Everyone’s a Salesperson

Selling from the Inside-Out
Everyone’s a Salesperson

Question:
We have recently been receiving customer complaints regarding perceived apathy of our technical/installation people and lack of communication between what the sales department promised and what the technical people delivered. What can we do to get our field teams working together to ensure customer satisfaction?
Answer:
Be Thankful That Your Customers Are Complaining. That’s actually a good sign. Customers only complain when they want to give you a chance to fix the situation. However, this is also bad news. Studies show that one in twenty six customers who are dissatisfied complain which means you probably have a lot more dissatisfied customers than you think. Most disappointed customers just spread bad feelings about the company they are dissatisfied with and vow never to use them again. Sometimes customers complain because they feel you have a hold and they have nowhere else to turn. This is even worse.

There's Only One Way To Make Sure That Your People Are Working With Customer Satisfaction In Mind. Make everyone accountable for customer delightment. Don't wait for calls from disappointed customers. Put measurement systems in place to benchmark customer satisfaction (some companies refer to this as Customer Satisfaction Indexes.). Measure and incent your people against these. We recommend that you consider customer satisfaction as a minimum requirement. In otherwords, if the customer got exactly what they expected, nothing more and nothing less, this should be just enough. Consider incenting your people further for ensuring customer delightment. There are several standard tools available for measuring customer satisfaction, or you can write your own. If you write your own, make sure that you are truly measuring the impact of performance on customer satisfaction by asking questions like the following using a rating scale of 1-5.

My salesperson communicates with me in a timely manner.
My salesperson understands my needs.
The field team came prepared and well informed for my project.
I had open communication with your company during my project.
If I had issues, I knew where to direct them.
I received response to inquiries promptly.

It is best if you can measure these via live interviews with customers immediately during the project and after the fact because customers who had complaints are reluctant to submit written correspondence after the fact. You've already put them through enough work, why should they do any more? Plus, you'll be able to elaborate on both satisfaction and dissatisfaction actions.

Then, make sure that your people are aware of the actions that affect customer satisfaction. Here are some guidelines:

Have Communication/Job Progress Meetings (or several) prior to any handoff between departments and several times during the job. These don't have to be lengthy. Simply touching base on a daily basis for five or ten minutes may be enough. Customers don't like to have to repeat themselves. We recently hired a landscaping company for a major project for our office building. We discussed the project in detail with the salesperson. Then the crew showed up. And that's all they did, show up. They hadn't been prepped on details of the job other than they had an out of date plan.
Appoint a “Go-to-Person” Make sure that the customer knows who the main contact person should be for issues. If various people handle different aspects of the job, make sure that is clear. If the customer feels that they have no one to go to, they will certainly get defensive and find ways to go against you.
It Is Your Job. I was handed a change order on our landscaping job which was a miscommunication between departments. The foreman asked me to authorize the change before they could continue. When I asked him about details, he said, "That's not my department." Customers don't differentiate between departments. You are the company to them, and they deserve answers. If you don't know, find out, or direct customers to the appropriate person.
Be Responsive to Customer Inquiries & Complaints. If a customer calls with a complaint, get back to them quickly. Sometimes salespeople avoid customer calls until the situation has corrected itself, or until they have what they feel is a viable answer. This only makes matters worse. Leaving customers wondering about their status only adds fuel to the fire. Sometimes customers just need an explanation. If you are going to be late on an assignment or installation, call the customer and let them know.
Overpromise & Under-Deliver. You've heard this before. It's so important. If you promise to deliver a project in a certain timeframe and you are late, you're setting yourself up for customer disappointment. When you submit proposals make sure that you are realistic. Be prepared to discuss the differences in your company and why the wait will be worth it via quantifiable means (such as better quality work). Be ready to prove it
Correspond With Customers Regularly. The best advice for a customer satisfaction program is preventive maintenance. Call customers regularly during your project to discuss progress and projected timelines. If you are in a seasonal business, it may warrant hiring temporary help just to communicate with the customer. Even if the project is behind schedule, your customers will apppreciate your attentiveness and will feel in control of the situation
If You Are The Customer (and who isn't at some point), take the above advice and reverse it. You can save yourself a lot of heartache by being proactive in asking up-front questions like, "When will the project be complete?” If the project isn't complete, what recourse do I have? or if I have issues, who do I call?" Don't assume anything. Get promises in writing. When issues arise, salespeople have a tendency to forget about promises they have made to the sale. Most customers are in a pleasant state of mind when they reach an agreement. Think about what could go wrong and ask these questions in advance.
Everyone Gets Busy. Take a look at the big picture. Dissatisfied customers can cause a lot of damage. The next time you're bidding on additional work consider the impact that your teamwork and customer service levels have on your long-term goals.

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