Exceptional customer service is what all our customers expect. It’s also what every company promises! Just take a look at any service business website. What do you see? They include statements like these, “We put our customers first”, “Our goal is to provide service beyond our customers’ expectations”, “We are a premier service provider.”
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With all these promises how come so many customers are unhappy? How come more companies aren’t getting the repeat business they want? It’s because they don’t deliver on their promises.
Sales-to-Service Handoff
One of the most common areas that businesses trip up is with the sales-to-service handoff. That’s the point in the process where sales has closed the deal and gives the customer over to the service department for them to deliver the services promised.
Then what happens? The service department is surprised that sales actually promised deliverables that they can’t provide or in a time frame and budget that is unrealistic. You see, in order to get the sale the sales team told the customer what they wanted to hear, not what we could actually deliver.
How can we prevent this from happening? A successful sales-to-service hand off requires these three steps:
- Focus on specific services and industries
- Educate sales and service departments on the services you provide
- Include customer service in the sales process
Focus on Specific Services and Industries
Companies that try to be all things to all customers find that they are nothing to everyone. This is a business mistake that all too many companies make. They are so afraid to commit to a specific service offering or industry that they become a “jack of all trades, and a master of none.”
This causes all sorts of stress in the organization. Sales teams do not fully understand what they are selling and cannot become proficient enough in any one of them to be able to fit them properly to the right customers and cannot talk intelligently enough about them to sell them properly.
And the service department cannot obtain detailed knowledge in the services to become the experts that the customers expect.
By limiting the services to a select few you can become the expert that your customers want and expect. You can attract the right customers who are actually a good fit for you. And the customer relationship will be a mutually beneficial one.
Educate Your Staff
Sales as well as service must become experts in the services you sell. When the sales team fully understands what your services provide to the customer they will be able to target the right customers and stop trying to sell to everyone. This alone will eliminate a good portion of possible unhappy customers.
In addition, a well-educated sales team will understand the service delivery process. They need to know how services are delivered so that they can make appropriate promises. This seems obvious, but so many firms only educate their sales teams on selling benefits and they miss the boat when it comes to delivery.
Your service professionals need specialized training too. If the service staff is required to know too many products or service disciplines they will spend too much time researching and retraining themselves so that they can respond to customer requests. Understand what is required of your service staff in order for them to become experts and train them appropriately. It will pay off handsomely in happy customers and increased profits.
Include Service in the Sales Process
Service people tend to hate selling, but they need to be part of the sales process. By including them they take ownership of the deliverables being promised. They will make sure that the services promised can actually be delivered timely and within budget.
If you have the financial resources, consider creating a sales support group from your experienced service professionals. Give them a piece of the action in commissions or bonus to incentivize them to get new business. This will strengthen your sales ability as a company.
Either way, you will need to train your service staff in the art of selling. Sometimes service professionals do not know the line between selling and consulting. They want to give away the store for free during the sales cycle, but it is important that they know the difference. It’s worth the effort to train them here.
Action Steps
What are your next steps? What can you do to implement what you have learned here today? Here are some suggestions:
- Identify specific industries and/or services that you want to sell and create a plan to build your business around these specialized areas
- Put together a training plan for your sales and service teams
- Create an incentive plan for your service staff that encourages them to be involved in the sales process.