How to change support issues into sales opportunities

We dive into the often-overlooked area of customer support and its impact on building trust and loyalty. The discussion centres on how post-sale support can significantly reinforce client relationships and improve repeat business.

• Understanding the importance of support in customer relationships 
• Owning the problem: key strategies for addressing client concerns 
• Transforming support challenges into opportunities for growth and feedback 

Take charge of your customer relationships! Contact us for insights on enhancing your support strategies and ensuring client satisfaction.

Chapters

• 13:16 Understanding the Importance of Customer Support
• 35:33 Owning the Problem: How to Handle Client Issues
• 6:19:31 Transforming Challenges into Opportunities for Growth

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:13

So one area of business that sometimes gets overlooked or undervalued is the area of support.

Speaker 1: 0:21

So what I'm talking about here is how you look after your customers once you've sold to them.

Speaker 1: 0:26

Whatever it is you're selling, and the reason I mention it is that it may be one of those areas where you fear something going wrong. What do you do if a client has a problem? Well, quite simply, the thing to do is just get on top of it. So you, as the salesperson, the business owner, whatever role you have in the business, the first thing is to own the problem for the client. And in owning it and taking responsibility for it, you can make sure that the client's issue gets resolved as quickly and as efficiently as possible. And the reason for doing this is quite simply that if you go back a little bit to the time when your client, your customer, hadn't committed to you customer, hadn't committed to you, one of the reasons that clients will often bring up objections or hesitate is knowing what will happen when things go wrong. So at that point they're having to trust you. If they know somebody who's used you before and you've been able to provide good post-sale support, then that's a real bonus. But if they don't. One of the reasons that does cause people to hesitate in making a decision and making a commitment to buy is just asking that question what happens if something goes wrong? Now, as a salesperson, you are probably going to have to deal with that at some point, so you can talk about the support that you have, maybe expected turnaround times, if that's appropriate for what you're doing, but at that stage, it's just talk. So it's reassurance, but what evidence, what proof does the client have? So one way of handling this, one way of approaching it, is that, when something does go wrong, as I've said, just own the problem and, in doing that, make sure it gets resolved as quickly as possible and in such a way that the client feels reassured. They are actually happy that they went with you, because, with all the will in the world, things will go wrong at some point. So it's really important that you are well, first of all, you understand that and, secondly, that you're set up to deal with it promptly.

Speaker 1: 2:44

Once that happens, though, you can then use that to your advantage. So the first thing is to see if you can get your client to give some feedback, ideally public feedback, maybe on social media or on something like Trustpilot or even a testimonial on your website, something that just gives a statement of how you performed when things went wrong, because that's obviously very useful for anybody who is at that time thinking about going with you. So it ticks the social proof box and not only do you have people maybe talking about what a good fit your product or service was, but if something did go wrong, hopefully you've got that acknowledgement that you turn things around really impressively, that client's really happy and absolutely no regrets that they went with you. So that's the first thing that I really wanted to say about support, and in my career it's something that I did focus on and that I do focus on because the unexpected does happen, and so I've always made a point of jumping on it, and that's not only put me in a position where those clients are coming back again even though something has gone wrong. They know from experience that I will take care of them and that the business I represent will take care of them but also I can use that as reference, and it certainly helps if they're giving me a reference and look, it might be the kind of reference that happens when I'm not there. So just customers talking, and they might. You know people do talk. Industries can be quite small or if you're working in a geographical area, word will get around whether you're good or bad. So you do want to be in that situation where, whenever anybody speaks about you and what you offer, they speak about you in positive terms, that they can relate good experiences they've had with you. So support in that sense. And I know with some sales people I've worked with they've been really reluctant to get involved in that.

Speaker 1: 4:54

When something goes wrong, you can almost hear them running off in the distance and hoping someone else will take care of it. But that, I would suggest, is completely the wrong approach. And they're your clients. With certain types of client, the relationship they have with you and your business is actually personal with you. You're the person they bought from. You're the person they're from. You're the person they're expecting to look after them. So I think it's really important that you step up and you do what you can for them and you look after them.

