I'm a nice guy. Sometimes people think I'm a little bit too nice.
My old Cinemaware boss, Bob Jacob, thought I was way too accommodating. He wanted me to be tough-as-nails but that's just not my personality, especially when it comes to dealing with customers.
It was a Tuesday night and we were trying to get out of the office so we could drive to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Bob was in a big hurry and he wasn't happy when a customer called and I stopped to answer the phone.
The customer had just read a magazine article about our new game "Rocket Ranger" and he was super excited until he found out that the game would require 512K of RAM. His Amiga only had 256K and he was PISSED.
While Bob grew more and more impatient I politely tried to explain that "Rocket Ranger" was a large and complex game and it was impossible to get it to work in 256K, but it was clear that I was getting nowhere with this guy.
After several minutes Bob started tapping on his watch and he hissed, "John, this guy is a jerk. Come on! Hang up the damn phone. We have to GO!"
So Bob is hissing in one ear, the irate customer is yelling in my other ear (telling me he is NEVER going to buy another one of our games, he is the President of a huge User Group and they are going to BOYCOTT Cinemaware!). I'm trying to tell this guy that we attempted to make it work in 256K and then, all of a sudden, he just hangs up on me!
Now, I almost NEVER get angry, but when I do it occasionally explodes out of me.
"!%$* YOU!!!!" I shouted, and I slammed the phone down.
When I looked up, I swear Bob had a little tear in his eye. He said, "John... I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!"
I never had the courage to tell him the customer had already hung up the phone...
My old Cinemaware boss, Bob Jacob, thought I was way too accommodating. He wanted me to be tough-as-nails but that's just not my personality, especially when it comes to dealing with customers.
It was a Tuesday night and we were trying to get out of the office so we could drive to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Bob was in a big hurry and he wasn't happy when a customer called and I stopped to answer the phone.
The customer had just read a magazine article about our new game "Rocket Ranger" and he was super excited until he found out that the game would require 512K of RAM. His Amiga only had 256K and he was PISSED.
While Bob grew more and more impatient I politely tried to explain that "Rocket Ranger" was a large and complex game and it was impossible to get it to work in 256K, but it was clear that I was getting nowhere with this guy.
After several minutes Bob started tapping on his watch and he hissed, "John, this guy is a jerk. Come on! Hang up the damn phone. We have to GO!"
So Bob is hissing in one ear, the irate customer is yelling in my other ear (telling me he is NEVER going to buy another one of our games, he is the President of a huge User Group and they are going to BOYCOTT Cinemaware!). I'm trying to tell this guy that we attempted to make it work in 256K and then, all of a sudden, he just hangs up on me!
Now, I almost NEVER get angry, but when I do it occasionally explodes out of me.
"!%$* YOU!!!!" I shouted, and I slammed the phone down.
When I looked up, I swear Bob had a little tear in his eye. He said, "John... I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!"
I never had the courage to tell him the customer had already hung up the phone...
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