Tag Archive for: bettering customer relationships

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Preventative Maintenance for Business Promotion – Step 3

This series of blogs discusses the application of preventative maintenance in order to maintain our field team’s product and service promotion effectiveness. [1]

Step 3 – Checking Alignments and Readjusting if Applicable

Engaging our field service professionals in business development requires processes and systems with many moving parts.  In order to keep those parts working smoothly and ensure our field team is delivering at its highest levels, we must conduct periodic preventative maintenance (PM) services.  One of those services is checking alignments and readjusting if applicable.

In the service we provide to our customers, aligning equipment is a critical part of the PM services we provide.  If left unaddressed, unaligned equipment will result in premature bearing and belt wear, energy loss and equipment failure.

Aligning Our Business Development Efforts

The same is true for our business development efforts by the field team.  In many cases, opportunities will be referred to other areas of the business for fulfillment.  For example, a business opportunity might be referred to the sales department to follow up with the customer and to provide pricing and a formal proposal.  In others, part or all of the field team’s recommendations will be delivered through a separate department (e.g. a small project may be executed by a “projects” division rather than the “service” department).  If these other areas of the business are not aligned with your business development efforts, then you will not achieve the potential of your efforts.

Despite the criticalness of these alignments, many companies fail to address them.  One firm that I worked for, for example, had sales compensation plans that actually discouraged the salespeople from following up on opportunities from the field.  Needless to say, the field team and their customers were frustrated by the lack of response from the sales department and this caused their early efforts to engage their field service representatives in business development to fail.  In another case, the field service team did not trust the executing department to treat their customers with the same level of care and attention that they provide.  The field service team was fearful that they might lose the customer.

Conduct Regular Reviews of Your Business Development Alignments

As part of your PM, it is prudent to review these alignments to confirm that they are running smoothly.  Talk to the leaders of the other departments to ensure that they understand what you are doing and how it will benefit them.  Strategize together on how to reduce any obstacles and to build a stronger partnership between department members.  Review your processes (like sales compensation plans) to see if there is anything in the works that may be holding things back.

If a problem comes to your attention, address it immediately with your departmental counterpart to get it resolved.  Avoid laying blame on the other party (for example saying “Typical!  Those guys just don’t care about us!!”).  This only serves to cause the field team to question why they bother.  Dealing with interdivisional alignments, it is always good to follow the motto, “If it is to be, it’s up to me!”

Next time, we will look at lubrication of moving parts as the next step in our PM service for the business development efforts of our field service team.

Let’s Connect

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“If it is to be, it’s up to me!”

– Anon

[1] This series of blogs is based on an article published for Field Service News – https://www.fieldservicenews.com

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Preventative Maintenance for Business Promotion – Step 2

This series of blogs discusses the application of preventative maintenance in order to maintain our field team’s product and service promotion effectiveness. [1]

Step 2 – Replacing, Refurbishing or Cleaning Wearable Parts and Consumables

In order to help our customers to be better off for having hired us, we must continually be on the lookout for ways that we can help them achieve their business goals.  Our field service team is in the best position to do this because of their knowledge of the technology, our company’s capabilities and our customers’ challenges and goals.  However, in order for our team to be effective in making proactive recommendations, we must have the system and processes in place and working smoothly.  Regular preventative maintenance (PM) of our systems and processes will help ensure that our field service professionals continue to provide recommendations that will be appreciated by our customers.

Last time I wrote about conducting a high level assessment before getting into the details of the PM.  This time, I would like to focus our attention on the parts of the initiative that wear and need refurbishing or replacement – the opportunity capture and management systems and processes.

Opportunity Capture and Management Systems and Processes

Opportunity capture and management systems and processes are the backbone of the business development initiative and are the parts of the overall initiative that is most subject to wear and tear.  If the systems are not working smoothly, then opportunities get lost, field professionals get frustrated and customers become disappointed.  Failure to maintain the processes and systems will be a sure way to bring the entire initiative to a grinding halt.

Capture Opportunities

To keep systems and processes operating in tiptop condition, check to ensure that there is a clear and simple process to capture opportunities and that the process is clearly understood. Look for any opportunities that may have fallen through the cracks.  Identify opportunities that are in limbo and the clarity and effectiveness of the process to follow-up.

