Good morning everyone,
Have you ever experienced tension between customer service and the sales team? Has there been passive aggressive exchanges between the two groups in your organization?
Ever have a customer service representative blindsided by a customer agreement?
Today I want to dive into an area of opportunity to help serve your customer as well as your organization. In many organizations there are sales people and then there are account managers/ customer service representatives.
Two separate people supporting groups for the customer and if communication is not great, two separate messages being communicated to the customer. This drives customer satisfaction down as well as cross functional teams to argue and point fingers when issues arise. Anyone that has been in sales for a while will be able to relate to this tension.
After a sale the sales person rides off into the sunset never to be heard from again which I have preached about in the past as being the ultimate sin in sales! That’s right about 99% of sales professionals fall into this trap. This hurts the relationship with the customer, effects return customers, and puts the customer service representative in a bad position when the customer asks for their deal that the sales professional made with them.
Ever have this situation happen to your customer service team? The sales person negotiates something different from the standard terms and conditions leaving the customer and customer service representative in a sparing contest to see who will give in. The customer continues to get irritated stating, “ This is not what I agreed to!” I’m sure some other adjectives are also used. The customer service representative is also irritated and the customer experience has just blown up. It does not even matter if the sales person resolves this issue, the customer already has an opinion of how this organization will support them in the future.
Remember the organization is the second buying decision, even before the product is sold so we need to make sure we are all working together to make the customer experience exceptional.
I worked for an organization where the sales people were all over the place with making side deals outside of the normal parameters. The customer service representatives were processing orders without this knowledge and issues started popping up. Customer relationships were paying the penalty. Business was starting to erode and the owner of the organization was getting calls from large customers venting their frustration. This was a bad situation.
To remedy this, the sales people were brought in for a sit down to understand how to get sales done following the standard program. There needed to be conformity because there is something else that happens because our customers talk. They will brag about the deal they received only to make the other customers resent the sales person for not giving them the same deal. Profits were eroding and things were just not flowing in the organization.
When selling a product / service the customer service teams as well as sales teams need to have an understanding of the program and where there are opportunities to make small changes if needed. Sales people and customer service representatives need to be on the same page so there is one message communicated to the customers at all times. This helps when some of those slick customers try to get “a better deal.”
Communication is key! If sales professionals are not communicating terms of the deals and with the customer service representatives then there will be opportunities for misses with the customer. The sales professionals also need to address as much of the terms of the agreement in writing so there are no issues for others to action against. It is up to sales professionals to support their teams and not just hoping others will just figure it out.
Both teams are extremely busy! One idea that I have shared is to use a sharepoint directory so that our customer service and sales teams can reference the signed agreements so that way they can check what was agreed to. Having this one location is crucial to the success of the organization! This way we can serve the customer effectively, maintain relationships, and keep profits up! Everyone needs to be on the same page when communicating with the customer. Otherwise, the customer experience and profits suffer.
Have a great day everyone and happy selling!
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business. I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”