subject: Customer Satisfaction Speaker Says, "Don't Ask, Just SELL!" [print this page] Customer Satisfaction Speaker Says, "Don't Ask, Just SELL!"
Which of the following three questions is of paramount interest to businesses:
(1) What causes customer satisfaction?
(2) How can we monitor, measure and manage customer service?
(3) How can we make another sale?
My argument is that (1) and (2) are interesting and somewhat valuable. But (3) is supreme.
Moreover, by addressing (3), we'll be able to answer numbers (1) and (2).
Customer satisfaction, and the customer experience that supposedly produces it, is pursued for reasons other than wanting to make people happy. It is of interest to businesses inasmuch as it helps us to avoid losing customers, and thus losing future sales, developing a poor reputation that deters others from buying, while making our staffs less confident in the quality of what they're selling.
In a word, customer service is all about achieving SALES, from answering questions, to order entry, to correcting errors, to managing disgruntled buyers.
The best test of a customer's satisfaction is NOT asking them whether they would buy, again, because there are powerful social and practical incentives to lie. The best test is simply by trying to sell that customer something else.
If you can make an add-on sale quickly and somewhat effortlessly, you can infer that the client was happy with your past performance. On the other hand, if you meet resistance, including the passive kind, manifested in failures to respond to your phone calls and emails, then it is reasonable to infer your past buyer is less than pleased with your results.
The other day I sent an email to a past publisher of one of my books, a volume that sold reasonably well. Though I had very little direct contact with him, having used an agent as a go-between, he responded cordially and promptly though it has been more than a decade since we last worked together.
Genuinely, he opened the door to another sale, which is a more important signal of customer satisfaction than answering in the affirmative to countless "Are you happy?" surveys and saying nice things in focus groups.
I don't want his opinion-I want his business, and I want it, now.
The next time you're wondering whether that past client was joyous about your efforts, don't ask, just SELL!