Feedback Loops

Look at the feedback loops. Check to ensure that the feedback loops are working properly so that the field service professional is informed on opportunity status when visiting the customer.

Response Times

Ensure that management is responding quickly to address any anomalies when problems in the process do occur.  Failure to address concerns about the processes and systems will communicate to the field team that you are just not that serious.

Simplify the Efforts of the Technicians

Speak with the technicians to explore for improvements in the process that will simplify their efforts.  They are the ones who live and breath within the system and irritations, no matter how small, will slow down their efforts and discourage the desired behaviours.

Taking the time to check and address worn parts and consumables will ensure that the core of the initiative is working smoothly.  Next time I will discuss checking alignments and readjusting if necessary.

Let’s Connect

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I would
spend the first four hours sharpening the axe.”

– Abraham Lincoln

 

[1] This series of blogs is based on an article published for Field Service News – https://www.fieldservicenews.com

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Is Your Field Service Team Missing Opportunities to Help Your Customers?

Here is a simple test for you.  Count the number of “F”s in the sentence below.

Don’t read any further until you have decided your number.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you said six “F”s, then congratulations!  If you said anything else, don’t feel bad.  Most people see three.  Look at the sentence again.  Did you miss the “F”s in “OF”?  Now that you see the “F”s, it’s pretty obvious right?  It makes us wonder why we missed it in the first place.

Now, think of your service business.  Opportunities to help your customers should be obvious too.  Or are they as obvious as we might think?  Is your service team missing opportunities to help your customers?

Even with a Process in Place, Is Your Customer Seeing All the “F’s”?

Perhaps you have encouraged your field team to look for ways that you could help your customers achieve their business goals.  You’ve set up processes and systems to capture any opportunities identified.  You may have even told your customers your intentions and why your field team’s actions are not only unique but of great value for the them.  Even with all of this in place, how confident are you that they are seeing all of the “F”s – that is, how confident are you that they are not missing any opportunities to help the customer to be better off.

Four Actions to Ensure Your Field Service Team Does Not Miss Important Opportunities

Here are four actions that you can take to help ensure that your field service team does not miss opportunities that are important.

1. Establish a customer visit routine

Whenever your field service professional calls on a customer, ensure that each one of them follows a specific process which may include steps like:

    • Stopping by the customer’s office to explain the nature of the visit upon arrival and asking if anything has changed since their last visit.
    • Stopping by the customer’s office after the work is completed to go over what was done and asking if there is anything else they would like them to address while they are there.

2. Have your field team follow up on previous recommendations

Your customers are busy and, even with the best of intentions, some of your recommendations will get forgotten.  It’s a valuable service that you provide when your follow up reminds the customer to address something that had completely slipped their minds.  This is particularly important if the recommendation would prevent something that could seriously and negatively impact the customer if it is not addressed.

3. If appropriate, have your field team ask the customer to take them on a tour of their facilities

While on the tour, the field professional can point out ideas where you may be able to help and even some issues that may not be related to your business at all but will help the customer see that there are improvements that can be made.

4. Share best practices between team members

Whenever a field service member makes a recommendation that benefits a customer in a significant way, share it with the rest of the team.  What was the issue at hand?  How did the recommendation help the customer?  How many other customers might benefit from a similar recommendation?  What do these customers look like?  What questions might the field professional ask to uncover whether they could benefit from a similar recommendation?

Every time we make a proactive recommendation to a customer, we have an opportunity to help them toward achieving their business goals.  But, recognizing opportunities is not always as easy as we may first assume.  Andmissed opportunities might result in a problem for the customer.  Help your field team establish a process that will minimize lost opportunities and further enhance the value that you offer to your customers.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one”

– Mark Twain

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A Lesson in Good Customer Service Delivery

managing customer service expectations

I recently had the good fortune to work in Australia for an international client.  It was a wonderful experience and a great adventure.  It also provided me with a lesson in good customer service delivery.  The lesson?  Good customer service is not always the same for every customer.  It all depends on meeting the customer’s expectations.

The hotel I stayed at was in Manly, a suburb of Sydney.  We were literally on the coast and Manly boasted a beautiful beach framed by a wonderful promenade.  Each morning it would be full of people, walking and running to start the day.  I joined them.  Every day before breakfast, I would head out onto the promenade for the 1 ½ km walk each way.

