Customer Complaints - When Should The Sales Manager Intervene?
As a Sales Manger you know that providing the right sales training to your field sales and sales support staff is important. Well trained staff are better able to prevent complaints, and if a complaint does arise they are able deal with the majority to the customers satisfaction without the need for management intervention. However, there are occasions when it is better that you, as the manager, intervene. This article describes six complaint scenarios which demand the intervention of the sales manager.
There will, for all companies, be a time when a given complaint is above a certain monetary value that exceeds the authority given to the sales staff. When this limit is reached the manager will need to step in and resolve the issue. You should determine the monetary amount that triggers your salespeople to approach you with a complaint. You can base this on the value of the order, which is easy to determine. The damage amount, on the other hand, is not so easy to determine. If you only intervene in cases where the damage amount is above a certain level you will give the impression that you do not take the smaller cases seriously. It is therefore debatable whether you should take the extent of damage as a criteria for determining whether to intervene or not.
Sometimes a complaint is received from a new client. If a new client makes a complaint after their first or second order, it is best to intervene personally. Call the client, or visit them, and explain what you are doing to correct the issue. You should also get involved even if it is the new customer who is responsible for causing the problem they are complaining about. You should be aware that new customers are particularly sensitive if they have problems with their initial orders. This is true of both delivery delays and technical problems with the product.
You know the old saying - it never rains but it pours. It is never just one thing that goes wrong, everything seems to go wrong at the same time. When there have been repeated breakdowns you should intervene personally, but do not take over completely from the salesperson responsible for that client.
Complaints should be handled and resolved promptly. You should get involved in situations where it is taking too long to solve the problem. Stipulate a precise deadline after which you should become involved. Sales people should not go over the time frame set for receiving a customer complaint to its resolution. If they do, the case should land on your desk. You should also make sure that your salespeople do not drag things out because of indifference on their part. If there is any delay, find out what the causes of this are. A complaint has to be dealt with just as carefully as an order - that is the foundation of effective complaint management and your sales training should cover the correct complaint handling techniques to be used.
Sometimes the client is standing right in front of your door or may be asking to speak to you personally on the telephone. Do not try and get rid of them, you should step in and resolve the complaint. Never pick up the telephone thinking "Complaints are unpleasant, cost time, money and nerves..." Make sure that you find the right attitude, even towards reproachful clients. Remind yourself that complaints represent an opportunity and that the atmosphere is more important than the facts of the case.
You must also get involved before the point at which a complaint turns from a complaint into a lawsuit. A lawsuit always has a fatal effect - someone wins and someone loses. If the client wins, you have to pay the costs. If you win, you may well have saved money, but you have also lost because you will have lost the client. You can still pull back from a law suit even at the last minute. The courts often suggest settlement. But could you not have managed to find a compromise without the courts?
So in summary, good customer relations requires on-going sales training for sales staff so that they can manage most complaints well, and also training for the sales manager so that they can recognise and respond appropriately to those occasions that demand they intervene personally.
About the Author
Richard Stone is a Director for Spearhead Training Limited that runs management and sales training courses that improve business performance. You can view more articles at => http://www.spearhead-training.co.uk
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