Customer Service: How are you with 'Head On Collisions?'
CRRAAAAAAAAAASSSSSHHHHH! Wow, I haven’t seen something like that before. I peered out of my driver side window and I noticed a midsize pickup truck dismantled from the front bumper almost to the windshield. As I strolled down the lane at 4mph so I could ‘rubber-neck’ all of the damage… I then noticed the brand new SUV which had just tackled the truck from the front. Glass was everywhere! Shrapnel was thrown all over the place. The SUV’s engine was totally visible on the road and the front hood had disintegrated. Ambulances were racing by, fire trucks were screaming to get out of their way and police cars were flashing their lights almost in symphony. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
Isn’t it just amazing how an accident of that magnitude could take place and traffic be backed up for miles but in 20 minutes there is a team of people there to fix and clean up the mess? I rode passed the same intersection about an hour later and literally you could not tell the accident ever happened. The people who were driving at that particular moment had no clue of the travesty which took place an hour before.
Through the years I have learned the complete sales cycle is: 1. the introduction; 2. ask for the appointment; 3. Presentation; 4. close/sold/agreement; 5. follow up if they didn’t buy; and 6. follow through keeping your promises and taking care of issues. I have found the ‘follow through’ is actually the most important in keeping a customer and the most difficult.
Look, when you have enough customers, not everything will go right all the time; so problems are going to happen; with delivery, service expectations, wrong orders, etc. So, issues are a given. The question is, when we do drop the ball how fast are we at correcting the issue? Do we ignore the customer? Do we pass the customer off to another department? Do we react slowly? Or do we handle the issue immediately?
When a problem arises with our customer, how quickly we handle the issue will speak volumes to our customer’s confidence of us and their willingness to continue to do business. The main key is communication. Just because we can’t fix the issue immediately does not mean we shouldn’t call the customer and communicate when it should be fixed. Here are some recommendations when a situation arises:
1. Call the customer immediately – don’t wait. Your customer is judging the quality of their decision choosing you as a vendor by your response time. You are hurting your customer by not calling back right away because they are not able think of anything else until you call. You are stealing their emotional energy. When you call they can then go on about their day because they know you are aware of the issue and are going to handle it.
2. Tell the customeryou know it is an issue and you are working on resolving it. Empathize with the customer. I have even told a customer “if ‘it’ happened to me I would be even madder than they are so I appreciate them being so calm.”
3. Tell the customer when the issue will be resolved. When you tell them when the issue will be resolved the customer no longer thinks about it.
4. Continually update the customer on the status of the resolution. “No news is NOT good news.” This will allow you to connect with your customer and they will see you are working on the issue… don’t surprise them. Let your customer know what to expect and how things are going.
5. Tell them when the issue has been resolved and ask if it has been to their satisfaction. By asking them this question, your customer knows you are not totally concerned with fixing the issue the best way for you but the best way for them.
Keeping your customer loyal is easy if you handle problems quickly. The easiest way to do this when you have a “Head-on Collision” is to clean it up so the problem looks like it never happened. So, my question to you is… “How good are you at cleaning up the mess?”
I hope this helps,
Chris
About the author:
Christopher Morrissette has been a top sales producer, with a Fortune 500 Sales Company, for 6 years of his 7 year career; regionally and nationally. Christopher has been crushing sales targets repeatedly before launching his first company, Easy Giving, and now his new company For Free and For Fun. Now, Chris teaches sales people of all industries how to ask for the appointment and get it! You gotta’ love this stuff!
To order the book Chris wrote called ‘For Free and For Fun – How to Ask for the Appointment and Get It,’ get yourself over to http://tinyurl.com/d6d3ky(AMAZON)
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