The first morning, I had a problem.  I kept “bumping” into other people and spent much of my time pausing, stepping aside and apologizing.  It was a strange experience for me and certainly did not contribute to a pleasant walk.

And then it dawned on me.  I was having trouble walking more than 20 or 30 seconds without a near collision because I was trying to pass on my right while the oncoming people were trying to pass on their left.  As a result, we were both moving in the same direction to provide room for the other and ended up blocking each other’s path.  It turned out that they, like us in North America, tend to pass oncoming pedestrians in the same manner that they would pass an oncoming car.  Since Australians drive on the left, they were naturally trying to pass me the same way.

Our Expectations Were Different and it Sets Us on a Collision Course

Once I realized this, my walking experience changed completely (for the better).  I started passing on the left and things started to go smoothly.  I passed others with ease and the aggravating start/stop I had been experiencing disappeared.  I could spend more time admiring the view and appreciating the early morning sunshine.  And, of course, so could they.

Good Customer Service: One Size Does NOT Fit All

This proved to be an important lesson of good customer service delivery.  One size does not fit all.  Good customer service for one customer does not automatically equate to good customer service for another.  Each customer has certain expectations of how they will be treated and judge their experience on how well we meet or exceed those expectations.  It is important that we are sensitive to this and adjust our interactions accordingly.

For example, a customer who likes to engage in pleasant conversation may appreciate chatting about last night’s game or handling a question or two about the picture on the wall behind their desk.  Others may be entirely business focused and see such conversations as a waste of time – time they are paying for.  But even the conversational customer will not appreciate personal conversations in the middle of an emergency or when they are running late for another appointment.

Start By Identifying the Customers’ Expectations

So, the lesson learned is simply this:  each customer has different expectations of what good customer service is, and we would be wise to be sensitive to this and adjust how we interact with them accordingly.  The challenge for us as service providers is to learn what those expectations are for each customer.  That is a discussion for another blog.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

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6 Steps to Delivering Your Brand Promise Through Your Field Service Team

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The definition of our brand, when boiled down to its simplest form, is what our customers and prospective customers think and feel about our service and our organizations.  We all have a brand.  The question is, did we choose it, or did we let others choose it for us?

Red Cape Right SideOur Brand Promises a Certain Customer Experience

We communicate our brand through every customer touch point, including through our websites, promotional materials and our written proposals for example. Our brand promises a certain customer experience.  The delivery of our brand promise comes through the interaction between our field service team and our customers.  It is critical that our field team acts and communicates in a way that is consistent with our brand and its promise because those interactions are our customer’s reality.

Here are six steps you can take to ensure that your field service representatives deliver your brand promise.

1. Define – Define your brand

By clearly articulating your brand and your brand promise, you can set the foundation to guide your technicians’ actions so that they are consistent with your brand promise.  Start by answering these three questions:

  • How do you want others to think about you?
  • How do you want others to feel about you?
  • What do you want others to say about you?

For example, a service organization that wishes to build their brand promise around the proactive efforts of their field service team may define their brand as follows:

  • How we want others to think about us: “Our service provider does more than simply keeping our equipment/facilities/processes running well, they take steps to help us achieve our business goals.”
  • How we want others to feel about us: “We feel assured / We are in good hands”
  • What we want other to say about us: “We are better off for having engaged our service provider.”

2. Translate – Translate the brand into actions

Having a brand promise is not enough.  We must translate that promise into action.  What specifically do we expect our field service team to do to?  How do we want our team to conduct themselves in order to communicate and reinforce our brand?

In our example above, one of the actions we would define for our field service technicians are what steps to take to identify and recommend opportunities that will help the customer. One large waste management firm who positions itself as an integral part of the community which they serve, teaches their drivers to be courteous and helpful to their “neighbours” as they go about their routes.  They also train their drivers to look for and report any suspicious activity they see along their routes in an effort to prevent crime.

3. Train – Ensure your team has the skills to execute on the brand

F. Fournes, in his book Coaching for Improving Work Performance noted that the most significant reasons why employees don’t do what they are supposed to do are because they don’t know what to do or they don’t know how to do it. Once we have clearly defined the actions, it is important that we ensure that our team has the knowledge and the skills to execute them.

