The best way to deal with a customer service problem is to prevent it from happening in the first place. A recent survey pinpointed the six leading causes of customer dissatisfaction.
They are:
- Being ignored. Everyone hates to be treated as if they’re unimportant. Some salespeople get complacent with present customers and spend their time looking for new opportunities. They forget that their customers are being pursued by other salespeople who give them full attention. No customer should ever be taken for granted. Learn everything you can about what your customers expect. Be hyper-attentive to their needs and goals.
- Being hassled. Difficulties can happen and most customers understand why mistakes occur in the first place. What they don’t understand is why some salespeople refuse to admit a problem or fail to take corrective action. When you are late on a delivery, ignore a customer, are unreliable, under-deliver on your promises or put up obstacles that customers must overcome, you destroy your value to the customer.
- Lack of preparation. Customers object to salespeople who waste time by calling without clear purposes. They are also critical about dealing with salespeople who don’t know their products and can’t answer simple questions.
- Unresponsive. Customers cited negative examples of salespeople who don’t return calls promptly and were never there when needed.
- Aggressiveness. Customers are turned off by “pushy” salespeople who argue and seem to care more about their commissions than offering solutions.
- Follow-through. Customers are turned off when they have to call salespeople several times to get information the salesperson promised to deliver.
Adapted from: Be Your Customer’s Hero, by Adam Toporek, who owns CTS Service Solutions, a consultancy that gives customer workshops.
