NFIB

Watch What You Say: Customers Remember
04/ 11/ 2002

An often unmentioned aspect of customer service is customer trust. People simply will not continue doing business with a company that they distrust. And they will not recommend the business to others. For that reason, management and employees of a company must be extremely careful at all times not to say or do anything that can be construed as dishonest, careless or disrespectful to a customer. In today's Workshop, Jeffrey Moses discusses important areas of concern.

Special care should be given when making bids or estimates. Any dollar figures that are initially mentioned will stick in the customer's mind and could come back to haunt the bidder if the actual estimate turns out to be higher. For example, it may be tempting for a cabinet maker to say while on the job site, "Those counter tops will cost between $1,200 and$1,400." The verbal bid may have been made as a ballpark figure. But if the actual bid comes in at $1950 in the end, the customer will remember the lower bid and will feel resentful about the higher price.

The best way to avoid such situations is to never give a ballpark bid. Wait until all data is available and a final price has been calculated before quoting. This will save you a lot of aggravation, and help you keep customers.

Many customers are suspicious of extra charges that were not mentioned in the original estimate. Be careful that such charges do not creep into billings. If your company charges a delivery fee, tell customers at the time of the sale, not when the delivery is at their front door. To avoid questions of whether the customer was informed of all charges, all figures should be included on a written contract or delivery order and should be signed by the customer.

Another area of concern is delivery dates or completion dates. The cabinetmaker in the above example might tell a customer, for example, "We'll have these finished for you in a week or two." If the actual work takes a month, or longer, the customer will very likely be dissatisfied, or even angry. Never give completion dates offhandedly. Be careful about what you say, and be as accurate as possible. For your own records, keep track of what you say by marking agreed-upon completion dates (or even stages of completion) on a calendar.

If, for any reason, a delivery or completion date needs to be pushed off, call the customer immediately and fully inform them about the situation. If something is beyond your control (such as late or inaccurate delivery of materials and employee unavailability), the customer will then be honestly and fully informed.

Truthfulness and accuracy should pervade even the smallest aspects of operations. If one of your employees tells a customer that specific information will be faxed "right away," the fax shouldn't arrive five or six days later. The customer will begin to wonder what "right away" means to your company.

This is customer service in action, and will help win customer trust and loyalty.

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