4. Leverage – Use technology and processes to support your brand

We need to evaluate the technology, tools and processes that we have at our disposal to determine how we can utilize them to support the efforts of our field service team.  For example, how can the hand-held devices be used to help keep the field professional focused on delivering on the brand?  What processes need to be modified to facilitate our field service professionals’ actions.

5. Model – Model the behaviour you would like to see

What we say and how we act are important indicators of how serious we are about the initiative.  We must take care that our words and deeds are consistent with the brand promise.  Our team will pick up on our behaviours and match them accordingly.

6. Measure – Measure

If we don’t measure how well we are delivering on our brand promise, how can we possibly know if we are successful, let alone have the information to allow us to continually improve?  This measurement is more than simply asking if the customer is satisfied or if they would recommend us to others, but delves into how well we have met the promise that we made through our brand.  For example, you might ask, “How well did we … [insert brand promise here]?”

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“Be the change that you want to see in the world.”

– M. Ghandi

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Proactive Recommendations by Your Field Team Are a Big Business Differentiator – Three Actions You Can Take

33078655 - 3d white people team assemble three piece of a puzzle

I meet service leaders everyday who encourage their field service teams to make proactive recommendations to their customers of products and services that will help those customers to be better off.  The vast majority of those I speak to however, do not tell their customers they are asking their field service team to do this.  That’s a pity.  Proactive recommendations by your field team are a big business differentiator.

Why Don’t More Service Firms Promote Their Field Team’s Efforts?

Before we look at the how, let’s consider the why.  It is interesting to note that most firms in my unscientific sampling do not let their customers know that they have encouraged their field service professionals to look for and make recommendations to help them be better off.  This is true, even though the efforts of the field service team can add tremendous value.  By taking proactive steps, the field service team can help your customers reduce costs, improve asset life, increase productivity and numerous other benefits.

If this is true, then, why don’t more firms tell their customers what their field team is up to?  Perhaps it is because these organizations do not feel that the customer will appreciate the real value of these proactive efforts by their field service team.  They may be right.  Unless customers are educated about the value, they may not recognize the significant impact these proactive efforts can have on their ability to achieve their own business goals.

Therefore, one of the important steps that management must take is to inform the customer of this value and use it as an important differentiator in a market that is getting increasingly competitive.  Here’s how.

1. Tell the Customer What You Are Doing

The first step is to tell the customer what you are doing and why it is of benefit to them.  Point out that your field team is in a unique position to recognize actions that the customer can take to help them achieve their business goals.  They understand the technology, they can see how the customer is applying it and they understand their own firm’s capabilities.

2. Ask the Customer for Their Permission

Once you tell the customer what you are doing, it opens up the opportunity for the customer to give you permission to engage them in this way.

The conversation might go like this.  “Mr. or Ms. Customer, as you may appreciate, our field service team includes some of the finest technical minds in this industry.  We have encouraged them to use their knowledge and expertise to look for ways that our customers can do things better and help them achieve their business goals.  We have asked our field team to proactively speak to our customers about their recommendations.  If during the course of our work for you our field service professional identifies something that they feel would be of significant benefit to you, would you have any objection if they brought it to your attention?”

3. Use the Proactive Efforts of Your Field Team to Sell New Service Contracts

Work with your sales team to create your unique selling proposition that clearly sets you apart from your competitors.  Obviously it will take some thought and it will include the unique capabilities of your organization, but it will likely cover the fact that the customer can expect that not only will their equipment be running really well during the contract, but they should expect to be presented with ideas that will help them to be better off.  Arm your sales team with case studies and testimonials.  Now your sales team will have something tangible to present to the prospect that differentiates you from your competitors.

The highest level of service we can provide is when the customer can confidently claim that they are better off for having known us.  Help your customers see the value of the proactive efforts of your field service team and use this to differentiate your business from your competitors.  These three steps will help.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.”

– Albert Einstein

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Building Personal and Professional Credibility

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There is a lot of interest in teaching field service technicians to promote services.  This makes sense as the field service professional is in the best position to recognize opportunities and to discuss these with their customers.  To help them, many firms look to courses to train their field teams how to sell.  But, if you’re serious about engaging your technicians in product and service promotion as part of your strategy to enhance service levels, then building personal and professional credibility are the most important skills needed for proactive service teams.

