Sales

Have you ever had a customer service experience that goes from bad to worse? You receive a faulty product or a broken service and when the company try to fix it, you realise they are out of their depth?

They may be polite; they acknowledge the situation and apologise for the inconvenience. Yet, when they drop the ball, things become awkward and their offer of compensation is almost offensive.

Now, I understand that sometimes customers chance their arm and take advantage of organisations. I also respect that every company needs to manage their finances and make viable decisions.

Still, it really concerns me when a business becomes so detached from reality in the way they handle a situation. Let me give you an example. 

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Many times, I have heard salespeople tell me how they had a really great conversation with a prospect and firmly believed the person would buy. 

The potential customer may have called enquiring. Or the salesperson struck lucky whilst out prospecting. Either way, in that moment the seller was certain they would get the sale. 

Yet, contrary to what they believed, it didn’t always happen. The buyer lost interest, their circumstances changed, they bought elsewhere or disappeared completely.

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As someone who is self-employed for over 25 years, I can vouch for all the great reasons for running your own business. The freedom of being your own boss, deciding your own hours and selling something that you whole-heartly believe in, are sound motives for setting up a business.

Over the years, I have also noticed that many people are unaware of the reality of starting a business. Just like an infant child who needs extra care and attention in their early years, the first few years of running a company can be very busy and quite taunting at times.Yet, it is hugely rewarding too. 

Sometimes people in start-ups tell me “It’s slower than expected”, “It’s really hard”, or “It’s taking more time and effort than planned”.

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When it comes to service recovery, I sometimes wonder how many organisations have actively mapped out a strategy for their business?

Naturally, there are some who are very customer focused and will have clear guidelines in place. They will have trained their staff and established the necessary steps to deal with difficult or “out of the ordinary” situations.

Still, I am sure there are others who are not so prepared. They may be busy growing the business, developing their product line and servicing customers. So, when situations arise, they are dealt with on a more reactive basis. 

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Frequently in workshops I ask trainees, how many emails they get each day? The responses vary greatly, from 20 to 100 or even 200 emails per day, depending on their role.

My next question to ask is, how often do they check their emails each hour? Many won’t know the answer to this and others will reply – all the time. Especially, as they leave it open on a second screen or have a pop-up box alerting them, as emails come in.

Now I know email is important and an essential business tool. It makes communication so much easier as we can answer queries, share information and send documents to a wide range of people across different time zones very efficiently. Yet, I believe there is a downside to the way we use email as it’s creeping into every aspect of our lives. 

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