Make ‘No’ a No-No (and Other Wisdom)

Here are some lessons about customer relations drawn from a long career in a variety of service-oriented businesses

While working on a marketing campaign for a major engine manufacturer’s generator rental business, I learned a powerful customer service lesson.

Colleagues and I visited the rental manager from one of the company’s most successful dealers, who told us his secret to keeping customers happy: Take the word “No” out of your vocabulary.

He meant that quite literally. He never used the word “No” in talking to customers, and he didn’t want his sales team members to use it either. “A customer doesn’t want to hear the word ‘No,’” he said. “He wants to hear the word ‘Yes.’”

That didn’t mean he or his colleagues would agree to anything a customer suggested, and so consent to doing the impossible, the unwise, or the unprofitable. It did mean the dealership’s people were to talk with customers in affirmative ways.

For example, if a customer asked for a unit the company didn’t have in inventory, the right answer wasn’t “No.” The right answer might be, “Yes, I believe I can get that for you – let me check.” And then the salesperson could consult a database to see if neighboring dealers had the unit on hand.

Or maybe the right answer would be a question: “Why that particular unit?” – leading to discussion about another model in stock that would serve just as well or better.

It was an approach that served the company well, and it was just one of many things this dealer did to make customers feel special. For example, several parking spaces right next to the front door were always kept open and were stenciled with “Customer First” in bright yellow letters on the asphalt.

As this example shows, if you spend enough time in service-related businesses (nearly 30 years in my case), you run into people who teach you things. I’ve met many such people, and the lessons they’ve taught, mostly through example, have served me well. Here are a few more.

“The customer doesn’t want to hear about your problems.” So you’re having a rotten day. A couple of trucks are down. A technician has botched a project and you’ve been trying all day to recover. Now a customer calls and needs a job done and needs it now. And every impulse in you wants to say, “I just can’t. This happened, that happened. Is there any way I can do it tomorrow?”

Now imagine you’re the customer. She called to tell you her problems, and now she has to listen to yours? She has a blocked drain, company is coming for supper, and you’re complaining about your day?

When your world is in chaos, and you get a customer on the line, you’ve got to forget what’s wrong for you and shift to what’s wrong for her. Yes, ma’am, glad you called. We’re on the case. We’ll have someone there as soon as possible. And then find a way to make it happen.

Or if you really can’t help her yourself, tell her you can – and call a friendly competitor. One way or another, let her know she’s the one who counts.

“Make every customer feel like your only customer – always.” I learned this from my boss while working in advertising. Agency life could get hectic. On a rough day I might be juggling two or three deadlines. Then another client calls and wants it right away. Maybe I can do it and maybe I can’t, but the last thing I want to say is, “I’m busy with another account right now,” or anything to that effect.

Because if I do, now the client is thinking, “Who are these other customers who are more important than I am? Maybe I should be with a company that puts me first.” I’ve got to find a way to say “Yes,” if at all possible. Or if I can’t, talk to the client, and see if maybe this request really could wait until morning.

But I should never, ever let the client know, or even think, that someone is ahead of him in line. Because a little slight like that could start the relationship on a long, downward spiral.

“Customer service doesn’t mean just satisfying the customer. It means satisfying the customer at a profit.” I learned this from the customer service manager of a loading dock equipment company I once had as a client. He was one of the most upbeat people I’ve ever known.

While nearing retirement age, he had a hip replaced. Soon after he was fully rehabbed, he was back to giving demonstrations to visiting customers in the company’s showroom, all energy, spry and light on his feet, sometimes leaping off a dock board, bionic hip and all, to land on the floor four feet below.

He once told me that the easiest thing in the world to do, and possibly the worst thing for a business, is to give the store away to a customer who has a complaint. Someone who does that, he said, is a bit like a salesperson who only knows how to win orders in competitive situations by lowering his price.

Of course there are times when the company has made a mistake and fairness says the customer deserves a full refund. But there are other times when the customer is asking for compensation the situation clearly doesn’t call for.

Now is the time for diplomacy. Can you talk the customer down? Can you engage the customer in seeing not only his side, but yours as well? Can you transition to discussing what a fair resolution might be? Can you arrive at a solution from which the customer walks away happy, while you still make money?

If you can do that, then both the customer and your company have won. That’s the essence of good business – and of quality customer service.

A parting word: Pay attention to everyone you meet in the course of doing business. You never know who might teach you a lesson worth remembering.



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