Just to be clear before we start this article, the sales process is about the Customer. Customer service is something done in favour of the customer, for the customer, without the expectation of getting anything back.
Let’s just examine the three statements above.
I’m busy, I haven’t got time to do it, I need to be somewhere else.
This is a genuine statement that I recently heard from a supplier (Who are no longer a supplier) who had arranged a meeting with me and failed to turn up. They had also promised me something by e mail 3 times and failed to send it. And by the way, they were incensed when I pulled the contract and placed it with somebody else. They took now ownership of their poor customer skills and as a result, will never get any business from us again.
As a client myself, I only ask one thing of our suppliers. That if they say something they do it! A colleague of mine recently said that ‘reputations are made and lost from this type of thing’ and he was quite correct. If you promise to get a quote over to a customer and don’t do it when you say you are going to, you are saying two things to that customer:
1. I am not trustworthy, and only tell you what you want to hear.
2.Your business is not at all important to me.
Bad customer service is a cancer that eats away at your business, your reputation and your bottom line. Are you guilty of it? Everything done inside a business should be customer focused, 100 times more so if you work in sales or telemarketing - as you are the first and sometimes only point of contact for your company.
The other thing that all of the statements at the start of this article have in common is that they are all complete rubbish!
I’m busy…seriously, you’re too busy for your clients?!
I haven’t got time…tough luck, work harder and deliver the service your customers expect!
I need…hard luck, your customers' needs come first.
So what are we saying here?
If you promise to do something, do it!
If you make an appointment to see somebody, then turn up!
If you promise to send an email, then send it!
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