What a week its been. I know it’s only Tuesday but I have been through some highs and lows with how companies communicate. First one of the hosting companies we use had a cloud server node go down on Saturday morning and as of this post the service is still not up. Then I had a vendor overstep their boundaries and displayed one of the worst communication style I ever witnessed. However, some of my intelligent clients have been sending me birthday greetings which have been cheering me up.
What’s interesting about each of these scenarios is how the individuals at these companies communicated with me. The hosting company provided very little information on their Blog post about what the real problem is and more importantly when will we have service. Their Blog post last mentioned that we can expect service shortly. That was 19 hours ago. I wonder what their definition of shortly is. The sales rep at a local radio station only calls me asking if my clients are looking to buy time on the station. This person has never learned what exactly my clients do or what we do. Their focus is on one thing get a check. This salesperson called me and left a message asking would one of my union clients purchase ads because some other unions are purchasing ads about Bloomberg’s budget. When I didn’t respond to her fast enough she took it upon herself to call the president of the union. The union president informed her that his union would not be purchasing any ads until the summer. She then went and scheduled a meeting with the union president with the sole purpose of getting that summer check and then called me again to ask if I would be able to attend the meeting. After my conversation with her she begged for forgiveness and canceled the meeting.
So I have been exposed to two scenarios of LCS (Lousy Communication Style). Both of these outbursts of LCS has driven me away from using their business. But the sad part is that they think their style of communication and customer service is the correct approach. When your product/service delivery is breaking down and you’re unable to deliver, clients and consumers want to know more about what is going on, not kept in the dark. This is where social media can assist your business with communicating what has gone wrong how it will affect you and when will it be resolved.
Southwest Airlines which is having problems keeping the roofs of their planes intact took that approach. Southwest is using their Twitter account, Facebook and Blog to update their passengers on what is going on. More importantly they are not using vague terms like shortly or soon, they are providing real time frames on their expectations to return to full service.
The woman who works for the radio station is making the mistake that too many salespeople make. You can’t sell me anything if you have not taken the time to understand my needs. I called you once because my client knew what they wanted. So instead of using the opportunity to create a relationship of consultative selling or Selling 2.0. you stuck to the old dinosaur way of selling yourself out of future sales.
Public Service Announcement for all sales professionals. The profession of sales has shifted, the consumers are in power and unless you spend more time listening instead of telling them what you think they should hear, you’re going to end up like the dinosaurs.
Despite the advances in our abilities to communicate, LCS is approaching epidemic stages. Experts are suggesting that the advances in communication platforms is the culprit, I however think its the laziness and stress of incompetent people who do not take pride in their craft and profession.
You can avoid LCS by taking a personal approach in your communications with clients and prospects. Spend time talking with your clients to learn of their concerns and what outcomes they are focused on. I call this approach farming because you use it to grow opportunities to upsell existing clients on either increased service with you or an opportunity to introduce new products/services that your clients desire.
If you find yourself in a situation where you can’t deliver your product/service DO NOT HIDE IN THE SAND. This is the time to be proactive, provide as much correct information as possible across all of your media platforms. You’re going to take some harsh words but you will also get kudos for being upfront and informative.
Responding to what’s important to your prospects and clients will keep your business top of mind. Kudos to those vendors who have sent me birthday cards, I really enjoyed them and yes I’m pleased that I do business with you. Top sales people and companies that have excellent communication programs know about the important milestones in their clients and vendors lives and they make certain that they recognize every milestone with a written acknowledgement. Its not difficult for anyone to keep track and send a card to a client for those special occasions and there are several websites that can assist you with sending out communications on time.
LCS is not a hard disease to beat or to even avoid, just keep applying the personal touch with your market and you can stay LCS free.