No end to the achievements of former ITU man



wallpaper_tomb_ raider_legend_04_1680x1050, originally uploaded by Datamax.

Let it be known that justly famous former colleague Troels Folmann‘s Tomb Raider: Legend soundtrack just recieved a BAFTA award for original score. Troels, we never doubted you, and of course we are considering how to claim some of the credit :-). Some examples.

Communication: The act of asssuring a listener that the speaker would be harsh to other people

I find signalling (as in signalling theory) quite fascinating. Basically, individuals sometimes want to communicate their possession of a certain trait (in the broadest sense).

Anyway, the other day I called my bank to have my credit card re-activated (don’t ask).

I give my name, state the problem and ask the lady to fix things. She says “sure”, and then apparently remembers that there is a possible security issue. She then says (admittedly among other things): “Just to make absolutely sure you are who you say, let’s do a few check questions… Did you recently have an amount inserted by a ‘university’?”. “Oh yes, that’s correct”, I confirm. Duh! She was clearly torn between not wanting to offend (“I’m not sure you are who you say you are”) and not wanting me to think that she would let others call in and impersonate me. So the question came out as a weak compromise and she ran the checks not to actually make sure I was me, but to signal to me that she would not just let anyone call in and manage my bank affairs. Either way, it was kind of funny*.

* And reminded me of the Danish TV sketch where a hot female student is taking a chemistry exam. The examiner goes “Were you aware that Sulphuric Acid has the molecular formula H2SO4?”, to which the girl goes “Yes I was”, which utterly impresses the examiner: “Wow, that’s way beyond the curriculum!”.

If it’s a small thing: Lie through your teeth

I was shopping for shoes recently. The salesman told me that the pair I was examining needed a special treatment before being used. I asked him if he could perform this treatment for me before I left the store, if I chose them. “Of course”, he said without flinching.

“OK then”, I said, “I’ll take them”.

We go the counter and he looks in the back room for the shoe treatment agent (or whatever it was). He comes back out with an apologetic look and says “sorry, we didn’t have the agent after all”. “No big deal”, I say and buy the shoes.

Then last week I went shopping for a washing machine (the horror!). The salesman gives us a wonderful performance, elegantly geared towards steering us towards the most expensive of his machines. The whole thing is a combination of personal anecdotes and daring signals of personal integrity (he went as far as to question whether we should by a new one at all – we might have our old one repaired – it would be more environment friendly – I thought he was brilliant). Anyway, before we made up our minds about which machine to get, I ask him if we can get the machine within one or two days. “Of course”, he says, “they’re all in stock”.

So we go home and think and having made up our minds I call the salesman and tell him we want the expensive model. He says: “Excellent choice. Let me just confirm that we can get it to you right away and get back to you”. He calls back in 10 minutes to inform me that delivery will unfortunately take eight days because the supplier is out of stock. “OK“, I say, “just get it to us as soon as possible”.

Here’s the principle: As long as the customer is contemplating a purchase, tell him that any small request can be met, even if it’s untrue or you simply have no idea. Once the customer has made his choice, informing him that the small auxiliary promises unfortunately cannot be kept is very unlikely to make him change his mind about the purchase itself.