Five Star Reviews

Perhaps you’ve heard the saying, “The customer is always right.” It’s the first rule of sales. The joke is that the second rule of sales is: Refer to rule number one.

There are times when it’s tough to follow the rules.

Customers come in all sizes, shapes and temperaments. For every easygoing person you will encounter, there will be the crude guy, rude woman or the man who tosses out so many hoops to jump through that you need a pogo stick to deal it.

This is a job about people, and people are always unpredictable. Maybe you’re about to sign a customer, but that screaming three-year-old on her lap makes that impossible or the man you’ve been speaking with for an hour is distracted by call after call on his cell.

Don’t get mad. Don’t even get frustrated.

Just hang in there for one important reason.

Your job as the salesperson is to get great reviews. That means, you have to just “up” the customer service factor when dealing with “a tough one.”

Consider the alternative. We live in an age of Facebook, Twitter, websites and blogs. The entire population is a critic and an individual can get the word out – fast. Remember that a satisfied customer will tell three people, but a dissatisfied one will tell 11. We have social media to thank for that one.

Consider the mid-priced hotel in Arizona that charged every patron a hidden fee of $200 upon checkout because they claimed to be “green” now and this green fee was just part of their new rules. Yes, the charge was in the fine print. It wasn’t explained at check-in and a giant shock at checkout. Why should anyone stay at this place when for this extra $200, they could have been somewhere far nicer? Suffice to say, the checkout counter was a loud one filled with yelling and threats “to cancel my credit card charge.” That wasn't the end of it. After just one holiday weekend, the news went out on Facebook and Twitter. Soon, the place was mostly empty -- even after they dropped the green charge. The word had already gone out.

The message spreads so quickly now – good and bad.

Unfortunately, there’s not the intensity of emotion behind a good message. Bad news seems delicious in a way and burns like a wild fire out of control. When customers don’t get good customer service there is an intense desire to share it. They want the compassion and will reach out to others until they get it. They want to hear, “Sorry, you were wronged.” To get the compassion, they must advertise it. Now, that ad goes out to the masses. To help themselves, they will hurt you.

The point is more than ever you have to go beyond the call of duty. Here are a few tips on how you can get great reviews:

*Remember that sales must be a win-win-win situation. They win; you win; the market wins. If it’s clearly a they win-you lose situation then try to shift the balance.

*Do not judge your customer’s behavior. Have empathy for it. If you can always come from a place of extreme custom service then you won’t sweat the small stuff. You should feel for that mom who must do her daily business and deal with a child throwing a tantrum. Maybe that man constantly on the cell phone during his meeting with you needs that income to pay for your product.

*Remember that you can say, “No deal.” There are times when the deal just won’t ever be right and you can call a “no deal.” Just say, “I really appreciate you and who you are and what you do, but we just can’t work together.” It means you can’t satisfy your customer’s needs, wants and desires. In the long run with social media, there are times that it’s better for you to call it this way. It’s better in the long run than a bad review.