Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com • September 18, 2017 • Hartford Business Journal 21 TALKING POINTS Dealing with the at-risk customer By Jason Fisher W hen your customers are silent, do you take that as a sign they are happy? If your company has the attitude that "no news is good news" when it comes to your customers, here's a surprise: No news is rarely good news. A surprisingly high number of your cus- tomers may, at this very moment, be at-risk. They may be looking for another vendor. Maybe they simply feel like it's time to "try something new." Or that "there's got to be a better way." More likely it's because they're feeling like you simply don't hear them when they voice their concerns. And once they feel unheard, they're at-risk. What is an at-risk customer? Most of your at-risk customers are silent or unresponsive. For every customer complaint, there are 26 other unhappy customers who are silent, according to the business management consulting firm Lee Resource International. Other at-risk customers may complain excessively. Take those com- plaints as a gift. Customers don't complain just for the sake of complaining. They are voicing a problem. Ignore those complaints and you put the relationship at risk. Those of us in sales and cus- tomer service actually welcome the complaining customer. If they articulate a problem, we can fix it. Unfortunately, many at-risk customers do the opposite — they don't communicate. Other symptoms of the at-risk customer include: • Volume of orders declining • Rumors through the grapevine that they are checking out a competitor of yours • Vague references about not being happy with the relationship Companies that train their sales people in consultative selling can mobilize those skills to spot the at-risk customer. It's all about listening. Listening is part of an ongoing process that starts with the sale, but has to continue well afterwards. After our distributors make a sale, our customer service people reach out to them and to the end users to do a quality service assessment. We provide them with an assigned inside sales associate, who can provide them with immediate an - swers to questions about product features and capabilities, pricing, samples and supplies. Everyone throughout the pro- cess is looking for an opportunity to service them and to make sure we identify any small problems before they become big ones. That kind of a culture makes it easier to spot and deal with any at-risk customers before they decide to go to a competitor. Prevention is always the best way to ad- dress a problem. It's our responsibility to make sure the customer is satisfied after the sale — not theirs. A lot of companies stop the sales process after the sale and that leads to problems. But even for companies that understand and promote support after the sale, prob- lems do arise that threaten the relationship. If a customer is dissatisfied, the best way to address it is quickly, openly and honestly. If the perception of the customer is that the solution you recommended isn't working, you have to identify the core issue that's causing dissatisfaction. There are times when an account is at-risk because the customer's decision- makers do not understand the full picture. Purchasing managers, for example, may look only at price without understanding the reason for a cost differential. Once that becomes an issue, that account is at-risk. At that point, sales people may need to seek out help from others in the company who understand the usage of the product. If a purchasing agent becomes nonresponsive, that's a signal to our customer care team that we may need to reach an intermediary within the company who can help us make the case for our product with the purchasing agent. Opening alternative channels with the same customer can also help us discover why they are considering a new vendor or solution. Finding a new advocate inside that company can help uncover problems and deal with the issue directly. Dealing with the at-risk customer and saving those accounts is simply a matter of good business. It costs a lot more to get a new customer than it does to keep an exist- ing one. Servicing new business is more expensive in the short term than doing all you can to keep existing business. The facts support this. Three out of five con- sumers would be willing to try a new brand or company for a better customer service experi- ence, according to the White House Office of Consumer Affairs. And that customer service experience is expected to become more and more impor- tant. The customer intelligence consulting firm, Walker, forecasts that by 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator. At-risk customers do not need to become former customers. Through a combination of detective work, listening, responding and adapting it is possible to turn the at-risk cus- tomer into a solid, long-term customer. Jason Fisher is the director of business development at Intertape Polymer Group (IPG), a Canadian-based packaging products and systems company. HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM POLL LAST WEEK'S POLL RESULT: Jason Fisher NEXT WEEK'S POLL: Is Connecticut a smart location for a second Amazon headquarters? To vote, go online to hartfordbusiness.com BIZ BOOKS 'Rethinking Corporate Education in a World of Unrelenting Change' By Jim Pawlak "Learning to Succeed: Rethinking Corporate Education in a World of Unrelenting Change" by Jason Wingard (AMACOM, $29.95). Decades ago, management guru W. Edwards Deming wrote: "Long-term commitment to new learning and new philosophy is required of any management that seeks transformation." Given that training budgets are still among the first cuts when companies experience financial difficulties, it's apparent that many C-level execs don't believe that continuous learning creates success. Wingard, formerly the managing direc- tor and chief learning officer of Goldman Sachs, drives home Deming's point again: "Well-planned and administered (education) programs will contribute to return on invest- ment in nearly every sector of a company." His "Continuous Integration of Learn- ing and Strategy" (CILS) model makes learning part of stra- tegic planning. First, CILS identifies what needs to be learned to effectively execute the strategic plan. Next, it uses 4Cs — communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativ- ity — as tactics to develop a thought leadership and in- sight framework for managers and their subordinates. The "organization" weighs in on what it needs to succeed. Group input crystalizes and shares the informa- tion and experiences of "a tapestry of topics," including management and operations. Part of the process involves asking employees for input on how what they learned from the group can affect their roles. Overall, the group-think provides a framework for organizing learning around various topics. Once identified, information can be distributed formally and informally to those involved. Wingard points out that the CILS process involvement isn't just for large firms. Group meetings can be coffee-and-donuts discussions. Informa- tion can be provided to employees by dis- seminating informa- tion from trade publi- cations and trade associations. Jim Pawlik Book Review Does your company make use of Internet of Things technology? Corporate learning programs are critical to producing strategic results. 72.7% No 27.3% Yes

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