Effective Communication » customer relations

How Corporate Internal Communicators Can Impact Customer Relations

Azriel Winnett — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 20:54:31 +0000

As one who appreciates the infinite value of good health, I don’t believe whoever invented Coca-Cola did a favor to the human race. But I take my proverbial hat off to the Coke employee in this little anecdote related and commented upon by Angela Sinickas of Sinickas Communications, Inc.

A woman tried to buy a Coke from a vending machine, but it malfunctioned and swallowed some of her money. By a happy coincidence, the worker from Coca-Cola who refills the machines showed up at that moment. Hearing her story, he apologized, returned her money and offered her a Coke for free. Praiseworthy in itself, but there’s more.

The woman insisted on paying for her drink, but took the opportunity to express her shock at how much one had to pay for a bottle of Coke nowadays. The worker commiserated with her about how high prices were, but explained in the nicest way just how much the higher price of oil affected the cost of his product, from the oil used to make the plastic bottle to transportation costs. He mentioned specific percentages and dollar figures. He quoted how low Coke’s profit margin actually was on that bottle she’d just purchased.

A good ending, but how did he know so much?

So how did that potentially negative encounter with the Coca-Cola brand end? The customer didn’t walk away believing that tomorrow she would be paying less for Coke than she did today, but she certainly left with a far more positive feeling both for the brand and for the way her concerns had been addressed. And that, after all, is what good customer service is all about!

But how did the vendor maintenance man, who presumably ranked pretty low in the corporate pecking order, happen to be so knowledgeable on the intricacies of product costing? One must assume, points out Ms. Sinickas, that he was appropriately briefed , whether on a formal or informal basis, by someone inthe company who served as an internal communicator. And the successful imparting of that knowledge requires a careful definition of goals followed by meticulous planning and preparation.

In Sinickas’ words: “Especially in difficult financial times, the more we communicators can do to help our employees learn what they need to know in order to interact more positively with customers, the more we demonstrate our own value to the bottom line. Let’s be sure we actually measure that ultimate behavioral impact we have, not just whether our employees heard our messages.”

Transparency in Communication: Is It All About Truth, Or About Sincerity?

Azriel Winnett — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 07:19:25 +0000

Let’s say a close friend asks your opinion about an expensive dress she has just bought. You think the new outfit is stunning…on someone else. But the color doesn’t suit your friend so well. It’s not bad, mind you, but just that she could have done a little better.

Or maybe she wants to know whether she thinks she got a good deal on some new electronic appliance. And you just happened to pass by a store yesterday where the same item was advertised for 15% cheaper. In both cases – the garment and the gadget – you know there’s no way now she can return the item for refund for exchange.

So now…what do you say to your friend? The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Or in this case, will you be prepared to bend the “truth” (not my deliberate use of quotation marks) a little so that your friend can feel good?

Let’s now turn to the world of business. Let’s say a department store somewhere puts out a big sign that reads: “Buy now! Sale ends tomorrow.”

Brad Shorr of Word Sell, Inc takes a close look at this statement on his blog. The “latest buzzword in corporate communication,” he writes, is transparency. Fine, but what exactly is meant by the term? If by “transparent” we mean “clear”, then “By now! Sale ends tomorrow” is a transparent statement. It is clear and unambiguous – and yes, it may even be true!

But what would you say if what the store really means is: “Buy now! We’re deep in debt and plan to file for bankruptcy before the end of the month”? Schorr points out that most people would no longer agree that the original statement is “transparent”, because in the minds of most, the real meaning of “transparency” is sincerity.

Now we have a different ball game, because sincerity doesn’t admit degrees. Lying to the market is insincere. But telling partial truths is also insincere! Schorr quotes the philosopher Thomas Merton, from his book “No Man is an Island”:

“In the end the problem of sincerity is a problem of love. A sincere man is not so much one who sees the truth and manifests it as he sees it, but one who loves the truth with pure love. But thruth is more than an abstraction. It lives and is embodied in men and things that are real. And the secret of sincerity is, therefore, not to be sought in a philosophical ove for abstract truth, but in a love fore real people and real things…”

Heady words. But here we have the key to everything that is good, or that can be good, in human relationships.

Dentist Who Wanted to Supplement His Income… And Got It All Wrong!

Azriel Winnett — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:25:16 +0000

If you’re working in sales, what exactly are you trying to sell to your potential customers? l In their excellent book that I reviewed briefly in my last post, John Mehrmann and Mitchell Simon make a sharp distinction between trying to solve a client’s immediate problem (his “pain”) for your immediate personal gain on the one hand, and trying to help him overcome his longer-term obstacles and achieve his goals on the other.

A simple example: The prospective customer complains, “My car won’t start.” The sales person focuses on the pain: “the car”, and responds: “I want to sell you this car.”

However, if the customer says: I cannot get where I want to go”, it will be easier for our sales professional to zero in on the customer , rather than the pain, and make the far more effective commitment: “I will find the best solutions for you, now and later.”

The trouble is, of course, that the sales guy, for whatever reason, is not always fully aware of the client’s goals, needs and aspirations. I love this little anecdote that the authors of The Trusted Advocate relate – both sad and amusing…and so typical:

A woman was visiting her dentist for a routine semiannual cleaning procedure. Despite the temporary discomfort, she was in good spirits, knowing that soon she would leave with clean, sparkling white teeth. But little did she realize, as the dentist draped a bib around her neck and inserted section tubes inside her mouth, that she was about to become the target of an unsolicited sales campaign.