Remember That They Are NOT Salespeople

Regardless of how proactive you want your technicians to be, it is important to remember that they are not salespeople and, in the interests of your business success, you don’t want them to be.  You want your customers to see them as trusted advisors who are using their expertise to help them achieve their business goals.  The most important skills they need are the abilities to communicate their personal and professional credibility to the customer.

Establishing Trust Between Field Service Professionals and Customers

Field service professionals who are recognized as skilled in promoting services know how important it is that the customer trusts them.  That trust must be in their personal motives (trusting that they are making recommendations in the interest of the customer and not their own) and their professional competence (they know what they are talking about).

These successful field engineers understand that their personal and professional credibility is earned over time by the way they interact with their customers.  They take steps to build their credibility through every customer interaction, regardless of how insignificant it might seem.

Understanding Good Communication Skills

Their success in promoting services is not because they are polished sales professionals, but because customers trust their motives and their judgment and are willing to listen to them and take action.  Understanding good communication skills helps of course.

The ability to present a recommendation to the customer in a way that communicates the benefits of taking action from the customer’s perspective helps the customer see the value in taking action.  The skill of exploring hesitation can help customers make informed decisions and avoid problems.  But, if your technicians do not have personal and professional credibility with the customer, they won’t be successful in promoting services, regardless of how helpful the recommendation is or how skilled they are in promoting it.

So, if you really want your technicians to enthusiastically embrace your strategy to engage them in business development, focus on teaching them how to build credibility with the customer.  Ensure that they know that they are not selling, but rather providing a valuable service to the customer.  Then provide them with some basic approaches to communicate the benefits of their recommendations effectively so that the customer can make an informed decision.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“Earn trust, earn trust, earn trust. Then you can worry about the rest.”

– Seth Godin

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Six Components of a Robust and Failsafe Opportunity Management Process

Abstract Flow Chart

If you are engaging your field service team in business development efforts, you will be aware of the importance of having a robust and failsafe opportunity management process.  Poor processes drop opportunities, fail to keep everyone informed and generally defeat your efforts to get everyone enthusiastically involved.

In this blog, I thought it would be helpful to consider the Six Key Components of a Robust and Failsafe Opportunity Management Process for your team.

1. Clearly identify what you want your technicians to do

The process starts with having a clear understanding of what you want your technicians to do if they do find an opportunity to help.  For example, do you want them to:

  • Simply pass the opportunity over to sales (or other) for follow-up?
  • Review their ideas with the customer and get their permission for a salesperson (or other) to call?
  • Review their ideas with the customer, provide pricing, and seek the customer’s agreement to proceed?
  • Other?

2. Provide clear expectations on how you want technician to be involved in the solution

Options can include:

  • None – they leave it up to the sales team
  • Some – they provide input then back out of the process
  • Most – they work closely with the sales team (or others) to determine the final solution
  • All – they determine the final solution, price it, and present it to the customer

3. Build in flexibility to accommodate different situations

Be clear on how you want the technician (and sales team) to act as circumstances change.  Do your expectations of your field service team change depending upon the nature of the opportunity?  For example, will their actions change depending upon the:

  • Size of the opportunity?
  • Products and/or service contemplated?
  • Nature of the customer?
  • Other?

4. Define how progress on each opportunity will be communicated

Typically opportunities take time to address.  Customer visits are required, a solution must be developed and priced, customers need time to evaluate the solution, etc.  To keep the field service team engaged and enthusiastic, it is critical to keep them informed of the progress that is being made.

This also allows the technician to respond professionally in the event the customer asks a question about progress on the solution.  Having a technician respond with a flippant “I don’t know.  Those guys in the office never tell us anything”, is not helpful and certainly not professional.

5. Make it clear on who will follow up and how the follow up will take place

It is logical to place responsibility for follow up on the sales team or the person who presented the customer with the final proposal.  But, if the opportunity was quoted through sales or through another department, can the technicians play a role here?

Would it make sense to provide them with a list of outstanding proposals for each customer that they visit so that they can ask if the customer has come to some decision and perhaps provide supporting information?

