A few weeks ago I lost a client. It’s not as if that’s never happened before, and won’t happen again, but this time it shouldn’t have happened. It wasn’t because I was outbid by a competitor or my product didn’t measure up to expectations. It was simply a failure, on my part, to communicate.
I often hear consultants and marketing types talk about customer communications. They normally speak in terms of such things as corporate promotional strategies or using the internet to facilitate orders and customer service. What we don’t hear them talk about is that very basic skill set every business professional should have…the ability to communicate with customers and prospects and to do it well.
My fellow marketing types are paid to look at the big picture of course, so we can’t really blame them. And most of us old business pros have been around so long we generally don’t think about our basic skill sets anymore. It’s no wonder we get lazy and let things slide…usually without even recognizing we’re doing it.
On the other hand, we may have people working for us who simply haven’t developed these skills yet. That’s hardly my case…I just got lazy, and focused on something besides my customers, and sure enough one of them noticed and went elsewhere.
Undoubtedly other customers have noticed as well and are simply not as prone to taking such action. Customers leave firms on a regular basis, for various reasons, and if we were to analyze in detail why they did so we might be surprised to find that faulty communications lies behind many of these migrations.
So let’s look at some of the factors that define really good personal communications skills versus just average or mediocre ones.
Timeliness: let’s begin with this basic piece of the puzzle. I’m sure we’ve all had questions or concerns with vendors before, and have left voice mail and email messages trying to get to the bottom of the problem. When the vendor gets back to us in short order we normally feel more positive about whatever the answers might be. When the vendor takes days to return our calls even a good answer may not lead us out of the swamp of negativity we’ve been led into.
I know many good salespeople who never allow a call or email to go longer than an hour without being answered. This takes real effort, but their customers love them. This is the factor of timeliness, and is a key to solid customer communications at the personal level.
Reliability: when a customer learns you can be counted on to remain in communication with them or to respond in a timely fashion. This makes you reliable in the customer’s eyes. There are many factors to reliability in a customer relationship, and communications is simply the first and one of the most important of these.
Consistency: this factor might involve something as simple as maintaining the same message in the same situation. It would also involve such minor actions as setting patterns to your communications. For example, you might have an ongoing transaction involving credit or custom manufacturing. If you call the customer every day at 10:00 AM to let them know how the process is going, you are consistent. If you suddenly skip a few days or call at 4:30 PM instead, you are inconsistent. Some customers won’t care…others may be very thin-skinned and might be duly impressed with your consistent updates. They will rate you well when a third party asks them how you did on their transaction.
Clarity: if you leave your customer guessing as to what you meant to convey, you have failed at clarity. A muddled communication, whether verbal or in writing, leaves them wondering what is up and whether you know what you’re about. This isn’t good when you’re asking them to give you their money. It can also result in future hard feelings and even legal actions.
Brevity: brief and concise communications are an aid to clarity. Keeping the key points in mind and making certain the client hears them. Brevity is an art that many have never learned. Any good salesperson knows the value of getting to the point.
The 90/10 rule: the golden rule of selling, the 90/10 rule goes hand-in-hand with brevity. The conversation could be an extended one, but the best use of your time is to listen. Good communications consist of spending 10% of your effort speaking and 90% of your effort listening.
Accountability: an issue in communications that is a common reason companies install customer relationship management systems. Every communication should be noted, time and date as well as subject matter and result. The file kept on the customer or prospect need not be a fancy one, but you want to be able to come back months later and review what was said and when it was said.
Honesty: this is more than an ethical issue in business. When we try to schmooze, or gloss over a problem, or even outright lie, it does more than just reduce who we are as professionals. It will inevitably come back to bite us in a most nasty manner. Our customers are no fools and we will eventually get caught looking like we are…or worse. This is something that has to be drummed into the heads of new salespeople especially, as the temptation to take shortcuts or make phony excuses is always present.
My own recent failure to communicate lay in the area of consistency and timeliness. It’s not an uncommon result of having too many years experience and taking a lot for granted. It’s an easy trap to fall into, and a good reason to take some time and review the key factors to successful personal communications in business.
We all make mistakes, and the key thing is to use them to improve and to help others in our firm learn from them as well. This is a great topic for sales department or customer service department meetings as well as management get-togethers. Have your group build their own list of the key factors of communicating, see if they come up with similar ones as we have here, and discuss how well they address those factors. It can be a real eye-opener, and the first thing you might see could be an improvement in your bottom line.
