The invisible client and service provider

（Edited by freelance Chinese translator li – English to Chinese translation or Chinese to English translation services）

Have you ever caught yourself trying to imagine how your contact person, may it be your client or your service provider, could look like. More like Shane McGowan or Johnny Depp, Janis Joplin or Kristin Kreuk? Have you ever met one of your clients or service providers in person to verify your assumption? If not, are you curious to know?

How has the cyber world changed our contact and our knowledge of whom you have contact with? Are there more pros or cons?To be honest, I don´t know. I have to admit that I´m not really interested in the outer appearance of someone else, which is undubiously because I´m blind.

My contemplations about the pros and cons:Pros: I´m more that punker, metal kind of guy, but who knows and who bothers? I have long hair, a pearcing, an ear ring, tattoos and I mostly wear torn clothes and t-shirt with provocative sayings. Nobody knows and nobody even thinks about it. What do they see? They have nice contact via e-mail or phone. They read what I write and hear what say and in what voice. Probably they think I´m a business-man-like bloke, short hair cut and accurately dressed. They have no idea that I sometimes sit there in my pyjamas, as I work from home, talking to them on the phone about the next project. No prejudices because of my appearance, no prejudices due to the fact that I´m blind, nothing but the truth of my messages. Of course, with time comes more information and at some point in time they will be told that I´m blind but the fist impression is my work and my quality. I´m good at writing serious and business-like e-mails with that touch of ease so welcoming in the english-speaking world. I´m good at talking on the phone. So, this is, at least for me, a definite pro and maybe for some of you too. It is also fast, direct, precise (in the best cases, not always admittedly) and you get your work just sent with it. It is a great opportunity to draw work, acquire new customers, search for service providers and you don´t lose time leaving your workplace. Definately a pro I guess.

Let´s head for the cons:You never really meet your contact partner, you never shake hands and you never sit down face-to-face and drink a coffee or something else. You never look each other into the eyes and know what he or she is thinking. Can be a pro too I think... That is, at the moment of writing this article, the only con I can think of. If there are others, I forgot to mention, please tell me. Also if there are more cons, I´m curious of what you say about it.Great opportunities with just a bit to sacrifise, IT has made many things easier, faster and overall more advantageous. Give mails and phones a chance and embrace them, they are your friends.

(by Rene Kottke)