You see, in an effort to diversify his business and generate additional revenue, the dentist was now offering Botox Cosmetology as an add-on service. From his point of view, it was a great idea. It enabled him to earn more income with the same amount of office space, minimal investment in supplies – and best of all, ready access to potential customers every working day.

As the woman was sitting in his chair – literally a captive audience – our dentist began to expound on the many benefits of the Botox procedure to reduce wrinkles. The more he waxed lyrical with his eloquent sales talk, the more the mood of his poor patient plunged. Instead of being happy on account of her now sparkling teeth, she felt miserable for the rest of the day. “Do I really have a problem with wrinkles?” she was wondering.

After consulting with and being duly reassured by friends and family members that her concern was groundless, the woman took swift action. She successfully resolved her wrinkle problem by…permanently changing dentists.

Presumably, in time, the penny will drop for our hapless dentist and he will have learned his lesson…but how many sales people, marketers, entrepreneurs, professionals and self-styled “gurus” will remain out there who’ll never learn theirs?

Success in a Sales Career: Is This Book Ahead Of Its Time?

Azriel Winnett — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:46:03 +0000

Are you looking for some simple steps to improve your sales techniques and increase your personal profit? Well, if I were working in sales, or training for a career in that field, I would probably tell you: “Yes, sir, that’s exactly what I want!” Especially if I weren’t doing too well up to this point.

A recently published book-with-a-difference kicks off with the above question. And certainly, it’s the kind of opener you would except, seeing that the volume is billed on its front cover as “The Fundamental Guide to Achieving Extraordinary Sales and Sustaining Loyal Customers.”

But that question is immediately followed by a sentence that brings you back to reality: “Sorry we’re not about to let you play that small.”

The title and sub-title already give you a clue why not: The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success With Authenticity and Integrity. The books authors, John Mehrmann and Mitchell Simon, insist that the way we are accustomed to define success is entirely illusory. Many of their readers will start off highly skeptical of that thesis, but doubts will be quickly dispelled as the authors’ highly readable analysis of the inseparable relationship between success, on the one hand, and the twin concepts of authenticity and integrity on the other, unfolds.

It’s more than a pity that the authors (or anyone else) didn’t write and publish this book many years ago. Its fresh – almost revolutionary – approach to its topic is decades overdue. One could say with much justification that this is a work ahead of its times.

Mehrmann and Simon make it easy for us to internalize what we have read as we are gently provoked to apply the knowledge to our own individual situations. It seems to me that “individual situations” should encompass whatever we are doing with our time, both in our professional and private lives, for here are workable ideas relevant to a far wider circle than that of sales professionals in the narrow sense alone.

Why? Because, in effect we are all salespeople. At times we need to “sell” the ideas and principles we strongly believe in, or ask our boss for a raise in salary or better working conditions, or even to persuade a friend or fellow worker to desist from a bad habit that’s disturbing us. I would even say that the recipient or beneficiary of a sales transaction, not only the initiator, can be called a sales person. After all, when we need a product or service, we want to negotiate the best deal for ourselves among all the suppliers available.

By conscientiously and consistently working on the concepts presented in this book, we would, in practice, be making our own small contribution towards making this world a better place. Nothing less. I will discuss in more detail some of the authors’ premises and conclusions in upcoming posts.

Responding to Angry Customers – Watch this Video!

Azriel Winnett — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 11:00:00 +0000

Writing about people who work in the customer service industry, site contributor Andy Hanselman points out that its often easier to stick to a prepared script than to think and use your initiative.

In other words, whenever you’re confronted with a query or a complaint that has the slightest smell of some similar case that you have handled sometime in the past, the automatic pilot in your brain immediately takes over. Without giving the matter a second thought (you don’t want to die of over-exercise, do you?), you churn out, parrot-like, the same response that you gave on countless previous occasions.

And of course, since you’ve temporarily disabled an otherwise very nimble brain, you don’t take into account that there might be certain critical differences in this case. This could have unfortunate consequences, as Andy explains.

On the other hand, the best of customer service people know that sometimes the brain just shuts down automatically, and it’s not because of apathy, neglect, or any conscious decision on your part.

This happens when get a call or a visit from an irate customer who claims to be hopping mad (and backs up his claim with every inch of his body), because your product or service isn’t worth tuppence, you sold it to him under false pretenses, you and your company are a bunch of swindlers, or whatever.

Now, if you do manage to keep reasonably calm when this sort of thing happens, we do have some excellent tips to help you come out tops in such a situation.

But very often, it’s not quite so simple. Somehow, you perceive of the irate customer’s vicious assault as a personal attack on your integrity. Your emotions take over the show. You feel so hurt that your just can’t think straight. Your brain shuts down. The temptation to return fire with fire is overwhelming. You might give as good as you get, return rudeness with rudeness, or just walk away or slam the telephone receiver down.

And of course, that’s not good.

Watch this short video (below) from Telephonedoctor.com . With a little imagination, I believe the skills discussed can be applied in other situations, too.

And have a good day, and good week.