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"There is only one
boss: the customer! And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman
on down simply by spending his money elsewhere." Sam
Walton
Customers don't care what your mission statement says. They care about how you
treat them. To be successful as a salesperson in today's environment, great
customer service must be your first priority.
The cornerstone of customer service is problem-solving. As the American business
world learned in the early 90s, we either get better at it or get thrown out of
the game. We can all take a cue from those U.S. companies who responded quickly
enough and adopted the custom that made Japanese products as high-quality and
competitive as they are today: kaizen, the practice of continuous improvement.
Do you remember the first Sony Walkman? It was a device the size of a paperback
novel and had only AM/FM radio. Kaizen - Sony added a cassette player and made
it just larger than your hand. Kaizen - suddenly it fit into your palm and the
speaker quality was as good as any home stereo. Next came the waterproof sports
model and the CD player. What's next? Kaizen demands Sony make it better and
innovate to keep up with market demand for changes like DVD and the like. It's a
continuous process of meeting customer wants and needs.
As a financial professional, it's not enough that you practice kaizen and
deliver great service; your entire organization has to accept it as a mission
and act accordingly. Customer service is no longer a faceless department hidden
away somewhere; it's everyone's responsibility. The primary concern of your
organization must be providing exceptional service every time you come into
contact with a client or potential client. Every phone call, every meeting,
every civic or social event. The truth is, if you and your organization don't
offer better customer service, your competitors will.
It's an Inside-Out Thing
To deliver great customer service externally, you must first look within the
organization and design internal systems to work together for the same goal -
100% great customer service. Let's say you know things aren't going right
somewhere; customers are complaining because they're on hold too long before
getting to talk with a live person. Congratulations, you've identified a
customer service problem … what's next?
The typical response is to point a finger at someone or some department. Yet
great customer service organizations "fix the problem, not the blame."
Identifying the root cause of a problem is the key.
Remember:
- Problems
are rarely caused by a single factor. Our organizations and relationships
are complex and interrelated; so are the roots of the problem. When a
football team fails to score a touchdown from the one-yard line, who's to
blame? Everyone. Plays are designed in a series of interrelated tasks. Tight
end does this, guard does this, quarterback does this, running back does
this and voilà! Touchdown! Every single person depends on every other
single person to successfully carry out his/her task. If any one of them
fails they all fail.
- Problem
solving works best when everyone involved in the process has input. What do
the vice presidents of banks know about problems with customers? They may
know something is wrong, say, use of the ATM is down and they've had to hire
more tellers, thus increasing overhead. But, until a VP sits down with the
front-line people, the tellers who are in touch with the customers every day
and closest to the problem, he or she may never find out that customers
regularly complain the ATM is in too tight a space, so they'll walk into the
bank for simple procedures like check cashing or getting an account
balance.
5+/20+
Initially identifying a problem is a critical step, but to really solve the
problem you may have to dig much deeper. The 5+/20+ method is a two-stage
process that helps expand your thinking from micro to macro and get to the real
root cause.
Ask why the problem occurred. Take that
answer and ask why, and so on and so on for at least five levels of detail.
Once you've gone five levels down asking
why, list at least 20 solutions.
Here's
an example:
Clients are on hold too long.
Why?
We have a new popular product and are
receiving more calls, and each call is taking longer because we have to explain
the product to the client.
Why?
The promotional material we mailed to our
clients didn't explain the product in much detail. The mailer mentioned the name
and the product and promised the client some pretty amazing returns but didn't
give much detail on what the product is.
Why?
We wanted to save money by printing only on
one side of the sheet.
Once you'd gotten to the root cause, you'd
begin making a list of 20 solutions: mailing out another more detailed piece, a
pre-recorded message explaining the product in detail, a fax-on-demand service
with information on the product, hiring an answering service, etc. Everyone
involved in the process would brainstorm these solutions. Remember, you don't
have to stop at 20; you can go on and on as long as it makes sense to do so.
The lion's share of customer service is
just that simple:
- Analyze
your clients by asking questions, observing and recording.
- Get
to know what they want and don't want.
- Make
great customer service your personal mission.
- Design
your entire organization around the goal of great customer service.
- Get
to the root cause of customer problems.
- Use
a system like the 5+/20+ method for identifying problems and solving them.
- Involve
everyone in the process.
- Continuously
improve the service you provide.
If you're still unconvinced that customer
service directly affects your success in sales, listen to David Steinberg,
president of Sterling Communications in Silver Springs, Maryland: He says
customer service is "the cheapest way to run a business. The resulting
referrals bring in customers that cost you nothing to generate." As a
financial professional, you must constantly provide excellent solutions and
innovative improvements, ideally before the client asks for them.
Top producers get better at it and get ahead
of the game.
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