Jean spent the morning learning about billing structures and sales techniques. Though there really wasn't much technique needed. Most people had already decided to become Experiencers when they walked in the door. It was up the the Experience Expert to go over the process and answer any questions. The three billing levels were easy enough to understand, and Gloria stressed again that most people do not choose the most expensive one and that you as an Experience Expert were not required to try and upsell anyone to that plan. In fact if someone did choose it you had to go over all of the potential side effects and why you did not recommend it.
"Why is it an option if we don't recommend it and actually seem to actively discourage it? Why not just not offer that level at all?"
"It's actually a safety precaution. There are people out there that will over use the service. You can't completely prevent everyone from choosing that level but by making it very expensive and really emphasizing the potential complications we do prevent quite a few."
"But couldn't we just put a policy in place that limited the number of experiences you could have in one month?"
"They tried that but Experiencers were using multiple locations to get around the limits. Which meant that the Experience Experts they were dealing with had no way of knowing if this was their first experience of the month or their 20th. It was..." Gloria glanced away from Jean and looked around the room as if the word she was looking for would be written on one of the walls. "...it was not optimal."
"Can't they still use multiple locations like that?"
"Not with Memory Lane. We've location locked users as well as encoding all usage information on their membership cards. We not only tie them to one location we try to make sure they work with the same Expert as well. Consistency is important for our monthly users. We need to be able to recognize any potential problems quickly. So the only way to get around the system would be to have memberships at multiple companies. Which I guess someone could do, but we like to think that once you try Memory Lane you would never be happy with another company."
Jean made a few notes in her training materials. She thought it might be a good idea to do some research in to other companies and what their practices were.
"Okay, are you ready for the lab? You'll be trained as both an Experience Expert and a Donation Expert. Most of us work both sides of the house, so to speak, it helps break up any potential boredom. But there are people who much prefer one side or the other and we accommodate that as well. So if you find that you really only want to work Donations or only want to work Experiences just let someone know. Though to be perfectly honest, there is more chance for advancement in the company if you are adept at both."
Gloria led the way from the catalog rooms, through the Experience Areas, through the employee only areas and then in to the labs. "You can see that though everything is in one location we keep the Experience and Donation areas quite separate. They even have their own entrances. It would be a little awkward for an Experiencer to run into their Donor at the door, right?"
Jean looked around the lab. While the experience areas were done in bright colors and had almost a cozy feeling the lab was all bright whites and clean lines.
"This is the hub. Our Donation Experts check in here and get the information forms that the potential donors filled out online before coming in."
"I did have a question before we go further. Donations?"
Gloria smiled, "Yes, I know. It's not really a donation per say. They are paid for their services. There were studies done that showed people were more comfortable with the whole industry if we used words like 'Donation' and 'Experience' every industry has their own language right? You'll get used to pretty quickly. Here." Gloria handed Jean a large stack of papers.
"This is all of the information that the donor will have read online before they come in. Or at least what they were supposed to have read. You will be surprised the number of people who just skip to the last page and click yes. One of your most important jobs as a Donation Expert is to make sure they've actually gone over all of the paperwork and are well aware of any potential side effects."
"How common are the side effects? I saw the list in my manual but it didn't really say how often each one happens."
"Almost every donor gets at least one side effect, usually just some fatigue. But the more severe ones are pretty rare. At least for the superficial donors, which is the majority of our clientele. Part of your job when you go over their paperwork is to talk about the potential for more severe side effects while also reassuring them that they rarely happen. The most common cloning error is when the base is corrupted and they lose the original file. When that happens we just give them their own experience back, but without all of the lecture about it not being real. Because for them it was real. That usually fixes that problem right up. It might not be as sharp or as crisp but it's still there.
The opposite can also happen. When you are dealing with the donors who don't just want to clone and donate but want you to clone and then erase. Sometimes the erasure isn't complete. We get the main file but there is a ghost image someplace else that comes out in the subconscious. When they are dreaming. You can see how that would be a problem if it was something from the specialty catalog."
Jean made a face, some of those experiences wouldn't be something she would want visiting her in the dark.
"But the technology advances every year and we get better and better at cloning and erasing. We are on the leading edge of all experience technology."
"Our resident cheerleader is bringing you up to speed?" A man had joined them. He was dressed in pale blue hospital scrubs.
"Jean this is Dane he runs the donation centers. Dane, this Jean, she is our newest Expert in Training."
"Nice to meet you, Jean. I hope your time here will be....memorable."
Gloria groaned, "That joke is never funny."
"Well I will keep trying until it gets there."
"Lucky us." Gloria tried to sound disgusted but she was smiling. It was obvious they had worked together for a long time. "I'm going to hand you over to Dane for the rest of the tour. Please don't judge us all by his terrible jokes but do know if they get too bad, we can always clone and erase the experience for you."
"Oh I'm wounded!"
"No you aren't. I'll see you before you leave, Jean."
And with that Gloria left the lab.
"Okay, where should we start?"
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