Territory Managers: Deal With Contractor Complaints
Most salespeople for manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers are never surprised by the different customer complaints or gripes that they have to deal with on a daily basis. However, many will ask me if there is one complaint that I deem more important than any other that could spell “death” to retaining a customer if not dealt with properly.
My feeling based on having been a contractor and dealing with salespeople from wholesalers and manufacturers and now working directly with those salespeople in some of my training sessions and on behalf of my contractor clients is that almost all complaints come down to a common thread.
That thread is COMMUNICATION.
When a complaint arises with any customer it can usually be traced back to a simple misunderstanding or miscommunication. Poor communication, or lack of communication, can rear its ugly head in many forms and be masked by several excuses that may lead one to perceive the problem or complaint stems from a different source (e.g. pricing, customer service, equipment or parts availability, deliveries, warranty issues, etc.).
Perhaps this question could be better addressed from the standpoint of what's the worst thing(s) a salesperson might do (or not do) to completely alienate a customer.
When you look at it from this perspective, you will see that the worst thing you can do is mis-communicate, not fully communicate, or not communicate at all. Once you communicate you need to follow-up and follow through on all the customer’s expectations and even exceed expectations when possible.
Problems arise when a salesperson doesn’t ask a customer the proper questions, listen and hear the customer’s responses, restate what the heard and ask follow-up questions to gain clarity and understanding, commit to action and a timeline, follow through on commitments, follow-up to ensure the customer’s satisfaction and have the customer state that they are in fact satisfied that all objectives have been met for that particular issue.
Complaints filter out of a communication breakdown at any one or several those steps being missed partially or completely. Most complaints I hear about in the wholesale salesperson to contractor relationship usually come from a lack of communication either real or perceived.
Many times this happens when the salesperson is expected to something and does not respond to the contractor because he/she has no new news to share and therefore does not call or return calls because the salesperson feels he/she has nothing to communicate.
This is a bad habit of which salespeople need to break free. Salespeople need to communicate “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.” No news is good news to customers when you tell them you have no new news, but that you have not forgotten about them and are on top of things and follow-up within a few days with a revised status update even if there is no change.
So which customer complaint should take precedent so as not to lose a customer?
My straightforward answer to your question would be to avoid ALL complaints by improving your communication when setting working objectives with customers. If and when a complaint arises, simply ask your customer what issues take priority in their mind and what they would like you to do and by when.
Give your commitment to resolve the issues by an agreed upon due date, take action and communicate your status along the way to keep the customer abreast of your progress at resolving his/her concerns. Follow-up upon final resolution to ensure satisfaction.
“Communication is key” is a cliché because there is truth in a cliché.
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