Richard Denny – Thoughts on sales and marketing

If customers are such a nuisance, at least stop wasting their time and yours and invite the administrators in – they equally are not interested in customers.

At a time which some claim to be the worst trading conditions for 70 years wouldn’t you think that every business and employee would be enthusiastic to meet, see or hear a customer? Kind of obvious really and probably even common sense!!

Well as we all know, sense is very uncommon and sadly, customers for many businesses and their staff are an interruption to their work. Customer care and service is non-existent. Yet no doubt their corporate website and literature claim “we pride ourselves in our service.”

Bob Wilson, one of our specialists in customer care development for our clients tells me of two experiences last week.

1. He went into a motor retailer to consider changing one of his cars and you would think, wouldn’t you, that a car salesman would be really excited and enthusiastic to have a real live customer on their forecourt? Well after approximately 5 minutes of him standing around, a salesperson appeared and said “I’ll be with you in a few minutes, I am finishing some paperwork.” Bob, being the charming delightful chap he is waited with his wife for a further 5 minutes. The sales person appeared again and said “I am sorry to keep you waiting, but I am nearly finished and will be with you soon.” Bob and Mrs Bob were now no longer feeling quite so nice and after a further 5 or 6 minutes left out in the cold on the forecourt they decided that changing their car wasn’t really that important. They got into their car, which now had a whole new attraction and drove home. They were genuinely a customer with money.

2. The same Bob working with our clients stayed in a reputable hotel in the North of England – it begins with an M has a couple of r’s in the middle and ends with a t. He went into the restaurant and was shown to a table and given a menu. He waited and waited and waited. After what seemed like an eternity of reading the menu front to back, staring at the ceiling, trying to attract attention eventually a person appeared to take his order. He made his selection and the order taker told him that his selection was off the menu at which point Bob replied “and so am I.” He walked out and went some where else.

If ever there was a time to invest in developing the skills of customer care, it is now. (yes I do have a vested interest because this is one of the things that we do) However, we put our money where our mouth is by guaranteeing our clients profits on a small investment.

It is tragic that so many people are losing their jobs because of gross incompetence in management towards the customer care culture.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 at 10:05 am and is filed under Sales & Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.