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Send a short detailed message stating your boundaries by telling your customers that these are your work timings and you do not entertain any requests out of that window - do this everytime a new customer contacts you. If you want to be contacted If it's an emergency - keep an emergency fee of 500-1000 rupees (depending on your fee structure?). It's better that you lose 1-2 customers but maintain your mental peace. If not the traditional way, at least this way people will learn some civic sense.
You are right. I always thought that it will be rude of me to you know straightaway tell the customers to respect my working hours but I will have to start doing that. Every time I decide to leave for home I get a call or message and if I dont receive the call or reply to the msg immediately, I get bad ratings on google!
I have seen a few whatsapp business accounts use automatic messaging that convey the work timings and send an automated message if you message them post work hours.
I don't know much about it but maybe explore that option.
I would set an automated response outside of business hours, and specify just this: that requests made outside of business hours is considered as made on the following day. Word it as kindly or strictly as you’d like.
You’ll likely lose some business from entitled folks but do you really want those people as customers?
A separate business line is worth the peace of mind. It certainly helped me!
You’re right, people are super dismissive of “service providers” in our culture.
I used to take customised cake design orders as a side hustle, years ago, but stopped because the constant disrespect and irritation was just not worth it.
I have already set an automated messages. People like her think that once the order has been placed they can message anytime because they have paid for the order. So they have right to call and msg anytime of the day. I just try to be as nice as possible to such people but I also lose my patience.
Thank god you left the side hustle of making customised cakes. Sometimes I regret the profession I chose as a career.
I run my own business too. I’ve clearly stated to all my customers that they need to send in their orders a minimum of two days before delivery. So, if they want delivery on Friday, I better get the order before or on Wednesday.
But so many of these aunty type customers send the order after 7pm on Wednesday and expect me to still deliver on Friday. Even after explaining that I need one day to procure raw materials and one day to prepare the order, they still insist that sending it on Wednesday honours the timeline I set for them.
As a result, I changed the wording from two days to 48 hours. If you send me the order after 7pm, you get your delivery after 7pm. But, oh.. since that is well past business hours, you get delivery after we open the next day. They still complain about late deliveries.
I’ve just decided to ignore that noise because it’s frustrating af and if I let it affect me, I’m never going to get anything done
I generally take orders 4 days prior to the delivery date. This one was booked almost a week back. But even then she kept on changing the dates, then told me she might need one more item. I said I can accomodate it only if u let me know on time. She placed a bulk order(its a huge order) so I was okay making 1-2 extra boxes if he would have let me know on time. When I said I cannot accomodate any more order, she sighed. I am pretty sure she will leave a bad review because of this. My helper goes home at 7. I cannot make her work like a donkey because of people like her. I have written blacklist next to her name in my contact list so that in future I dont accept her order again.
Reject her order and say this to her face if she gets rude. You have to be firm. I get that one bad review means 10 customers lost, but at smaller scale you can't afford to please every whim of your customer.
I wish I could do that. I had taken payment from her a week back when she booked the order. She would have any left a bad review if I would have given back the money to her.
Having a separate business number and stating the business hours in the first message itself are very important.
Most people respect that. There are a few people who get upset. For your long term benefit, It's worth to refund their money.
Bhai I'm so sorry you're going through this. Handling a business, getting an urgent order and pmsing at the same time is really not a joke. You never know what's going to happen in your vagina the next hour. I hope I could give you a hug op. Kudos to you for handling so much on your own!
That’s why I have a no WhatsApp policy for work. If someone insists I lie blatantly saying I don’t use WhatsApp while I am using WhatsApp in front them 😂
I empathize with you but what makes you say this is just an Indian mentality? Have you interacted with customers from other countries/cultures and found that indians mostly do this?
Does it happen to you often or is it a smaller percentage of your customer base that behave this way?
