Be Different or be dead

March 31, 2012

Why salespeople need to be accountable for fixing service mistakes

Source: Pexels

Why salespeople need to be accountable for fixing service mistakes.

Service recovery is a critical way to build customer loyalty

Service recovery = fix your blunder and surprise the customer with what they don’t expect.

Sales are in a critical position in the organization to influence the outcome of a customer screw-up yet they are rarely held accountable for it.

Service recovery is not a vital component of sales’ performance plans and as a result it is not reflected in their compensation plan for bonus pay.

To be successful in sales, recovery needs to be front and center in what they do.

Who is in a better position to initiate action when a customer has been disappointed? When the organization has broken a promise? When the solution provided doesn’t work to specifications? When the solution was not provided when it was promised?

Typically, if the salesperson has developed a trusted relationship with a customer they will get the call and will be expected to get things back in order. Yet in too many cases, the salesperson will pass this service complaint off to others in the organization whose role is to deal with after-sale matters.

Sales needs to take the lead in the service recovery process.

They are responsible to build meaningful relationships with customers and therefore must include actions taken when things go wrong.

The sales behavioural charter defines those behaviors that sales must continually demonstrate - service recovery must be part of it.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 3.31.12 at 10:39 am by Roy Osing
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March 29, 2012

How your brilliant business proposal can be a whopping success

Source: Pexels

How your brilliant business proposal can be a whopping success.

Your business proposal has been approved. Awesome! Well done!

All your hard work has paid off. The many hours of analysis. Research. Economic study. Trade-off assessment. Lobbying for support.

Make no mistake about it though. All you have done is make the paper case that your plan will succeed.

You have in no way created a case that will actually win in the real world.

In fact most of the work that has to be done takes place after your plan has been approved internally.

Execution brings your proposal to life.

Whatever the number of hours invested in developing your proposal spend 3 times more in creating your detailed execution plan.

Critical steps in your action plan

— Assign the individuals who will be assigned to each;

— Set the completion dates for each action item;

— Establish the review process that will be followed to ensure implementation is moving forward as planned;

— Define the contingencies for when things go off track (and they will).

Your business case has given you the right to commit resources to a given course. It is a mere possibility and guarantees nothing in terms of success.

Put in the hard work into execution for success.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 3.29.12 at 08:03 am by Roy Osing
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March 26, 2012

3 important ways to power up your business

Source: Pexels

3 important ways to power up your business.

Everyone is looking for the key to winning in business.

Problem is there isn’t ONE key. Winning in today’s intensely competitive world is all about doing a ton of simple things that create distance from the competitive herd.

But there are 3 things that, if done with passion and relentless tenacity, will turbocharge any organization on a winning path.

1. Have an ONLY Statement

Create a competitive claim that clearly establishes your distinctiveness. Your uniqueness. What makes you special compared to others.

“We are the ONLY ones that…..” is a practical way to create your position that is not aspirational, but can be executed in the marketplace. The ONLY statement is your elevator speech to describe what you do and who you are.

2. Do stuff for your loyal customers

Make them the center of attention. Build your business on the backs of the people who are loyal to you. Offer them the special deals first; don’t try and use promotions to acquire new customers until you’ve taken care of your loyalists first.

Make it easy for them to ‘sneeze’ you to others. Grow your business by trusting that if you leave your fans gaspworthy they will spread your word.

3. Make your game the dazzle game

Loyalty is created by delivering WOW! experiences not products that work according to specifications. People expect things to work the way you say they will. What they don’t expect is a mind-blowing experience when they get them.

Dazzle = powerful positive feelings = loyalty = word-of-mouth promotion = long term success. It’s just that simple.

Focus on getting started by creating this culture in your organization and it will yield the end-game you want

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 3.26.12 at 09:53 am by Roy Osing
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March 24, 2012

Why customer complaints are an awesome way to grow your business

Source: Pexels

Why customer complaints are an awesome way to grow your business.

Do you have a service strategy?

Most organizations look at complaining customers as a necessary evil and part of the job that needs to be done, but which is not looked upon with a great deal of delight.

Customers complain, frontline employees try and explain the company’s position in hopes to appease the annoyed customer and the customer goes away either satisfied or even more angry.

Remarkable organizations treat a complaining customer as first — a source of customer learning — and second, as a potential opportunity to recover and actually build customer loyalty

Customer learning goes beyond traditional market research and is a continuous process of learning from customers what works and what doesn’t in your organization.

It focuses on every customer contact and seeks to drain as much information from the experience possible in order to enhance market performance.

A customer complaint is an excellent touch point from which to learn.

It may not always be pleasant for an employee but it can provide rich information for you. Some companies treat complaint getting as a key strategic imperative, and honour those who do a great job at it.

Great employees attract complaining customers

Some organizations measure the number of complaints each frontline person handles successfully and they recognize the best complaint getter. Interesting cultural philosophy.

A customer complaint could be a service recovery waiting to happen. If the complaint is the result of a company blunder, handling the complaint the right way might be the difference between you losing the customer forever and enhancing their loyalty to you.

The recovery practice is about fixing the problem and then doing the unexpected for the customer based on what you know about them.

If you give ‘em what they DON’T expect, they will be more impressed than if the problem never occurred in the first place. And they will give you an ‘A’ for your efforts.

Let’s stop talking about complaints and start calling them recovery opportunities

Develop the process to turn complaint handling into successful recoveries and train your people on how you want it done.

Measure their performance and communicate it far and wide internally.

Honor those that excel in doing it.

Who are your complaint handling heroes?

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 3.24.12 at 10:25 am by Roy Osing
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