I recognize that each company and each opportunity is different so this approach may not work in all cases.  However, letting a proposal to replace an old piece of equipment before it fails fall through the cracks does not help the customer if the equipment fails because they forgot about the issue.

6. Actively work to keep things on track

No system is truly failsafe for every circumstance.  Despite your best efforts, things will go wrong.  When they do, we can show leadership by addressing the underlying issues and getting things back on track quickly.

We can also address those that don’t follow the process and ensure that they understand the importance of doing so.  Failure to address problems quickly and consistently will tell everyone that the process really isn’t all that important after all.

Our technicians provide a valuable service when they take proactive actions to make recommendations that help our customers to be better off.  We can help them and help our business by ensuring that the processes we have in place work consistently and correctly.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.

– W. Edwards Deming

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5 Tips to Help Your Field Team Deal with Customers Effectively

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December is a wonderful time of year.  But it can also be a time of high stress.  Organizations struggle to get everything done before the holidays.  Employees try to balance the surge in social commitments while continuing to take actions to meet budgets.  Systems and processes are strained by increased demands caused by weather, quotas or any other number of things.

It is a time of year when systems and circumstance combine to create a stress-fuelled environment of tension and possible conflict.  To help your field team deal with customers effectively in these stressful times, consider the following five approaches.  This will help your team maintain good relations and build higher levels of trust and remind your customers why they chose to do business with you in the first place.

  1. Connect with the customer.

Whenever stressful situations arise, it is critical for our customers to realize that they have our full attention.  We can demonstrate this by connecting with the customer.  By connecting, we mean giving our customer our full attention.  That means putting things down, standing if appropriate, exhibiting open body language[1], making eye contact and actively listening.

It is also important to show a sense of urgency in our motions and our body stance (leaning slightly forward).  Connecting with the customer in this way shows we are taking the situation seriously and interested in getting the problem resolved.

  1. Acknowledge the situation.

We can remove some of the customer’s stress and concerns by showing them that we understand.  We can do this in a number of ways.  For example, the problem being experienced is having a significant and detrimental impact on production.  We could say something like, “I can see why this is so upsetting for you, particularly given the pressures you must be facing from production to get this up and running.”  You might even say, “I can understand how stressful this must be for you, I would feel the same way, if I were in your shoes.”

Notice that I am not suggesting that we take responsibility for the problem.  We are simply acknowledging the situation that the customer is in.  This continues to build upon the trust that started when we “connected” with the customer.

  1. Explain your reasons from the customer’s perspective.

When we have to say “no”, we can explain our reasons from the customer’s perspective rather than our own.  Let’s say the customer wants us to make a temporary fix that we feel will be unsafe.  The customer is adamant that it be done and we have to say “no”.

Rather than say something like “I can’t do that.  It’s unsafe and it could get me in serious trouble.  We will have to think of something else”, it would be better to say “no” from the customer’s perspective.  For example, we could say, “Unfortunately, this suggestion could prove unsafe and I would not want to put you or your tenants in harm’s way.   There are other options that we can consider, such as …”

  1. Give the customer’s motives the benefit of the doubt.

It is vitally important that we take every customer request as a request for which they feel they are entitled to (or willing to pay for) and not an attempt to take advantage of us.  This is important because it is our perspective that will largely govern how we respond.  If we feel that the customer is “always” trying to take advantage, then our response may not be balanced and unlikely to set the stage for cooperation.

If we have the perspective that the customer is innocently asking for something that they feel they are entitled to or are willing to pay for, then our response will likely be more empathetic and geared toward establishing a foundation for collaboration.  Instead of saying, “Sorry, that’s not in the contract.  If you want me to do that, you will need to call the office and give them a P.O.”, you might consider something like, “I want to make sure that I am fair to both your company and my own.  What you are asking is not in the existing contract.  Here is what I suggest we do to get this addressed …”.

Now I know that there really are customers out there that are regularly trying to take advantage, but does it hurt to respond to them the same way as we would to a customer with an innocent request?

