How not to win customers

Let’s say you run a service-based business and, like any company, you pretty much always want to get new customers. You offer a really good service, something that really would benefit your customers, and something that there is definitely a need for. There aren’t too many competitors, even, but there are some so it’s not like you have a captive audience or anything. 

Now let’s say a potential customer contacts you in response to some of your marketing–you sent out an email promo to a past customer and it got forwarded to the new potential customer (NPC). This is great! It’s tacitly an endorsement for your company! Then, that NPC not only goes to your site and enters in information about herself and her needs, she actively contacts you to learn more about your offerings. Woo hoo! Specifically, she wants to know how much a defined service costs–not something vague like “unlimited usage” but let’s say something like a headshot for an individual (not a company) for PR use only (no third party rights). You’ve done a billion of these, and you know the price like the back of your hand.

Should be a no-brainer, right? You could email the NPC back and say “That package includes _____ and will cost $XXX.” But instead, your system sends an automatic email replay stating that someone will answer the email “usually within 48 hours.” Then, you follow up with an email stating that “The phone number you provided doesn’t work. Please let us know the correct one so that we can contact you.”

Way to go…you just made your prospect feel not only unimportant (“usually within 48 hours”?!) but also like some sort of criminal rather than someone who just wants some basic info without having to give you all their personal details.

The NPC replies, “Yes, I gave you a false phone number because I don’t want a sales call; I just want to know how much the product will cost, for now.”

The company replies, “We offer products that range from $XXX to $XXXXX and we can’t give you a price until we know more about you and your needs…if you are still interested, please contact us with this information…”

You know what the NPC does? Goes to a competitor. What started out as a potential easy sale has turned into a nightmare of bad customer service. 

This is a real story. It really happened. I know for a fact that a company with a really great product lost a sale because of all this hoop jumping they demanded of their potential customer. And don’t think that NPC didn’t contact the person who forwarded the email to say “that company was a jerk to me!”

Don’t let this happen to you. Instead, if you can answer a simple price question simply, do so. Don’t milk the NPC for more info, don’t try (much) to up-sell, and don’t make her feel like a scumbag. Make it easy for the customer and OFFER rather than demand. If this company had said, “If I understand your request correctly, you are wanting a price for _____ service with these limitations–that would be $XXX. We have other options, though, that we’d be happy to talk to you about, if you are interested–like adding on ______ at a discount.” I bet they would have had a quick and easy sale.

Even better, then provide a direct email and phone number for the NPC to use to contact a specific person (the one who sent the email reply). This person in this story got emails from several different people…another way to make the NPC feel unimportant. And make sure to contact any NPC within one business day, always (except for vacations). Make the PC feel important–valued by you and your company–not like some sleaze-ball who dared contact you. Asking, even, “How can we make this process better for you?” at some point is a great idea. 

Think about how you would want to be treated by a company, if you were the NPC, when you design your customer service. And yes, you should plan (design) your customer service as well as other aspects of your business. Doing so will help make sure that you don’t lose customers by coming off as an aloof or paranoid jerk.