Don’t Leave Customer Service Up to Chance
Dedication to giving the best customer service cannot be a whim. It cannot be something that is extended only to a select group of customers. Every customer, no matter how affluent, is entitled to the best possible service. “The customer is king” must be a continuous motto for every salesperson. It’s not like a roll of the dice. Customer service must be provided consistently and with purpose. Have this as your philosophy and you’ll have customers for life.
What ultimately assures success is the quality of customer service rendered. The payoff comes with repeat business and referrals by satisfied customers. It’s a fact that after two years in sales, if you provide outstanding service, 80 percent of all of your sales for the rest of your career will result from existing customers. Salespeople who never build a solid base of customers find themselves starting over each year as if they had just entered the sales field. So for good reason, giving your best, all out effort is not an alternative but is vital for your survival as a salesperson. Anything less is unthinkable.
To some degree, a salesperson is limited to the servicing commitment that his or her company is willing to make to customers. When young people seeking a sales career come to me for advice about how to select the right company, I always stress the importance of working for a service-oriented organization. I suggest that they find out how a company services its customers after the sale. It is many times more expensive to gain a brand new customer than it is to save an old one. There’s a huge expense involved in obtaining a new account, so once one is established, you can’t afford to lose it.
When you bombard your customers with perpetual service, you don’t leave any openings for a competitor to get his or her foot in the door. Winning lifetime customers isn’t based on a single mammoth act. Give your customers so much service they’ll feel guilty even thinking about doing business with somebody else. I’ve always believed that the first car I’d sell somebody was the beginning of a long relationship. To be successful in any business, it’s essential to give the best customer service possible so that he or she will come back again and again. What’s more, they will send other people to you; it creates a snowball effect. Don’t leave customer service up to chance. Give steady, reliable service and keep in consistent contact with your customer. Do this and you will build loyalty, and your business.
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