Tell Your Customers Up Front

Tuesday, 11. 24. 2009  –  Category: T2 Communications

Many customers do their own market research before purchasing a product or service, but there are still some unnoticeable inconveniences that the average consumer cannot find on their own.  They are left for the sales person or customer service representative to share with the customer.  It’s tempting to avoid uncomfortable conversations about your product’s faults or your service’s limitations, but there are benefits to telling them up front versus waiting until you are asked for an explanation.  Customers want to know that they are being helped and not just sold.  In the end, it’s all about developing and maintaining a level of trust.

Don’t Leave the Fine Print Alone
Letting your customer discover the limitations of your products and services in the “fine print” is almost as bad as if they caught you telling a lie to their face.  Customers are weary of the fine print because of all of the negative associations with it.  If you, the sales person, don’t explain what is in this fine print up front, you could encounter two scenarios.  One, the customer may sit and read the fine print before signing on the dotted line; and when they encounter anything that may seem suspicious, they’ll already be on the defense to any explanation that you may provide.  Second, they may just leave well enough alone until a situation arises that refers to the fine print, after which their trust in you, your company and your product will be less than before.  They’ll more than likely be angry about it, too, because nobody told them up front.  This could lead to bad word of mouth, which could really cost you.

Give Them Expectations
Being an expert is always a good thing when it comes to the products and services that you offer to your clients.  Telling the customer about all of the wonderful things your product does is the great part of the job, but being an expert doesn’t stop at the joys.  You must let the customer know what negativity to expect if you want to maintain a level of trust that will keep them coming back to you.  If you sell your customer a product and let them walk out of the door with their shiny new gadget without preparing them for the few small glitches that they may encounter, they will come back to you anyway and ask for an explanation.  Then when you do try to tell them why those things happened, it will only sound like excuses.  If you set them up to expect those few minor inconveniences ahead of their own discovery then they feel prepared.  The reaction will be more along the lines of, “Oh yeah, remember the sales person told us to expect that after about six months?”  Instead of, “Yeah right, next time we’re going to the other guy!”

Always Be Prepared
No matter how prepared you think you are making your clients, there will always be the ones who don’t remember or who choose to forget how you mentioned the limitations or costs of your product or service.  Having a checklist or notes for the conversation with each customer will come in handy for this.  For example, your client calls you because they’ve noticed what seems to be an unwarranted charge on their bill.  You discover that it’s for an extra service that they chose to include from the beginning.  Instead of immediately telling them that they must have asked for it, refer back to your notes or checklist that shows you and them when in the conversation they approved the additional charge.  “Let me refer to my checklist.  Oh yes, see here’s where you requested the additional warranty.”  Recalling the conversation along with showing how thoroughly you help each customer enables the confidence that they developed when you sold them the product or service.  It also helps them remember when and why they agreed to it in the first place.

Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , ,

Comments are closed.