If you have ever owned a car, it is pretty much guaranteed that you have at least one car-buying horror story. A couple of weeks ago, I came across this post by Peter Shankman in which he took down Infiniti of Manhattan. Read the blog post, which is hilarious and shocking at the same time, and you’ll see how richly they deserved a public dressing-down.
(What’s funny is that poor customer service seems to be a plague among luxury car dealers, at least on the East Coast. My most recent horror story is courtesy of Audi of Tysons Corner.)
Which brings me to the point of this post: Salespeople need to be trained in customer service. I think too many people in sales are so hellbent on closing a sale no matter what that they forget they are dealing with a person. It doesn’t take much to shift the focus from sales to service. Here’s how to do it:
Personalize messages
If you learn nothing else from Peter’s blog post, this is it: Whenever you email or snail mail a customer or potential customer, don’t be lazy and use a generic message. Add their name, obviously, but don’t stop there. Your CRM and customer files should be full of information about them. Use it! You’ll be able to acknowledge where they are in the buying cycle, what products or services they’re using, what else they were interested in, etc. No one wants to be treated like a number; this helps ensure they don’t feel like one.
I write about a lot of startups at Tech Cocktail, and as editor, I get a lot of pitches and press releases from companies and PR people. Most of them also add a personal message that shows they’ve done their homework. They know what I tend to write about, how I angle my stories, and my style. And these emails read like they were written by a person with a personality. That’s really cool, and it makes a big difference in how quickly I jump on the story.
Don’t underestimate the power of a thank you
In sales, the focus is so much on getting, giving sometimes gets thrown by the wayside. A simple thank you is great, but don’t stop there. An enthusiastic thank you that is full of appreciation is better.
When I publish a post that was pitched to me, I often receive a thank you. For some companies, it’s only the first or third time they’re getting press, so it’s a pretty big deal for them. When the thank you comes from a PR person, I will be more likely to make room in my editorial calendar for their clients.
Follow up and keep in touch
Once you close the sale, improve your chances of keeping them as a customer for life by following up with a call or email to see how things are going. It doesn’t take a lot of time or effort, but it’s worth it, as it is far easier to keep the customers you already have than to find new ones. Plus, you never know how many referrals you might get.
Image by Flickr user woodleywonderworks (Creative Commons)
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