Real character stories
Issue 6
A small person in a big city, a true recorder of ordinary life
Take a first-person perspective and take you into ordinary real life
People in this issue: Interior designer of a decoration company
The theme of this issue: Interior designer, should be to help customers achieve the dream home of the profession, but this interior designer netizen told me: "This industry, rotten."
To be honest, I was a little puzzled when I heard this, but then he told me about his experience and the two things he had encountered, and I had to agree with him.
At the end of my conversation with him, he said something that impressed me: "A group of people who only want to make money get together, and people who don't want to make money with a bad conscience are outliers and doomed to be expelled."
Tell his story in the first person:
I'm an interior designer, and when I applied to college to choose this major, to be honest I wasn't too interested in it.
Until my teacher told us, "Many interior designers end up being friends with their customers because you're the one who knows them best."
This sentence from the teacher made me have a strong interest in the interior design profession, after all, who does not want to get a job that can both support themselves and help others.
But it wasn't until I stepped into society and really entered the industry that I realized that teachers were either out of touch with society for too long, or simply comforting us.
Because of this work, not only did it not make me a friend of the customer, but it made me an enemy of them.
Before, I was always hesitant to tell my own experience, but the "dark" years for many years have been held in my heart, until I saw the narration of the sister-in-law, which also made me want to vomit.
The decoration industry, "cat greasy", which is full of deception, hoodwinking, in my opinion, really rotten.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="15" > full of "catty"</h1>
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="81" > industry</h1>
When I ignited my interest in this profession, I naturally began to study without sleeping, constantly delving into design software and excellent cases at home and abroad.
After graduation, I naturally joined a local Internet decoration company, and the fundamental reason why I chose this company was that I thought that since the Internet was used as a name, the natural price would be more transparent or more considerate of the needs of customers.
But when I joined the company, I found that the so-called "Internet" decoration is no different from the traditional decoration company, the only difference is that more of its customers are from online advertising.
This decoration company claims to be transparent in price and real materials in publicity, but when I joined the company, I found that this was not the case, compared to the price transparency and real materials, the company needed more development speed and operating income.
Perhaps I am too naïve, I always think that the criterion for judging the quality of an interior designer should be his insight and realization of customer needs, or his grasp of style and details.
But in practical work, it is not the design itself, but how much the customer's budget can be "talked about" by a person, and how to let the customer buy the ecological board at the price of solid wood.
To be honest, although I don't work long, my design ability, or ability to realize customer needs, is one of the best in the company.
But my salary is only about 5,000, which is much lower than those designs that have few design levels but have a good tongue, and some of them can even get nearly 30,000 salaries a month.
If you want a high salary, you need to "convert" the customer, try to get them to sign an all-inclusive contract, so that the company can make enough profits, and the design can naturally share a piece of the pie.
Although there is a full-time business in the company, in fact, everyone in the company, including the designers themselves, is a salesman, and the criterion for judging the ability of employees is also sales.
And when a company is sales-oriented, then nature will naturally be full of "cat greasy".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="85" > two things</h1>
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="86" > I remember vividly</h1>
Although the local Internet decoration company I worked in has always been known as its own decoration team and known as the decoration supervisor, in fact, the decoration team is found now, nothing more than a set of clothes.
And the decoration supervision, originally our own employees, naturally to our company itself, the purpose of supervision is not to find out the problems in the decoration, but to induce customers to sign a confirmation, cut off the possibility of customers to find the back account.
When I first entered the industry, to be honest, I couldn't accept this environment at all, but as the company criticized my performance again and again, and fell behind me several times, I was eventually assimilated by them.
Yes, I no longer delve into design, but began to delve into "words", I can also call the ecological board as joinery board, paint-free board, large core board, wood core board, until I find the kind that customers are not familiar with, and then quote a high price.
At that time, I even felt that I had done nothing wrong, and I always told myself that no matter which decoration company customers went to, they would encounter the same treatment, so instead of letting others earn money, it was better to earn it myself.
With this idea, in less than 3 months I was able to earn more than 10,000 a month, and later reached 20,000, and it turned out that conscience could really be bought, and the price of buying me was above average.
I live in happiness every day, customers are no longer friends in my eyes, but a golden mountain of shining light, and in my heart I even "despise" their ignorance.
If it weren't for those two things that happened later, I might still be living in this self-congratulatory pleasure and disdain.
01 A disgrace to a friend
Although I despise the ignorance of the customer, in fact, some customers are still more difficult, even if you use various professional terms to fool him, he can find the key.
