Recently, a close friend shared a personal story with me. I found it very instructive from a business perspective. I thought I would share it with you today to help you avoid this same mistake in your business! I actually made this mistake in my business...
My friend wanted to have some cosmetic dental work. They watched a commercial on TV that highlighted the work they were looking for. My friend called to request the Free DVD that was offered at the end of the TV commercial. The DVD was a great sales presentation showing before and after pictures. (Note the automatic sale conversion from the DVD) My friend decided to move forward with the dental work after watching the DVD. They submitted the forms included with the DVD to take the next step. Soon afterwards, my friend received a call from a dental consultant. The procedure was scheduled. My friend paid a $1,000 deposit and was excited about their future new smile.
As the days rolled by, my friend didn't hear anything from the dental consultant. They tried to contact the consultant by phone without luck. They left several messages that were not returned. Next, they tried to contact the consultant by email. Guess what? No reply from the consultant.
My friend began to get cold feet. Who wouldn't? They finally decided not to have the procedure handled by this organization. Their perception of the organization changed because the consultant didn't return their calls. The total cost for this procedure was around $10,000.
I wonder if the owner of the dental organization knows that their dental consultants are blowing $10,000 sales? I'll bet they don't. They probably don't have any clue this poor customer service is happening in their business. Think about this from the owner's perspective for a minute. The owner is paying to run an expensive TV commercial. The owner is paying to mail free DVDs to prospects responding to the commercial. The DVD presentation actually works and people are signing up to have dental work handled by the organization. Then the sale is lost because phone calls were not returned by his employees. How expensive is this to the business?
Extremely...
I had similar problems on my team. I'll know we lost sales because my agents didn't return phone calls promptly. I made this exact same $10,000 mistake in my business. I should have had a friend mystery shop my business. They could have played prospect to see how my agents performed. I should have had more direct interaction with my clients to listen for poor customer service from my team. I didn't.
Don't make the same mistake with your business. Make sure you return phone calls and emails. If you have agents, pay attention to how quickly they return calls and emails. They could be costing you thousands of dollars in lost sales. Consider mystery shopping your business to see how prospects are really handled. Be warned - what you find might make you sick to your stomach.
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