Customer Experience

When was the last time you asked everyone in your company “What are you going to say and do…?”

The reason I ask is that I just called a local business.  The receptionist answered the phone and when I asked her what it cost to fix my printer, she gave me a price.  I thanked her and hung up the phone.

She never captured my name.  Or my phone number.  Or my email address.

She never asked me if I was calling on behalf of a company that might have hundreds of printers in need of servicing.

She did a great job of answering my question – but not a great job of capturing a lead, qualifying me and ensuring that I brought my printer in to her employer.

Not to pick on her.  Every day, potential customers will contact businesses and speak with an employee that has no idea about [ex] the monthly specials or the special offer in an email that the caller received this morning.

Marketing will blast out an email – and forget to tell anyone else in the company about the message and offers.  A customer will be on the phone with their account person and ask about the email and the sales person won’t have a clue what the customer is talking about.

Or someone from the accounting department will be at a luncheon when someone sitting next to them mentions a need for a product or service your company offers – but the accountant really hasn’t paid all that much attention to your products and services because their job is “…processing receivables.”

Or one of your delivery truck drivers is quizzed by a customer about your company’s volume discount policy and responds with “Hey man, I just drive trucks.”

Here’s my point.  Everyone in your company is involved with sales and marketing.  They should know who your target audience is and understand how your products and services provide a unique value to them.  They should understand what information they need to gather in order to qualify a lead – and who they need to get the information to ASAP in order to ensure a fast, appropriate response on your company’s behalf.

The folks in accounting and shipping should be trained to ask the right questions in order to identify opportunities.

And the folks in marketing better be letting everyone in the company know that [ex] today’s email blast is going to potential customers and promoting Product A which, as we all know, offers the following unique benefits that solve the following needs and wants of the audience.