too lazy to teach how to use smart '.
It should be remembered that by writing something on the Internet, you run the risk of being answered by the Pope, the President of the United States or Tim Cook, and personally. I'm exaggerating a little, but you can read my answer now.
I do not like one-sided positions, although they are convenient, so I want to consider the situation from both sides of the counter.
Elderly client. Those 60+, sometimes less
People want to be relevant and in demand, to be in the main stream of life. And the older we get, the harder it is to do it and the more we want it. We all see young men and women, discuss romances with a difference in age and people who are not dressed in their gray hair. “Not a girl anymore.”
We can treat this in different ways, but information technologies are the closing technologies of modern society. And people with life experience feel it, and much more acutely than we think. At the same time, people who really remain relevant are not chasing fashion. If there is no question of status and there is no information sphere, they can easily get by with a push-button dialer. As a last resort, there is a long-legged secretary who can do more than just bring coffee.
And what about those who are losing relevance, but want to preserve its feeling? There are two options. Write down the entire Internet in a notebook, bring the latest technologies to an understandable form and use a kind of translator, slowly, gradually learn. Or use a live translator. Sometimes the options are combined.
And it's good when you have something to broadcast. A person bought himself a smartphone or tablet, or he was made happy by children, for very different reasons. But the person took something and tries to use it.
Worse, when a person wants yet does not know what, but in fact not a thing, but some sensations.
Or, which is quite sad, when an old friend who had been using for ten years and in whom everything was clear stopped working.
Eugene reduces everything to the age of 60+, which is not entirely true. It can be 40+ or 50, it is not a question of age according to the passport. Unwillingness and organic inability to learn new things can arise at any age. The reasons are both fear and individual characteristics. If there are people, objectively, organically incapable of driving a car or flying an airplane, then what is surprising about those who cannot master a smartphone. It is bad if he wants or needs to work, but he cannot.
Another aspect of feeling needed is attention. The desire to listen, communicate. People have not only a need to be touched, but also a need to be listened to.
Children and those who are younger are more relevant, they have their own affairs, a different, faster rhythm, which those who have lost their relevance cannot keep track of. But what if the rhythm is fast?
This is a social analogue of a person who does not keep up with the crowd and, as a result, is trampled by the crowd.
This is a very big tragedy, and you feel sorry for people, and none of us is safe from the fact that sooner or later we will not catch up with the mainstream of society and not become socially unnecessary.
And no one is safe from the fact that we will be good heroes of this life and will not become poison and fear in the lives of other people, trying to maintain our relevance and relevance.
I know a good woman, she is over 70, she has a normal pension, a decent apartment and a desire to be young. She has become a nightmare of a cellular communication salon, because she can, having come to the salon, choose a phone for 2-4-6 hours or ask to sort out tariffs, settings. He can dump three dozen sim cards (!) And load the employee with a theme to find the right one. She does not want to change her sim, since she has contacts there. But she cannot be sold a contract or a phone, as this is a pretext for a scandal and 'what did you sell to me', with a call to the police, an ambulance and the threat of involving supervisory authorities.
The employees of the salon have experienced all this, even two times due to the ignorance of the newbies.
Horror and fury?
This fury has no one but a drug addict nephew and a daughter living in Australia. She is a former primary school teacher who raised half of the neighborhood she lives in, and a very good artist who stopped painting due to arthritis.
She has nothing to do in the empty walls of the house, and absolutely no one needs her.
It is horror and nightmare. And those awful sellers.
On the other hand, there is an 18-year-old girl student, a future literary critic, who became ill after four hours of communication, calling the police and accusations of using violence. I feel sorry for her too.
The other side of the counter.
Consultant.
In communication salons, sales offices, whatever you call it, very different people work.
Many people know their job, many do not. These are people of very different qualifications and capabilities.
And very often these are young people, sometimes very young, 20-25, sometimes even younger. A person over 30 working in a cabin is not a specialty, it is a comfortable life position, an alternate airfield, or someone who knows how to make a decent salary in this place.
They are relevant, modern and creative. There are exceptions in ballast rooms, but this is a separate story, not about technology, but about business.
But these young people have no life experience, no mental stability and no understanding of other people.
But they have service standards, sales scripts and the actual impossibility of refusing to communicate.
Trainers in training centers do not like this comparison very much, but selling is a form of prostitution, in fact, the consultant does not sell a product, but himself, his image, his knowledge, his ability to communicate, create (or use crafty language to reveal) a need, form a buyer in his head correct and necessary picture.
The difference between what this product costs on the Internet or with another form of competent purchase, and what the client buys in the salon, office, communication palace, is the cost of the seller's carcass (manager, consultant, specialist).
Coaches rightly dislike this comparison, as it is psychologically very difficult and inconvenient from the point of view of the company.
The consultant has a plan, has priorities and an understanding that every client can become a mega-sale. Even the same grandmother 'god's dandelion'.
A case from practice. Back when the 4S was relevant, but it was a minimal model. Two grandmothers enter the salon, dressed, to put it mildly, dumb. Bison sales are not suitable for them, not a lordly business, there are interns. Trainee girl and fit.
– Granddaughter, 4S is a good phone, does it take pictures well?
– Yes, of course, it has a modern camera that allows you to take high-quality pictures …
– My son said he was good – the second grandmother interrupts the flow.
– You see, we have a choir. – The girl freezes like a panther before jumping. – We are going to a festival in Prague, we want to take photos and shoot others.
– Yes, of course, this is very … – The trainee herself does not understand what he is carrying, the experienced ones move closer, realizing that something extraordinary is happening … – Here you can stick a protective film and set up the phone to immediately turn on and use it, insure the equipment in case of problems during a trip.
– Granddaughter, we have a choir, we are all pensioners, then we need to set it up, and that's it. We don't understand this.
– Yes, we will do everything. – The trainee understands that the prank was a success and maybe there will be a sale.
– It's difficult, it takes a long time to set up, then we'll come tomorrow. – The wall collapsed, and with it the trainee almost broke. – Now we will seal, and tomorrow we will take it. –
The heart returned to its rightful place and beat.
– One or two phones? – the intern and the bison-consultants were unanimous in the idea that the girl was carrying.
– You do not understand, granddaughter, as I say, we have a choir, we need 46 pieces.
Somewhere in the back room the manager of the salon nervously hiccuped, calculating how much was left to fulfill the plan on smartphones.
For such fantastic sales, consultants live. And everyone understands that by being distracted by the next 'can you set the time on my phone?', He is potentially missing out on such a sale. And how many of these 'sales' can he 'miss' by typing SMS with his grandfather?
The consultant cannot refuse to serve, Grandma is not a drunk, but a respected elderly person. Not coming up, even knowing that it will be a brain removal, and not a sale, also cannot.
Only strong nerves and such a thing as the price list for settings and the item in the price list 'Learning to use a mobile device' can save in such a situation. Not that anyone is against helping an elderly person. In 90 cases out of 100 they help and not even according to the price list, but realizing that the mothers themselves, grandparents themselves. But every person has a limit of strength during working hours, and good work and attention costs money. And even in a communications salon, people have the right to self-respect and specialization in their qualifications.
When a woman of about 40 wants this particular consultant to stick a film to her, she turned to him, or a man well over 50 regularly comes and has boring conversations in the last hour and a half or an hour of office work, what is it?
This is pure dominance and a desire to show your power. And this is how the consultant sees it.
A few words about children and why not at home.
Children are relevant, they do not see what the difficulty is for a parent. It’s like the regular comments on blogs and YouTube that there’s nothing to buy a ready-made computer if you can build it yourself better and cheaper. Generally true. Only you, fans of computer shooters, explain to me why you can't hit the target from 600 meters, 'is that elementary?' When we do something easily, because of our work we do not see what the problem might be.
The second aspect is pity. Mental discomfort from the understanding that such smart mum and dad did not know everything. The psyche puts a stop, and people do not even notice that parents need help in this matter.
In general, love your loved ones and take care of them while they are. Respect each other and remember: no technique, even the most expensive and modern, will make you better and more important, and no snobbery is needed. Maybe the secretary of the owner of a simple push-button handset is worth more than your fancy smartphone.
Evgeny Kotyay