Never Just Say No

Great piece of advice Chris.

Now the trick is how to train staff to get beyond transactional service and start building relationships by truly helping customers.

Jim

Chris, You and I were talking about this yesterday regarding other good business policies toward customers. So many of these principles go beyond good business sense and are just simply kind things to do. Beyond helping Ty out you just established a relationship of trust. Who knows where that will go, but I bet it will be good for both of you.

And Jim, you are spot on. We need to get employees off a script of “no” and get them to a place where they have the freedom to be creative in their relationships with customers.

Nice job Chris, this is something that comes up periodically for my customers too. I may have them call you. Keep your friend’s number handy.

Kudos to you Chris for taking the initiative to help someone out when it appeared there was no short-term benefit to you. Word-of-mouth must be extremely important in your industry; probably the most effective form of marketing you can do?

Even so, what strikes me as the important part of this post (or the part that got me thinking) is WHY?

Your quote:
“About five minutes after I hung up with him, I thought to myself. What in the world did I do? Here this guy was looking for help, and in the end, I did nothing for him. Lame, if you ask me.”

WHY did it occur to you that you should help him? Was it years of training, or reading, or research into customer service? Was it a thought that he might refer some business to you?

I don’t think it was any of that. I believe people are internally wired (mostly through how they’re raised) to be servants first and let the details take care of themselves.

As you surely know, Zappos and many other service-first organizations operate under that same premise. Training and re-training is important, but hiring the right people is paramount to their culture and continued success.

So, while John and Jim (me too) are in agreement about getting employees off the script, hiring the right people that instinctively know what to do when they get off the script seems much more important.

Welcome to the MAC blog, Chris! And thanks for this great example of putting service before sales. The latter will come in due time.

Although I work with a non-profit rather than a for profit business, I’ve told our staff, volunteer and paid, that we don’t say “no” when someone calls for help. It may not be something we do, but the least we can do is find a referral and sometimes if we chat longer, we find out another need we can help with. I agree that it is an “internal wiring” but it is also something people can learn or at least learn to do better.

Thanks Chris for pointing out a sales skill not often taught: the relevant referral. Since it doesn’t end with the close, you have be relationship focused to see the value. And the value is that it ALWAYS comes back.

It also requires cultivating your network and knowing your competition. You have to know the people that will serve your clients needs when you can’t.