I'm a genealogist. Surprise! One of the biggest issues we face in our company is unhappy clients. Don't get me wrong, most of our clients are very happy with their product. However, we do have clients that are not very well pleased with our work. Feeling we didn't spend their money well and that we should have found more. The question was brought up - how can we make people understand exactly what we do and really how difficult and AMAZING it truly is. How do you make someone truly understand who has never tried? How do you make someone understand?
I don't have a perfect answer at the moment. I'm hoping this blog post will help me wrangle in my thoughts and come up with a valid, concise and understandable answer. (I will take any advice and ideas so please share).
One thought or comparison that was discussed is the New York City comparison.
Finding an ancestor is like finding a specific individual in New York City with nothing other than their name. In case you didn't know, there are about 9 million people in New York City. Oh and on top of that, pick a name that is VERY common. Similarly, finding your ancestor in billions of records and names is very difficult.This next comparison might be a bit exaggerated, but it is pretty much the same idea.
Needle in a haystack! It is in there! Promise. It looks like every other piece of hay, but you gotta find it. Or at least try as hard as you can. You may not be able to find it.Alright, now my creative juices are going crazy. Probably just because it has been a long day so I apologize if this sounds stupid.
You cut up several hundred carrots (or some other veggie of your choice) and throw them all in a massive bowl. Then someone tells you that you must reassemble each piece with the correct carrot. Oh, and remember that there are several slices of carrots that might have been eaten (genealogical records destroyed by fire) or rolled away (genealogical records that are lost or never created). It is usually possible to reassemble the veggies, but it is often very difficult.I'd love to get feedback on this Elevator Pitch. Let me know if this helps you understand what a genealogists really does and how difficult and rewarding the research is.
HA! I love this so much.I really love the carrot one because it explains different parts of why you may not find them.
ReplyDeleteI love the carrot analogy and that its different than what I've heard before, such as the needle in a haystack (which has always sounded a tad scary to me because I imagine the possibility of being poked by that darn needle!). I think both the carrot and New York analogies do a good job of describing the difficulty. I like that you mentioned having nothing but a name, as well as a having a common name to work off of. I also love that you explained what and eaten or rolled away carrot would be equivalent to. For feedback purposes, I think they do an AWESOME job at explaining the what and difficulty of what you do, it doesn't necessarily focus much on the reward of it. But I imagine it would be extremely helpful to unhappy clients that do not understand the difficulty of your job, as well as possibility that maybe part of their carrot was eaten or disappeared.
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