Street Smarts: It Takes a Company
Published August 2008
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BUY A REPRINTDeveloping that kind of esprit de corps took some time. For openers, we had to make sure the salespeople understood the inner workings of the business. So we had them spend time inside the business, answering customer questions on the phone and putting boxes on shelves. New salespeople didn't do anything else for the first six to eight weeks after they were hired. By the time they finished their training, they knew the whole operation and could explain to a customer exactly what happened in every area of the company. What's more, they knew the operations people personally and understood what each person did to contribute to our success.
We also provided customer service training to all of our full-time salaried employees. In the process, people began to understand better what role each of them played, what challenges their co-workers faced, and how important it was that they all work together. Among other things, they started providing more feedback to one another. When customers called in with praise, the telephone representatives made sure that the warehouse workers heard about it. When there were complaints or special requests, employees were able to coordinate among themselves to do what had to be done.
As the barriers between departments broke down, something interesting began to happen: Employees throughout the company became more visible to customers. The salespeople played a key role here, often bringing operations people on sales calls. As a result, when customers had issues they wanted to discuss, they didn't have to contact the salesperson and then wait for him or her to come back with an answer. They could go directly to the employee or executive who could give them the answer right away. Granted, the customers usually had a closer relationship with their salespeople than with other employees, but the customers knew that servicing the account wasn't the salesperson's job. If there was a billing problem, they went to the accounting department. If they needed to talk about storage or delivery issues, they called the operations person. If they had a question about their contract, they got in touch with me or Louis Weiner, the company president.
When that happens -- when customers see the business as a whole -- the danger of losing them to a departing salesperson goes away. Not that they will necessarily stay with you forever. You still have to give them great service and do it at a price that keeps you competitive. But they aren't going to leave just because a salesperson moves to another company. It has been many years since we lost a salesperson to a competitor, but if we lost one today, I wouldn't worry for an instant about him or her taking customers along. Our customers know that their satisfaction depends on a team of people. No matter how close they may be to the salesperson in question, they are going to say, "Well, I hope you're happy at your new job, but I don't know these new people you're with, and I do know the people at CitiStorage. They do a great job for me. Why would I leave?"
I believe that almost any company can develop such a relationship with customers. It's more difficult to do with a commissioned -- as opposed to a salaried -- sales force, but even then, there are things you can do to make sure customers know they are being served by a whole company and not just a salesperson. The exception: personal services businesses in which the salesperson is, in fact, providing the service as well as making the sale. I'm talking about real estate brokers, travel agents, hairdressers, investment advisers, and the like. Those businesses call for a different approach -- but that's a subject for another column.
Norm Brodsky is a veteran entrepreneur. His co-author is editor-at-large Bo Burlingham. Their book, The Knack, will be published by Portfolio in October.
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