Speaker 1: 5:26

And if you can't resolve the issue, then you look at alternatives. It might be a replacement product, it might even be a case of a refund, or maybe, if it's something they've been using for a while maybe not the full value, but whatever's appropriate but be there and look after them, because that will work for you in the long term. It helps to reinforce trust, which is really important. We like to buy from people that we feel we can trust. On the other hand, if you're talking to somebody and you don't feel you can trust them, what are the chances that you're going to buy from them? Unless you have no choice? You're really likely, highly likely to look for an alternative. So that, I think, is one of the main reasons for making sure that you do step up when things go wrong.

Speaker 1: 6:19

Now, of course, there are other things you can do, so it may be an opportunity to do some upselling. It might be an upgrade or enhancement. It might be having a new product coming along that maybe they should begin to budget for. If it's that kind of a situation, so the fact that you're having that interaction, if they're happy and you've got that perhaps you've also got more specific feedback about how they're using it, and I'll come to that in a moment. But if they're happy with it, whatever you provide it, and there is an opportunity to upsell them in some way, then that can be a very good time to start talking about it, obviously not in a very aggressive way that's not the way I recommend people do sales but in a consultative way, in a way where they feel that you're there to help them and they feel that because that's what you're doing. But you maybe know there's an enhancement coming along or an enhanced product is maybe even available now and suggest that they think about it and just run through the advantages of that to them. So another opportunity that you had in that situation is to get clear on pain points.

Speaker 1: 7:34

So again, when I've spoken about selling, one of the things you're doing is you are and probably the most important thing you're doing is resolving the pain points that your client has. And, as I've said many times, it feels like before the client doesn't want your product when they're looking to buy from you. They don't usually. I mean, if it's something like a really nice car or something like that, yeah, maybe they do want it for all sorts of reasons, but a lot of the things that we do in terms of products and services, they're there to solve a problem. So the client generally doesn't want your product particularly or your service. What they want is to be able to resolve a pain point, and that's the method that they have available to do that by going with you. So always remember that and it's always good, when you're having those conversations where you are resolving issues, that you use that opportunity to get insights into clients's pain points.

Speaker 1: 8:37

Other things may have come up that weren't apparent when you first spoke to them, or it may be that the product that they have bought from you or the service they have bought from you is not quite performing ideally and you can get very specific feedback on that. So it's a way of getting client feedback from real applications, and it's quite likely that if one of your clients perhaps has identified a shortcoming for them in what you're offering, the chances are that at least some other clients will be using that product, that service, in exactly the same way. So the chances are they'll find exactly the same shortcomings. So that's an opportunity then to if you can just correct that in either maybe as an upgrade or a new product, whatever it is, but it gives you really valuable market insight and that can also give you a competitive edge if you maintain that connection with clients once they bought from you. And that really raises another point, because the time to speak with them is not to wait until something goes wrong, but to maintain that relationship. Maybe check in with them every few months just see how it's going.

Speaker 1: 10:00

If you run a geographical area, when you're in a particular area to maybe go and see a new prospect, look at who else is around existing clients and just give them a call, see if they'd like to say that you'd like to just drop in and see how things are going. It just can be a very quick call, but the fact is that a lot of companies don't do that. So again, it's about providing points of difference. Where you are offering it's not even a level of support, but it's a level of interest in that client that maybe your competitors aren't doing. So it can give you that competitive edge client that maybe your competitors aren't doing. So it can give you that competitive edge.

Speaker 1: 10:41

And I think for most of us, if somebody we bought something from does take the trouble to reconnect with us at some point, it's just not. You know, we're not in that position where it's a case of we bought from them and then we never hear from them again. They do a follow-up, maybe every few months, just to make sure everything's okay and to have those conversations, and that gives you again it increases the level of trust reliability, all of the things that, in fact, when you can build those up, can eliminate some of the objections that will come up in the normal sales process. Because what's sitting behind some of the objections that you will come up against is that question of what will you do when something goes wrong. Can I rely on you as a supplier, to step up and help me out again? You know, be there to support me, because that's also what people are buying. So these things are very important and so it's almost a situation where you can welcome things going wrong.

Speaker 1: 11:46

I don't think anybody does, and I can remember a situation I had with, in fact, there was a government department in Australia and there was a. We were tendering, we were going after a big tender and we had equipment on valuation and it went wrong and we had to send it back to the manufacturer, who happened to be in the US, and we got the whole thing turned around, repaired and back in the client's hands within about 10 days. And there were some sensitivities about the type of products. I can't go into specifics on it, but frankly, 10 days turnaround time was pretty much unheard of. So, although on the face of it, yeah, we don't want things going wrong, but when it did go wrong, we were able to demonstrate that both the business I was working for as the local reseller and the manufacturer were very committed to looking after the client.

