Question: Salespeople wait until something is booked and then hand it to operations to get the job done. We have no say in what has been sold to the client. Just get told, “Hope you can make it work!” How do we avoid failing to fulfill what has been promised to customers?
Thoughts of the day: What buyers really want is a predictable experience. It takes teamwork to build loyal customers. Measure the different kinds of breakdowns that impact customers. Focus everyone on producing successes. Get salespeople the help they need, before they even know they need it. Know when to save the day by saying “can”™t do it” before problems erupt.
Having to fix problems is not only expensive, it also destroys trust. Customers buy from you because they expect you can deliver as promised. When that fails to happen, customers start looking more carefully at what they”™ve bought and become more critical of any flaws they find.
Help operations people understand the importance of building customer loyalty through predictability. Show newcomers to the team how critically customers look at breakdowns. Start them out handling incoming customer complaints and responses to show them how much time is wasted recovering from breakdowns.
Build customer loyalty through teamwork. Get people who produce what your company promises out into the field. Help them better understand what customers expect and the conditions under which customers use your company”™s products or services. Ask people who sell for your company to do a tour of duty in operations, to get their hands dirty producing goods or services to match customer orders. Ask them to help solve problems so they have a deeper appreciation for the constraints under which people in operations do their work.
Track results and look for opportunities to improve by getting sales and operations staff together to discuss what to do. Set standards for error rate, breakdowns and missed delivery dates. Ask both sides of the aisle, sales and operations, to discuss and agree upon the yardstick to be used for measuring client success.
Encourage progress by celebrating successes, regardless of who on the team produced them. Whether it is improved profits from sales, reduced production costs from operations, or increased customer loyalty through faster, more accurate, less error-prone delivery, everyone wins. Make sure everyone sees it that way ”“ a team success.
Open up lines of communication between your company and its customers. Ask customers to participate in recognizing your team”™s heroes and heroines. Have a formal introduction process in place for new customers, telling them who to go to when they need help. Get critical feedback immediately by having customer service report directly to the top of the organization.
Ask operations staff to provide technical expertise that salespeople may not possess. Strengthen the quality of your company”™s sales and reduce the problems that result by combining resources before a sale is completed.
When making a promise to a customer, ask people to double and triple the time they think it will take and resist the temptation to overpromise. If the customer really and truly needs a product sooner, go back and work through the production schedule. Check that another customer won”™t get bumped.
Be smart enough to know when it”™s necessary to say “no” to a sales opportunity because your team can”™t meet the delivery timeline or the quality the customer demanded.
Looking for a good book? Try “The Effortless Experience: Conquering the New Battleground for Customer Loyalty” by Matthey Dixon, Nick Toman and Rick DiLisi.
Andi Gray is president of Strategy Leaders Inc., strategyleaders.com, a business-consulting firm that specializes in helping entrepreneurial firms grow. She can be reached by phone at 877-238-3535. Do you have a question for Andi? Send it via email to AskAndi@strategyleaders. Visit AskAndi.com for an entire library of Ask Andi articles.
