The Heart of the Matter - Part 2
Caring is good, having a plan is necessary. (See part 1 here)
Caring without a plan is like eating soup without a bowl. Sure, it tastes good. However, I’d rather not have to lap it up off the floor like my deranged husky.
This is the second key to having great customer interactions; having a plan to take care of the person you are interacting with. It is difficult to truly care for someone if you don’t have a plan on how to take care of them.?
The Semantics
This boils down to the varying definitions of the word care.
To care in one aspect is to feel concern or interest in something. While this is a noble feeling, the feeling alone will not produce results. I care about the Buffalo Bills winning a Super Bowl. My ability to contribute anything to that end is null and void by my 5’ 8” 160 lb. office conditioned physique. I’m far more suited to sell tickets than I am to navigate my way through 300+ lb refrigerators trying to take my head off.?
Does that mean I don’t care? My violent screaming at the TV anytime the refs call a holding penalty on Dion Dawkins for being a good left tackle would beg to differ.?
The reality is that I can care a lot. However, for me to serve the needs of others I need a plan on how to care for that person.?
In this case, to care for that person would be more closely defined as looking after and providing for that individual.?
The expression, “I care about you.” (feeling of concern / interest) gives me all the warm and fuzzies up until I notice the complete disregard to the … you know … caring (looking after / providing for) about me. Let’s get into more specifics.
What does this look like? How do we go from a feeling to action?
The simplest way I can think of this is by being knowledgeable. The more knowledgeable you are of the products and / or services you offer, the more knowledgeable you are of the internal constraints at your company, and the more knowledgeable you are of the customer's needs, the more you can formulate a plan.?
Let’s look into each of these briefly:
Knowledgeable of Products and Services
Knowing your offerings as a company is the start of any great interaction. The more you know, the better you are able to communicate about them in a way that is easily understood. It also makes you the encyclopedia of answers to common to odd questions. You are capable of navigating the trickiest of inquiries and marrying your offerings to any application. This instills confidence between you and your customer.
Of course, there are instances where knowledge is limited due to a myriad of constraints. While we all have grace for these situations, the better response to any situation where knowledge is limited is “let me go find out”, not “I don’t know”. Then follow through by getting the information within an established timeline.
Knowledgeable of Internal Constraints
Every company has constraints. Whether it is on discounting structures, return policies, warranties, product limitations, or even personnel, you can be the key to unlocking better interactions by understanding these constraints. Often people will reach out for things that are outside what is reasonable. Knowing that the request is unreasonable and why it is structured that way will allow you to communicate more effectively on what you can do.
The last thing you want to do is agree to something that you will need to retract at a later date. Since you are far more equipped than a customer to know the internal workings of the company, you hold a place of authority on the topic. It would be wise to avoid agreeing to something without the full knowledge of its viability.?
Knowledgeable of Customer Needs
Most interactions, if not all, likely originated with a customer having a question. Regardless of the question being about pricing or why their box arrived with half its materials missing, there is a need behind the question. You have the opportunity to dive into the real meat of the issue. Asking questions to thoroughly understand their needs gives you a desired end goal. That end goal is to ultimately serve your customers in a way that is meaningful.?
By understanding the true impact and their needs, you can then weigh the consequences with your customer to better solve the problem. It is beneficial for you as a company and the customer to have a thorough grip on the severity of the issue. This way you can both agree on what the best path forward should be.
Now What?
Now comes the fun part. With a foundation of caring, we can collectively create a plan on how to best serve our customers. We can now create a plan within the framework of our knowledge of our offerings, internal constraints, and real customer needs.
While this takes some practice, the ultimate goal is for the customer to feel taken care of. We do this by actually caring about them as people and by creating a plan to take care of them
Next article we will dig into real applications in Sales and Customer Service. Stay tuned!