Speaker 1: 12:43

Another opportunity you might have if something goes wrong is just to educate. Maybe give a little bit of training if that's relevant, because when something goes wrong, it may be that it's happened because the person using the product didn't really know how to use it properly. Or it might just be an opportunity to offer. Well, you know, just say to the client while I'm here, would you like me to, maybe, with your new people, just run through some key points, maybe talk about some changes we've made. If it might be an online software type of product where people buy a license and everything's automatically updated, so it's an opportunity just to add value again, maybe do a little bit of training while you're there. It does no harm, it adds value to the client and, again, it can make them much more committed to you when it comes either to repeat business or if they're talking to people they know who may have an interest in the same kind of solution. So, you know, always build those kind of bear those things in mind. And, of course, another aspect of that is strengthening the reputation of the brand. I think we're all pretty aware that it can take a long time to build up both brand awareness and build up a level of trust with the brand, and that can disappear very quickly. So, and again, the time where that can happen is when something goes wrong. So, again, if you don't make that a priority to resolve client issues, if they are unhappy with the level of response you get, again word will get round and that can devalue your brand and it can make it more difficult for you to sell to others in the future.

Speaker 1: 14:36

Now, in some cases and I'm thinking here of things like pizza places, that kind of thing I've seen clients jump online. So it might be on Facebook or something like that. So, again, depending on what you're doing, there might be a social media aspect to what you do. Trustpilot is another one. If it's things like hotels, and then sorry, it isn't Trustpilot, it's another one. But anyway, that will come back to me.

Speaker 1: 15:04

But the point is where you have a very public forum that people can just jump onto and give feedback about your business, then it's really important to stay on top of that. So that might be the kind of thing where you have somebody, if not yourself, just checking those every day to just see if any posts come up. Uh, to just see if any posts come up and you can, um, I can't remember what it is now, but there's certainly software available used to be that you could use to um, just have it flagged whenever, whenever your business name got mentioned in a post, and then you could have a read and make sure it was something positive, or if it wasn't positive, you could jump in straight away one of the one of the ways I've seen that being used. If someone makes a complaint about you or a criticism that's actually misplaced, it's something they've messed up, then you can use that forum to just make the correction, just correct the facts. Again, when you're doing that, you really want to be as tactful as possible. Some people just go for the throat, go for the jugular, but that can backfire on you a little bit. So, again, just be aware of what's happening in social media. So I guess the point of all this is that when things go wrong, it's a time where definitely, as I've said, some sales people will just try and hide because they just don't want to deal with what could potentially be a difficult situation. But what separates the good people from the bad salespeople or the salespeople who really have a good reputation in their industry? They are the salespeople who will jump in and solve a problem.

Speaker 1: 16:54

And I remember a colleague of mine when I was working for a company that sold telecommunications test equipment. He'd actually moved on to another company and he'd been visiting a client who used to be his client at the previous business. And when he was in there the client said he'd had a problem with the old piece of gear, so he wasn't even working for that company anymore, but he just took a few minutes and had a look at it, managed to resolve the problem for them. So you can imagine their commitment to him as a salesperson. And, of course, as he'd moved to a competitor, even without doing anything, they're immediately going to look at what he's now selling and to see if that's a good fit for them.

Speaker 1: 17:38

Because that loyalty, as I've said, it can with a lot of clients, it's a personal loyalty to the salesperson. So if you're in an industry, so real estate's another one, or car sales, whatever it might be. But if you personally make sure you look after your clients, there's a good chance that if you do move on and you move to a different company, then they will follow you and they will stay with you. So I guess the point to leave you with is that client support issues are almost I'm not going to say totally something to be welcomed, but they're definitely an opportunity and it's important to recognize that they're an opportunity to really reinforce the commitment of your brand, your brand quality, your brand support, and in doing that you can make yourself a much more desirable option, let's say, because word will get around and we all like to buy from businesses and people that we know will support us when things go wrong. So that's it for this podcast. I hope you found that useful and I will speak to you next time. Bye for now.