Ways To Avoid Miscommunications Mistakes That Cause Customers To Leave
Miscommunications cause more clients to leave, even after years of positive business interactions than any other reason other than neglect. What you say matters, especially when you say it to your customers. Then, why are industrial and high-tech firms notorious for saying the wrong things both verbally and nonverbally?
Maintain open communications with customers over time. The biggest mistake you can make is not following up on existing customers even after they have take deliver and used your product. Keep letting them know you appreciate their business, find out if there is anything else you can do for them, and seek referrals. Unfortunately, most business-to-business firms ignore customers after the sale, passing them over to the service department for fulfillment.
Listen to what customers are saying, hidden desires. Often they will complain about one thing when customers really want something else. No body knows why they do this, it's just an unpleasant fact, and if you are not paying attention, you may treat a symptom while never seeing the real problem. Listen closely to what a customer is saying; what they aren't saying, and make sure you really understand them even if you have to bring in someone else to translate.
Adjust compensation of sales people for customer retention. Most all sales organizations pay more for new customers than they do for keeping and growing existing accounts. If you really sat down and looked at the math, existing accounts are more profitable, so there should be more incentive to grow all accounts. If you're a sales person, stay in touch with existing customers to drive referrals, they can help you gain new accounts quickly.
Use preemptive account monitoring to check on low activity accounts. You have low activity accounts that could be doing more business with you today; just no one has bothered to give them a call. Setup periodic outbound telemarketing to check up on accounts at least quarterly (depending on the type of solution offered.) In this call check up with two decision makers and two users, if necessary, spread the calls over the quarter.
Focus dialog around the solution not individuals. No matter what happens, someone will want to place blame somewhere, but to maximize customer loyalty it's better to focus everything on the solution instead of pointing fingers. If you find you made the mistake then admit it, however, most often telling the customer they are wrong just makes them mad. Small confrontations will usually blow over by focusing the team on solving the problem, putting personal issues aside, and getting right into the details contrary to who did what.
You'll never avoid every communications mistake, there are hundreds more to make. My clients surprise me every month with new ones they discover. Just realize these mistakes come in both verbal and nonverbal form, they harm the customer relationship and reduce customer loyalty.
Be aware of your customer economics, often you can wrap a customer service issue up in the customers favor for less than fighting it out on principle. However, there are cases where trouble customers need to be fired because they are costing you too much to manage. These actions are great for day-to-day struggles your staff face; why not share this article with them?
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