Usually this kind of "difficult" customer will be unanimously considered "more things" in the company, but in the end, it is nothing more than that his money is not easy to earn, so it is not so much that the customer is "more", but that we are too "vicious".
The customer who changed me the most was an aunt, and usually the aunt was the last customer we wanted to deal with, because they tended to be more cautious and didn't make much money.
This aunt, but very easy to deal with, whether in design or construction, can be described as obedient to me, from her, I earned the highest commission in my life.
Interestingly, many customers don't know they've spent money wrongly, and they'll even convince themselves that their renovations are worth so much money, so we rarely have disputes.
Later, the aunt's toilet may have been leaked during waterproof construction, leaking downstairs, and when my aunt consulted me, I transferred it to my colleague who was specially responsible for after-sales.
Small problems, we generally will repair, but the problem of bathroom leakage, can be large or small, our after-sales colleagues, directly out of the confirmation, said that the need for aunt to bear the cost of maintenance.
My aunt didn't give up after talking to the company for too long, but my aunt sent me a message in which I only remembered one sentence:
"I trust you so much that I even think you're my friend."
02 The failure of loved ones
This text message from my aunt made me trance back to school, recalling my original intention of learning interior design, and now I can hardly say that I am still design, I think of myself as a salesman.
Although what my aunt said hurt me a little, it did not prevent me from continuing this work, for no other reason than to sell with words, it was really too easy for me to make money.
Money had blinded my conscience, and I soon told myself that wherever my aunt went, she was a "fat sheep to be slaughtered," at least in terms of design.
"I used my heart in design", this excuse has always allowed me to safely earn this "ill-gotten wealth", but I don't know that my aunt's words have planted a seed in my heart.
What really caused me to leave the company was my immediate boss, the "manager," who showed realities and reflected on me how far I had strayed.
The manager's biological brother, came to the company to customize a batch of furniture, I thought the manager would give a low price, but I did not expect, but the manager ordered me: "The quotation side over-quote 600, leave me 400 profits."
It was then that I knew what kind of company I was in, and what role I was playing, and my colleagues were used to it.
Some people even said, "Isn't that stupid if you don't pit acquaintances?" ”
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="99" > to the self</h1>
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="100" > "redemption"</h1>
Half of the acquaintance pit, relatives grand slam, this kind of behavior has always been disgraced by me, after all, "pit" strangers and "pit" relatives, the behavior has a completely different meaning.
The excuses I used to comfort myself were becoming more and more ineffective, and with each paycheck, I not only did not feel happy, but felt "guilty" instead.
Maybe it was my aunt's words that planted a seed in my heart, and the manager's actions made this seed take root and eventually forced me to quit my job.
Later, I went to several decoration companies, and there are indeed real materials, not shoddy, but the prices set by these companies, I think there is no price-performance ratio at all.
To be honest, I thought that in the condemnation of conscience, I might leave the industry, because of a design that was reluctant to sell, and few companies were willing to accept it.
Even if you reluctantly accept it, the salary given has nothing to do with the design level, and even if the design level continues to improve, you cannot get the salary you deserve.
What's more, when a group of people are deceiving their conscience through various excuses to "make money", a person who adheres to "conscience" will naturally be regarded as an outlier, and I will inevitably be excluded in these enterprises.
Eventually, I found my own path and became an independent designer, working in the form of recommendations, only responsible for design and supervision, although the income could not be compared to the time of sale.
But I actually became friends with the customer, and even, after the renovation, a customer invited me to stay for a day before him, when I asked him why:
He told me, "This is your masterpiece."
This netizen's experience reveals to us the real situation faced by interior designers, and also shows the way we choose two lifes.
Deceive yourself for various reasons so that you can find excuses to avoid the condemnation of your conscience and thus earn high profits, or follow the guidance of your conscience and find a better way of life.
Perhaps each of us will face this choice in life, and those who choose the former are just an ordinary person among all sentient beings, and those who choose the latter are the brave people among all sentient beings.
Any low-repurchase industry will try its best to squeeze out the full value of users, after all, in the low-repurchase industry, there are few "repeat customers", and even if it is recommended for new people, the value generated is not as high as the value of squeezing a person at one time.
Although the business model of the low repurchase industry has a certain existential significance, it does not mean that it is reasonable, for the service provider, he can raise the price, but should not deceive the customer in a deceptive way.
Many practitioners in the low-repurchase industry will always find various excuses to make themselves feel comfortable earning this money, and even make this money to relatives and friends.
But if you think about it, even the most flawless excuse can't really hide the condemnation of conscience.