July 5, 2011 | If people buy from us based on the emotional considerations of confidence, comfort level and trust, why are we so eager to say things that will erode those qualities and our chances of ongoing relationships?
Let’s start with your new hire. The first thing to teach him or her is not to reveal how short a time they’ve been with you.
Someone calls with a question and gets the answer, “I don’t know; I just started working here last week.” Now what in blazes does that do to get the question answered and provide good customer service?
Better answer, “That’s a good question, and I don’t know the answer. If you’ll give me until tomorrow, though, I’ll find out and call you back.”
Undelivered promises like this are so prevalent that, when your new employee does call back on schedule with the answer, he/she gets a “Wow!” What a marketing opportunity! What did this cost in money and time to do what you said you would?
On the rare chance that someone will ask your employee how long he’s been with your company, educate him/her to say, “A while.” A while can be as little as three seconds, but the person asking won’t know that!
For subs: when they’re working for you, they’re working for you. Your company shirt, your business card with their name. For that project, they agree to be representing your company. None of this, “Well, you see, I don’t really work for him; he just brought me in to . . .” Huh-uh. You want to appear as if you have more people whom you train and supervise, not someone you brought in to help out because your staff is bare-boned and you were slammed. Quality control doubts suddenly appear.
Someone once said, “The devil is in the details.” I say, “Marketing is the little things.” Tend to them to create and maintain your best image and impressions in the marketplace.