  1. Have alternative suggestions ready.

If we do have to say “no” to a request or tell the customer bad news, we will help keep the situation calm and provide value by having alternative suggestions ready.  Imagine a scenario where our technician tells the customer that the equipment has failed and when asked what the alternatives are simply says, “I don’t know.  I will have to look into it.”  As the customer, how comfortable would we feel about the technician’s response?  What does it tell us about the technician’s understanding of our situation?

It would be better if the technician has an answer that includes two or three alternatives that can be taken and then help us decide which option make the best sense under the circumstances.  It would be better still if the technician has made a couple of phone calls and can give even more information such as price and delivery of the various options.

December is a wonderful time of year and also one full of stress and possible conflict.  We can help our technicians through this period of stress and the inevitable interpersonal challenges that they will face with just a few simple approaches.  It is a timely gift for the month of December that can be used throughout the year.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

Stress is not what happens to us.  It’s our response
to what happens. And response is something we can choose.

– Maureen Killoran

[1] Arms uncrossed, legs comfortably apart, eye contact, etc.

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Help Your Technicians Handle Customer Objections

One of your technicians has just made a recommendation on a critical piece of equipment.  It is old, parts are hard to find and a failure will have catastrophic results. The customer hesitates and says something like, “Leave it with me and let me think about it.”  Underlying this statement could be an objection.  It is for times like these that it makes sense to help your technicians have the skills/tools ready to (or be prepared to) handle customer objections.

You might be wondering why I am using sales terminology when I insist that the technician’s act of making recommendations is not a sale but a service.  It is because in situations like these letting the matter go without investigating the customer’s reason for their hesitation does not fulfill our obligation to serve the customer in the best way possible.  Let’s examine why.

Why the customer may hesitate

The customer may hesitate for several reasons.  Perhaps they really do want to think about it, do the math and make a financial determination and that will take time.  Perhaps they need the approval of someone else or have another company that they would have do the work.  Maybe they are sceptical of the solution or don’t fully trust the technician. Or maybe they do not fully understand the risk of not taking action or the benefit of moving forward and therefore cannot make a fully informed decision.

Regardless, if the stakes are high, then the technician should be prepared to explore the cause of hesitation further and try to address their concerns if appropriate.  By not doing so, they are letting the customer make a choice that he/she may later regret and they certainly won’t thank us if they do.  And, it certainly won’t be helpful if we say something like, “You should have listened to me when I told you to …” when things do go as the technician predicted.

What we can do

  1. Ensure your technicians are aware of and expect that the customer may have concerns about any recommendation.
  2. Help your technicians be prepared to explore any concerns and have a plan to address them if they do arise.
  3. Have a backup plan if the technician is unsuccessful.

“Do you mind if I ask the reason for your hesitation?”

Let’s go back to the example of an imminent equipment failure.  The risk to the customer is high and yet they may say, “Leave it with me and let me think about it.”

Keeping in mind that the customer may genuinely wish to think about the issue, your technician can ask a simple question to help them get to the underlying concern.  “Do you mind if I ask the reason for your hesitation?” Chances are, the customer will answer this question with underlying cause for their hesitation.

By exploring the apparent concern of the customer, the technician will be in a better position to help the customer assess the recommendation and make a more informed decision.

Here are just a few examples of what to expect:

  • Hesitation based on scepticism: “My last service company never mentioned this” (often happens when you win a contract from a competitor and the technician has not had time to build trust) or “You guys have been looking after my equipment for the past 10 years, how come you’re just bringing this up now?”
  • Hesitation based on current buying habits: “I already have a company that can do that work for me.”
  • Hesitation based on uncertainty: “I am not sure if it will …”
  • Hesitation based on pricing and/or budgets: “We don’t have any reserve in the budget.”

With these examples in hand, you can help spend some time during your safety/service meetings with your technicians to help them develop a professional response to each of them if they do arise.  The customer may still say “no” despite your technician’s best efforts but at least the decision will be a better informed one.

Have a back up plan. 

What if the technician was unable to deal with the customer’s underlying concern and the matter is of some urgency?  An equipment failure for example could be catastrophic.  Should they push harder?  My answer is that they should not.

However, they should not drop the matter either.  I suggest that you have in place a process where in these circumstances, the technician can alert management so that a responsible follow-up with the customer can be taken by the manager or the sales team.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“He who hesitates is last.”

 – Mae West