How in the WORLD do Clients come up with these phrases???

This, for me, has to be the weirdest YET as far as phrases that the Client uses!! I'm not talking about phrases that we, the shoppers, have to use as dictated by the Client....those are bad enough!! Yesterday, I did two phone shops for Maritz that involve a large, well-known carrier. In the instructions, and on the survey (thank goodness the shopper doesn't have to use this phrase!!), was the phrase "PAIN POINTS"......pain points???? OUCH....what hurts??!! It had NOTHING to do with pain.......it was a phrase, as explained in parentheses right next to the phrase, meaning "hesitations"...as in, the shopper has to present 3 "pain points" (hesitations)...and, did the associate attempt to counteract your "pain points"!! Oh my word!! I had to laugh when I read that!!! Why can't people just write and talk NORMALLY!!! How in the world is that phrase supposed to relate to ANYTHING??!! Oh well....it gave me a good chuckle....I got the shops done....with a bonus for each one.

Any of my fellow shoppers out there ever come across weird phrases like that in your shops??

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None of the associates I talked to actually used the word "pain points", but they are supposed to ask you what problems you have had, or what you don't like about your current carrier. If they do, they get credit for the "pain points" question. I, too, was glad I was not expected to use that phrase during the interaction.

Pain points is used pretty commonly in my day job: we use it to describe areas in the customer experience with a computer program that slows them down or causes extra difficulty. For example if you have to fill out a screen with several irrelevant fields before moving on to the next screen, that would be a "pain point" that needs be addressed with a system change.

I guess the lesson here is that whatever seems weird and awkward to you, might be totally normal to someone else. If I were talking to a customer service person about a problem or an issue I had, I might refer to it as a "pain point" without even thinking about it.

Shopper in California's Bay Area

Ohhhhhhhhh... It is the ta in all problems.

The survey wants to know if the associate heard the real or underlying message and addressed it appropriately and without being yet another pita for the customer ... ?

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. - Lao-Tzu

Haha. I worked in a call center that was outsourced to AT&T for a hot minute. Call centers are notorious for their training jargon. We would have 5-minute break-out sessions, and our supervisors would shout these slogans, words, and phrases at us to try and get us pumped. They were written on white boards and posters all over the floor. Good times.

Administrative Manager for Shoppers' View
p: 800.264.5677 | e: christinew@shoppersview.com | w: www.shoppersview.com

Yes, but did they ever say, "I feel your pain"?

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. - Lao-Tzu

I found the shopper narratives for these jobs unnatural and drawn out with all the expected " ". I felt like I was performing a monolog.

"Pain points" is a well established jargon in marketing and business. What a salesperson needs to do is to move the customer from a pain point to a sweet spot.

I'm with the OP. why do we have metrics instead of graphs, and made up words for things that already have names? Why can't executives and supervisors speak the same English as the rest of us?

@Morledzep wrote:

I'm with the OP. why do we have metrics instead of graphs, and made up words for things that already have names? Why can't executives and supervisors speak the same English as the rest of us?

Because they need an excuse to pay market researchers.

@gotshops wrote:

"Pain points" is a well established jargon in marketing and business. What a salesperson needs to do is to move the customer from a pain point to a sweet spot.

I understand that these "phrases" may be used in the everyday world of corporate business. But for just us "common folk", why not just talk to us in our own language when writing up our instructions??? I have no issue with the Client sending down to their stores and employees/associates training and/or instructions to teach what "pain points" or whatever the "in" phrase is for the current time. But when giving us our instructions, just make it simple!!! KISS....."Keep it simple, stupid!"

On a similar note, my background is in nursing. So a few years ago, when it became popular to use the term "impacted", as in...."How has this choice impacted your life", or, "Have you been impacted by (this or that)?", honest-to-pete, all that came in my mind was that someone was constipated!! ha ha!!

Unique nomenclature is frequently used in most businesses.

I do use it everyday at the $13B global company that I work for, and most of our clients do too. It is more common than you think.

Chalk it up as knowledge that you learned today and that you can use going forward. Knowing the jargon may help you get jobs elsewhere someday.

I have a personal nickname from one of my Schedulers....she likes to call me her Intelligent creature...I always laugh, could be worse....never had anyone mention anything about pain, but i don't work for Martiz or MF.

Live consciously....

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/06/2017 07:53PM by Irene_L.A..

I see a shop where the instructions are to intercept the delivery truck. Can they be more specific !

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How in the WORLD do Clients come up with these phrases???

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