Posted by Todd Hockenberry ● May 26, 2009
The Magic Words
During the Magic vs. Cavaliers NBA playoff game Saturday night Dwight Howard of the Magic was was walking off the court talking to the referee over his shoulder about a foul call when all of a sudden the ref snapped his hands together in the T signal. Seems Dwight uttered the “magic words”.
Well for me when it comes to customer service the 'magic words' are 'it is our policy'. Doesn't matter what you say after that I am guaranteed to give you and your business a technical foul and take my ball (my business) and go home.
My pool service store has been up until today very customer responsive and helpful. Last week when I brought a sample of pool water in the for a free analysis they recommended a certain chemical which I then bought. When I got home my wife, the amateur chemist and resident pool expert, thought the results looked fishy and suggested we take another sample and see if we really needed the chemical. Turns out the same pool store one week later tells us that the pool water is perfect and that we do not need the chemical.
So what do you think they said when I asked to return the chemical I had purchased the previous week?
They uttered the 'magic words'.
“It is our policy to never take returns on chemicals”
My first response was “even ones you recommended and then said we didn't need”?
“That's our policy”.
End of discussion. The 'policy' is an all-seeing and all-knowing CYA mechanism for poorly trained sales people. Of course they can't be expected to empathize or think of a creative solution or talk to the customer and find some agreeable solution - it is the policy after all.
Do you by your management style force your salespeople to fall back on the 'it's our policy' excuse? Do you focus on internal politics and processes to the point that you drive your customers away or give them a good excuse to find someone who will take care of them?
My opinion is that this is a management problem and that it is more common than most managers would like to admit.
How hard would it be for the manager of the pool store to think of a solution to my problem, as well as the dozens of other common issues customers raise, and then train their people to solve them in constructive and polite ways. Shouldn't managers know the issues their customers will face and prepare their salespeople to handle them BEFORE a customer complains?
My final word to the salesperson was that they should at least post a sign at the register saying that any chemical sales are final and that there are no returns. A fair warning is the least any business should provide to customers it wants to keep.
Well for me when it comes to customer service the 'magic words' are 'it is our policy'. Doesn't matter what you say after that I am guaranteed to give you and your business a technical foul and take my ball (my business) and go home.
My pool service store has been up until today very customer responsive and helpful. Last week when I brought a sample of pool water in the for a free analysis they recommended a certain chemical which I then bought. When I got home my wife, the amateur chemist and resident pool expert, thought the results looked fishy and suggested we take another sample and see if we really needed the chemical. Turns out the same pool store one week later tells us that the pool water is perfect and that we do not need the chemical.
So what do you think they said when I asked to return the chemical I had purchased the previous week?
They uttered the 'magic words'.
“It is our policy to never take returns on chemicals”
My first response was “even ones you recommended and then said we didn't need”?
“That's our policy”.
End of discussion. The 'policy' is an all-seeing and all-knowing CYA mechanism for poorly trained sales people. Of course they can't be expected to empathize or think of a creative solution or talk to the customer and find some agreeable solution - it is the policy after all.
Do you by your management style force your salespeople to fall back on the 'it's our policy' excuse? Do you focus on internal politics and processes to the point that you drive your customers away or give them a good excuse to find someone who will take care of them?
My opinion is that this is a management problem and that it is more common than most managers would like to admit.
How hard would it be for the manager of the pool store to think of a solution to my problem, as well as the dozens of other common issues customers raise, and then train their people to solve them in constructive and polite ways. Shouldn't managers know the issues their customers will face and prepare their salespeople to handle them BEFORE a customer complains?
My final word to the salesperson was that they should at least post a sign at the register saying that any chemical sales are final and that there are no returns. A fair warning is the least any business should provide to customers it wants to keep.
Topics: Sales
