Why Do Customers Say They're Satisfied - and Then Leave?
In a recent study from the Gallup Organization has some alarming implications for salespeople: Researchers found that customer satisfaction does nothing to boost repeat sales. The study found that extremely satisfied customers are just as likely to take their business elsewhere as less-satisfied customers. The researchers concluded that customer satisfaction "has no real value. None at all."
And what about all the money and energy that companies spend to measure and improve customer satisfaction? Wasted, they say. Strong words but how many times, particularly in this market, has a customer reported they are satisfied and then you find them next month moving to your competitor.
The researchers did find something linked to repeat sales: customer engagement. In other words, a customer's emotional connection with you, your product or service, or your company. When customers had this connection, loyalty soared.
Here's the difference between satisfaction and engagement: If anyone asked, you'd probably say you're highly satisfied with your local ATM. Yet you probably don't sing its praises to your friends. Or look forward to using it. And if you found another one half a block closer to your office, you wouldn't think twice about switching to it.
Compare that with a human teller who smiles and greets you by name, asks about your kids and chats about the weather while your checks are being processed. Same level of service. Same degree of satisfaction. World of difference.
Rules of Engagement
Engaged customers will walk across hot rocks to do business with you. They not only take your calls; they call you. They fight for you even when the bean counters are pressuring them to go with the cheapo option. They even forgive you when you make a mistake. This passion isn't accidental. You can cultivate it. Not by showering customers with free tickets and fancy lunches. Nor even by delivering spectacular service or exceeding expectations (although that certainly can't hurt.) The best way to engage with customers is by understanding the emotion that drives them.
Even the most "rational" sale has an emotion component lurking in it. People simply will not spend money - their own or their company's - unless they're motivated by their fears, desires, hopes or dreams. Understand those, and you have a very good chance of winning a customer for life.
Often when we are approached by a company to do training, they will advise the sales people need training. Seems very straight forward and the average person would jump straight to preparing a proposal. What you need to understand is that is the affect. What has happened to the company that has bought them to the point of identifying the need for the training. Is it major accounts being lost, customers leaving in droves, sales people not producing, new products failing in the market. If we know the drivers behind the statement, then we can engage with the customer. The solution for "needs training" is a far different solution to the one that address "why they need training". It all comes down to questions and taking the time to find out what is behind the statement.
The Best Question in Sales
The best question is sales is "why?" Why does the customer want/need what we're selling? That's the best way to get at the drivers that underlie the potential sale, and that drives the customer engagement.
Yet conversations with customers and prospects tend be all about "what." What are you looking for? What delivery date would you like? What color, what model, what price? And oh by the way, what did you do last weekend? So why is that? Well, we may not want to hear why. We may not have a response in our well-rehearsed sales script. We may think it's none of our business. We may want to keep the customer in a positive frame of mind, and so avoid the tough questions. And sometimes we simply don't know how to ask. Ordinary sales questions are easy to ask: "What are your goals? When you do you need delivery? Do you prefer the red or the blue?" Engaging questions require a different approach and people are just not trained to do that effectively. They lack the confidence and the knowledge on how to actually ask those tougher questions.
Mastering SalesTM methodology assists sales people gain the skills to ask those tougher questions and engage the customer. Contact our office to discuss how we can assist in ensuring your customers are engaged with your sales people.