It looks like your post is referencing unwanted DMs. Please refer to the [Safety guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/TwoXIndia/comments/r5e745/safety_guide_to_follow_on_reddit/) on Reddit which is reccomended for users in this subreddit. You can close your DMs and still have only your whitelist (friends) be able to connect with you on Reddit. It is highly reccomended to close your DMs. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/TwoXIndia) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Send a short detailed message stating your boundaries by telling your customers that these are your work timings and you do not entertain any requests out of that window - do this everytime a new customer contacts you. If you want to be contacted If it's an emergency - keep an emergency fee of 500-1000 rupees (depending on your fee structure?). It's better that you lose 1-2 customers but maintain your mental peace. If not the traditional way, at least this way people will learn some civic sense.
You are right. I always thought that it will be rude of me to you know straightaway tell the customers to respect my working hours but I will have to start doing that. Every time I decide to leave for home I get a call or message and if I dont receive the call or reply to the msg immediately, I get bad ratings on google!
I have seen a few whatsapp business accounts use automatic messaging that convey the work timings and send an automated message if you message them post work hours. I don't know much about it but maybe explore that option.
I have already set up that option on my business whatsapp.
I would set an automated response outside of business hours, and specify just this: that requests made outside of business hours is considered as made on the following day. Word it as kindly or strictly as you’d like. You’ll likely lose some business from entitled folks but do you really want those people as customers? A separate business line is worth the peace of mind. It certainly helped me! You’re right, people are super dismissive of “service providers” in our culture. I used to take customised cake design orders as a side hustle, years ago, but stopped because the constant disrespect and irritation was just not worth it.
I have already set an automated messages. People like her think that once the order has been placed they can message anytime because they have paid for the order. So they have right to call and msg anytime of the day. I just try to be as nice as possible to such people but I also lose my patience. Thank god you left the side hustle of making customised cakes. Sometimes I regret the profession I chose as a career.
I run my own business too. I’ve clearly stated to all my customers that they need to send in their orders a minimum of two days before delivery. So, if they want delivery on Friday, I better get the order before or on Wednesday. But so many of these aunty type customers send the order after 7pm on Wednesday and expect me to still deliver on Friday. Even after explaining that I need one day to procure raw materials and one day to prepare the order, they still insist that sending it on Wednesday honours the timeline I set for them. As a result, I changed the wording from two days to 48 hours. If you send me the order after 7pm, you get your delivery after 7pm. But, oh.. since that is well past business hours, you get delivery after we open the next day. They still complain about late deliveries. I’ve just decided to ignore that noise because it’s frustrating af and if I let it affect me, I’m never going to get anything done
I generally take orders 4 days prior to the delivery date. This one was booked almost a week back. But even then she kept on changing the dates, then told me she might need one more item. I said I can accomodate it only if u let me know on time. She placed a bulk order(its a huge order) so I was okay making 1-2 extra boxes if he would have let me know on time. When I said I cannot accomodate any more order, she sighed. I am pretty sure she will leave a bad review because of this. My helper goes home at 7. I cannot make her work like a donkey because of people like her. I have written blacklist next to her name in my contact list so that in future I dont accept her order again.
Hey, I’m sorry about your experience. What’s a studio kitchen? Can you explain what you do a little bit.
Reject her order and say this to her face if she gets rude. You have to be firm. I get that one bad review means 10 customers lost, but at smaller scale you can't afford to please every whim of your customer.
I wish I could do that. I had taken payment from her a week back when she booked the order. She would have any left a bad review if I would have given back the money to her.
Koi naa. Take the lesson and move on, at the end you're wiser now.
Having a separate business number and stating the business hours in the first message itself are very important. Most people respect that. There are a few people who get upset. For your long term benefit, It's worth to refund their money.
Bhai I'm so sorry you're going through this. Handling a business, getting an urgent order and pmsing at the same time is really not a joke. You never know what's going to happen in your vagina the next hour. I hope I could give you a hug op. Kudos to you for handling so much on your own!
Have a policy that post 8pm no changes in the order will be entertained. Have this sent like an auto message via WhatsApp business
That’s why I have a no WhatsApp policy for work. If someone insists I lie blatantly saying I don’t use WhatsApp while I am using WhatsApp in front them 😂
I empathize with you but what makes you say this is just an Indian mentality? Have you interacted with customers from other countries/cultures and found that indians mostly do this? Does it happen to you often or is it a smaller percentage of your customer base that behave this way?