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The Fork of Customer Service Can Determine Sales Success

Written by: Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Article Overview: The customer service experience is a great predictor for organizational and sales success. How your employees (internal customers) handle your actual clients (external customers) will either make your day exceptional or a sales nightmare.

The Fork of Customer Service Can Determine Sales Success

The customer service experience is a great predictor for organizational and sales success. How your employees (internal customers) handle your actual clients (external customers) will either make your day exceptional or a sales nightmare.

Many small businesses to mid-size businesses receive complaints from their clients or patrons. For discussion sake, let us presume that one department within one small business receives 3 complaints per week. Initially, 3 does not sound like that much, however the executive believes that this is too much and looks for some customer service training.

He talks with two different vendors and receives two different proposals on customer service training. The first one is for a one day 6 hour nationally recognized public workshop at $150 per employee. Proposal number two is from a local consultant for 12 hours over the course of 3.5 months for $300 per employee. The consultant explains people remember 2% after 16 days and that your employees need numerous opportunities for practice and feedback. Small Business Sales Coaching Tip: Most customer service training to sales training delivers a negative return on investment

Now as he is pondering this decision, he receives another complaint about this department. After listening to the complaining customer for over 15 minutes, he then thinks about what course of action to take. Fifteen minutes later, he calls the department head and they engage in a 30 minute conversation about this ongoing customer service problem. Next the department head gathers her notes, prepares an agenda and calls for a 30-minute meeting of her department. The collective time wasted on this one complaint easily exceeded 2 hours.

Complaints cost productivity time. For this business, the weekly hit to productivity is 6 hours. Using an average wage and benefit hourly wage of $50, these complaints are costing the bottom line over $15,000 annually. Just think how much more sales now have to be earned to make up for this drain on the bottom line. Sales Coaching Tip: If you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it.

Returning to the executive, he is at the fork in the road of delivering exceptional customer service. He can pay the lesser amount and take the quick fix hit or he can truly invest in his people.

Small Business Sales Coaching Tip: Look at the forks in your road. Make sure that your decisions are not just based on the cheapest, quickest solution, but are aligned to your overall strategic business goal driven action plan and directed to the sustainable results. Take the time to truly understand the partial to full impact of the challenges facing your customers both externally and internally.

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Article Tags: 5 months, average wage, bottom line, collective time, customer service experience, customer service training, external customers, fifteen minutes, hourly wage, internal customers, mid size businesses, minute conversation, patrons, proposal number, public workshop, return on investment, sales nightmare, sales success, small business sales, small businesses



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