Three Thoughts on Why Ignorance is Bliss

Earlier this week for Tough Question Tuesday, I asked “Do You Take it Personally” if someone unsubscribes from your list or asks for a refund.

I confessed that now and then, it does bother me a little bit. After all, I’m human…but in the grand scheme of things, I let is slide. In fact, I completely ignore it most of the time.

How do I ignore it?

It’s simple. I do not receive either my unsubscribe notifications OR refund requests. No, it doesn’t mean that I ignore people on these occasions. Of course not! Instead, my VA receives them and takes care of any details that need attention.

This ignorance is bliss for me and here’s why:

1. One man’s trash is another Sweetie’s treasure: It’s no secret that we absolutely cannot please everyone, even though for some reason, many of us continue to try. I have carefully defined my own target market and prefer to attract a certain type of reader/customer. As long as I continue to satisfy those people, I am a happy camper.

You know, it’s really funny, but in a previous ebook project I was working on, we would get completely contradictory feedback from our customers. Most customers were very happy and said that our products were exactly as described and provided all the information they needed. Then a few people would complain that they were expecting something different and they didn’t feel we provided enough information.

Interesting how two different groups could see things so differently, hey? Of course, we did take the criticism seriously and tried more carefully spell out our offer so there would be no confusion…but ultimately we knew that our system was working well for the majority of our customers.

2. I pay attention to trends, rather than individual complaints: Just because my VA gets all the unsubscribe notifications, processes the refunds and deals with any complaints, doesn’t mean I’m completely unaware. She brings my attention to matters that need my attention and alerts me to any common themes among the constructive criticisms.

But the best thing is, she can take all the less-than-constructive criticisms and plain old attacks and put them where they belong - in the virtual trash which brings me to…

3. My days aren’t ruined because someone had to take their anger out on me: Like I said, we’re all human and if we said that none of this bothered us, we probably wouldn’t be complete honest. And even if it only bothers you for a little while, it takes you away from the focus of your tasks at hand. I don’t need that and you certainly don’t either.

EXTRA NOTE OF COMFORT: The bigger your list gets and the more you sell, the more unsubscribes and refunds you’re going to get. It’s just the nature of numbers, so if your requests seem to be rising as you’re pocketbook gets bigger, that’s not such a bad thing.