Owning the Customer’s Experience

Often in business, we encounter things over which we have no real control. Customs delays, and back-orders are just two examples of items which the front-line service provided cannot control. The key to mitigating these uncontrollable items is to take full control of the things you can control. Chief among these is the customer experience with you.

Get nearly any group of customers together to talk about the sales representatives or Customer service reps and the topic of personal responsibility comes up. “These kids just don’t take responsibility for their actions.” “They always have an excuse.” Some of these complaints are from people romanticizing their own personal memories. Some however, are based on first hand experiences dealing with a service provider. Either way, this is the perception of the customer and we all know, “Perception is reality.”

So what does responsibility look like? It looks a little different to each of us but I believe there are some common traits most of us share. Just a few might include;

• Punctuality
• Honesty
• Respect
• Humility

I have a personal favorite as well.

A Sense of Ownership

I define this as a person taking complete responsibility for the work they do. A sense that they are solely responsible for their work.

This sense of ownership encompasses many items from the previous list. Ownership of your own performance is a trait that only comes with maturity and a sense of responsibility. Unfortunately, it is also a very rare trait in modern business.
Ownership is not blaming a delay on the shipper. It may very well be that the shipper has delayed an order. Ownership means checking the status with the shipper and notifying the client of the potential delay. (BEFORE the customer calls looking for their delivery.) Customers are generally reasonable people who appreciate communication. They will certainly be more likely to speak highly of a rep who “checked in with the status of their order” instead of allowing a problem to arise. This demonstrates respect and honesty.
Ownership means admitting you do not know something and working diligently to find out for the customer. Your clients know you are a human. They also know when bluffed, snowed, side-stepped or been the recipient of a lie. There is no shame in saying, “I don’t know but I will certainly try to find out for you.” This is better than bluffing your way through and the customer learning later that you have lied to them. Not much will ruin your reputation faster than this. It is the immature sales rep who tries to convince the customer he knows it all. It is the professional, who has a sense of ownership, who admits a knowledge gap and seeks to fill it. This demonstrates humility, honesty, and respect.
Ownership of your work takes a little effort. You have to find the answers instead of bluffing your client. You have to humble yourself to admit a knowledge gap. You have to take a few minutes each day to check in on customer requests. These few things cost very little but the ROI can be huge. Building a reputation as a dependable, honest, humble, and respectful professional is likely the best investment in your business you can ever make.
You cannot control everything that happens in business. You can control how you handle the things business throws your way. Control the controllable and how you handle the uncontrollable. Doing so, you have far more control over the eventual outcome.

Here are some action steps to try.

• Check on the status of your customers. Then notify them of their status. This ongoing engagement will help build rapport and avoid potential problems before they happen.

• Admit you do not know everything. This single step will pay you back huge dividends. You will learn and improve your own understanding of your products and services. You will build rapport with your customers by learning with them and being honest. You will build a reputation as a professional who is honest and humble.

• Show the customer they are your priority. This means turning off your ringer during meetings. It means being on time for appointments. It means taking a moment to check on their status. (Even after the sale.)

• Make customers. Not sales. Take the relationship beyond the transactional and transform it into relational. Once that happens, you have a customer for life. I know I would much prefer to sell to a customer repeatedly than to sell them once. ...

Wouldn’t you?