In the customer service business, management fields a lot of complaints. Tasks aren’t completed quickly enough, or needed information is not available, or a product doesn’t behave as desired. What I’ve learned over the years is this. Set the right expectations – and expectations can be met.
Think about a visit to your dry cleaner on a Monday afternoon. You drop off your clothes and the person at the desk asks you an important question: “Is Thursday ok?” Maybe you were hoping to have those clothes back by Wednesday – but you’ve just received a reality check. The cleaner isn’t saying Thursday arbitrarily. It’s what they feel is a realistic time estimate that they can meet. It’s an achievable SLA.
Now’s your chance. You can negotiate. One particular suit is crucially needed by Wednesday for the biggest meeting of your career. Can that one item be done earlier? When the cleaner tells you it can, you feel like you’ve hit the jackpot. When the cleaner delivers on the promise made, they’ve earned your trust and loyalty. So how did the dry cleaner do all this, while pushing back on what you originally wanted from the service? And what is your role in keeping the relationship healthy?
- Service Provider
- Know what you’re capable of delivering
- Examine your business, resources and work loads, and give yourself a little room for the unexpected before entering into service contracts.
- Set the right expectations up front
- Tell the customer what is reasonable, but be willing to give a little to foster good-will when it’s possible.
- Know what you’re capable of delivering
- Service Recipient
- Negotiate reasonably
- Don’t demand more than you truly need. Be flexible and respectful of both sides of the relationship, knowing that you’re both professionals in need of a mutually beneficial arrangement.
- Don’t overuse the “emergency card.” When emergencies happen (and they will), your service provider is happy to try to do something extraordinary, but not if it’s a constant situation that could have been prevented with some better planning.
- Negotiate reasonably
If both sides have courtesy, trust and respect for one another and follow these guidelines, a healthy, long-term relationship can be formed that benefits both parties.
Let’s see the other way this interaction could have gone, just to illustrate the need for these simple rules.
You arrive at the store on Monday afternoon and the dry cleaner doesn’t ask if Thursday is ok, but rather – “What day do you need them back?” You have no knowledge of the current workload of the dry cleaner, but you know that you need that suit on Wednesday, so you decide to ask for more than you need just to be safe. “I need them on Tuesday,” you say. The cleaner shakes his head. “I can do Thursday.” You get a little more aggressive. “Wednesday is my drop dead date.” The cleaner says that it all can’t be done by then, and you walk out of the store to seek another cleaners as time slips away. Nobody got what they wanted because expectations were not set properly and pro-actively, and negotiations were not reasonable.
As a service provider, you have the first move in this interaction. How well you know your capability to deliver, and how pro-actively you share that information with customers to build a relationship based on clear expectation setting and delivery – makes all the difference.
Originally published at: http://www.bmc.com/blogs/
IT Sparks 