How many times have you had a conversation with a customer thinking one thing was going to happen only to find your expectations were misread?
At Sandler, part out our process is to establish a strong "up-front contract" with the other person on what is to happen next. This means no one is left in the dark, nothing can be misinterpreted, and there is no "mutual mystification" during the interaction.
Do not hear only the things you want to hear; and, make sure the other person understands what he or she is agreeing to.
One way to insure this is to “sum up” what you believe the next steps are, so both of you are on the same page. “No mutual mystification” will save you countless hours in follow-up, and managing other people’s expectations.
How often have you explained a situation to a customer only for them to come back and say, "you said this would be done on Thursday", or "I was told this could be fixed by the end of the week".
The problem with most people is they hear exactly what they want to hear. We call it ‘happy ears’. We tell them: “We can’t promise, but we’ll try to deliver on Thursday.” What do they hear? They drop words they don’t want and hear “We promise we’ll deliver it on Thursday.”
Rather than saying, "we will try to deliver on Thursday", what would be a more solid up-front contract with the customer?
"I'm not able to guarantee a delivery date right now, but let me look into it right now and get you an exact date." It may be more effort to hunt down specific information, but in the long run, the cost of losing your customer out-weighs going the extra mile.
We can’t control what the customer. We can only control the language we use, the expectations that we manage, and the concise communication and agreements we get with customers.
Some wishy-washy words and phrases to stay away from would be:
- Probably
- Possibly
- Maybe
- Most likely
- Perhaps
In your next Customer Service Staff meeting, talk about the consequences of not setting an up-front contract. Be careful what you say, and set clear expectations for all involved. Are your customer care providers using soft language that will lead the customer to have "happy ears"?
You might also be interested in:
