I just had a participant in a class yesterday who talked about a situation that is common in the service world.  Many times a customer will call to order a product or service.  They think they have described what they want in perfect detail, yet we know that we do not have enough information.

 It is very important in a case like this to master some basic questioning techniques.  To avoid upsetting the customer we must first repeat what the customer said and then make a statement such as this: “Thank you for providing me with that information.  I now hope you can provide me with the following information so that I am sure to order exactly what you need.”  This statement validates that they are on the right track and basically asks permission to ask some additional questions.  Notice that the focus was on “I” not you. In other words, it is me who needs help, not YOU.  If the customer was told, “You haven’t given me enough information to place this order”, the customer might become defensive.

I just saw a commercial on television that referred to the “Perfect 10″.  Remember Bo Derek running on the beach?  When this commercial alluded to the “Perfect 10″, my thoughts drifted to how we often handicap our business by waiting for the “Perfect 10″.  Years ago (and I mean YEARS AGO), I was in the computer business and competed against IBM.  We used to joke that IBM stood for “I’ve Been Misinformed”.  Not too kind a joke about a competitor, but it originated from the fact that in those days IBM would put a carboard mockup of a future computer in front of their customers and the customers would place more orders than the competitors would receive from existing products… a supreme example of their Ready, Fire, AIM strategy.

I am not advocating that we deceive customers, but I am making the point that we can’t wait for all to be a “Perfect 10″ before we make that sales call or make a move forward in our business.  In today’s world, even more true than in Bo Derek’s era, the agility of a business and its ability to respond quickly to the demands of the market is sometimes more important than getting it perfect.  The computer world has trained us to buy the latest software and use it while we wait for the next release that “gets the bugs out”.

What is it that is causing you to wait?  Perhaps you should ACT NOW.  If you are waiting for the “Perfect 10″ moment, your competitor may beat you to the punch with a Good 8.  Something to think about!

A final irrelevant AND irreverant postcript – in ‘research’ for this posting, your 5’10″ blogger found out that Bo Derek was a mere 5’3″…. so maybe she wasn’t a Perfect 10 after all – what a delightful thought!

I am just surprised it is not Friday the 13th.  Yes, the dreaded THING happened thisafternoon.  My hard drive on my main laptop crashed.  Not good.  YES, I KNOW, no biggie if you have backup. Good news is I do have backup.  Bad news is NOT as RECENTLY as I should have.  So for any of you who have sent me a critical email in the last several weeks, just feel free to resend to me!  If I have sent something important to you… feel free to send that back to me.

 I guess this all points out that I am not perfect… not that this is news to anyone who knows me very well.  So IS THERE a GET COMMON SENSE customer service message hidden in here somewhere?   Well have you heard of a company called DELL????  I have Gold Support with Dell and was on the phone with them within 5 minutes of when my system was kind enough to tell me that it had just done a “physical memory dump”.  Even though I was somewhat close to a nervous breakdown, the rep was cool as a cucumber.  His calm for the next 20 minutes (as he confirmed that my hard drive was toast) was almost as good as some prescription meds….well maybe.  Anway… I had just experienced one of the most stressfull things that I can think could happen in my business and when the call was over and they asked me to stay on for a short survey, I rated this guy a 5 out of 5 in every category.  When they they asked if I would buy a Dell again, I said yes for some unknown reason even though they have in 3 years replaced my keyboard 3 times (I take out all my frustration on it evidently!!) and my screen twice, and now my hard drive.  So WHY did I say yes?  Because they always have someone competent on the other end of the line when I call and their response time is always great. (worth the extra money by the way to get GOLD service as that gets you an ENGLISH speaking rep within a couple of minutes who you can actually understand).

Thanks to those of you who have posted comments.  You are now entered in the February drawing.  Keep those comments coming!  And we will all hope that next week is better than this week!

The Get Common Sense Blog can now give you a chance to get your needed caffeine boost!  Everyone who enters a comment will be entered in a monthly drawing for a Starbucks gift card!

It has been very windy this week.  As you watch trees that are stretched into the sky think about the roots that run deep to support the swaying of the tree.

In business, we will face windy times.  Thus, we must grow our roots during the calm seasons so that our structure will not topple when the winds get high.

 What are you doing to grow your roots?

• Are you keeping in touch with customers even when things are going just fine?
• Are you asking customers to tell you how you could better serve them?
• Are you reminding customers on a regular basis “what you have done for them lately”?

This last point is a critical one.  I once worked for a company that required that the sales people send out a letter at the end of each quarter to tell the customers what special service we had provided during that quarter.  This did two things for our company.  First, it made everyone on our staff conscious of doing the extra mile activities in our accounts since we knew that we would have to tell the customer something in that quarterly communication!  Second it reminded the customer of the benefits of our relationship.  This helped if the road got rocky with an error or conflict.  When those inevitable bumps in the road occurred, we were never far away from that recent letter reminding them of how important they were to us and what we had done for them.

Do you have a regular contact plan that reminds customers of the merits of your relationship?  If so, share with us in a post… we’d love to hear from you!

Yesterday, I was ordering a Mardi Gras King Cake from a great local bakery, The Dough Basket. www.doughbasket.com   Tanya Clark, the owner, knew that I was ordering the cake as a gift for a family with a small child.  When I told her that I wanted to order my favorite flavor, the praline cream cheese, she pointed out that although that is a great selection, it might not be the favorite for a child since sometimes they don’t like things with nuts.

“Thanks!”  I replied, as I truly appreciated her insights as the expert king cake sales consultant!

 Tanya truly listened to my order and went beyond just filling the order and filling that king cake with what I told her I wanted.  She consulted with me to a BETTER purchase.

What insights are You giving YOUR customers when they call to order a product or service?  Are you merely filling the order as requested OR are you listening for ALL the information and serving as a sales consultant?

 Customers remember when you go beyond the robotic order taking mode.  After all…. if all I needed was someone to “punch in” my request, why would anyone answer the telephone at The Dough Basket?  Tanya could simply have an answering machine that said, “leave your order at the beep”.  Instead, she adds value to her product by looking for the best customer solution every time.  Congratulations Tanya… and by the way… I think I need to order a second king cake… all this talk has made me want one of those praline cheesecakes for myself…. after all… I’m an empty nester now and don’t need to worry about what the kids do or don’t like!

I had a participant in a recent training who pointed out a common occurrence at retail service establishments.  As John was leaving the store he was asked, “Did you find everything you needed?”

He replied that he had not and mentioned what he was not able to find and the service representative seemed totally uninterested in truly listening or in passing his comment along.

 If we are going to ask customers if we are performing to their satisfaction, we had better at least ACT as though we are listening to their answer AND that we will record their input and act upon it.  Have you had anything similar happent to you?

Today I visited a city that I used to be very familiar with.  It has been a number of years since I have visited this city and the streets that I used to navigate with ease were now unfamiliar.  I had to relearn my way around.

 Perhaps your company has made some changes that make your customers physical or virtual navigation a bit different.  What are you doing to help your customers navigate this new road? With short attention spans a customer may move on if you don’t make them feel comfortable once again in the “newness”.  That “newness” could be a new website, a new product, a new location, new management or countless other changes.

 It is a natural human tendency to resist change.  As partners with our customers we must make the road an easy one to travel or they may decide to do business with another vendor who has not changed.  Change is progress, but only if we plan not just for our side of the counter, but also for the customer’s.

 Traveled any new roads lately?  Here’s hoping all your roads of change are paved with preparation for success!

What is it that is getting in the way of that follow-up call to a potential or existing customer? As homeowner, like many of you, I often find my ‘project list’ to be seemingly endless. It occurred to me today that I have no less than four calls in to local contractors that have never been returned. For those of us who spend countless hours working to “make the phone ring”, it is hard to comprehend a business that does not return phone calls, yet it happens countless times every day at businesses across America! As I was thinking about the phone calls never returned, two questions came to mind:

1. Is business SO GOOD that they don’t need MY BUSINESS?

2. Do I have any customers or potential customers who have experienced a failed follow-up from on my part?

I would rather not answer the second question on the grounds that it may incriminate me!!

For me, thankfully BUSINESS IS GREAT! Perhaps for some of the contractors mentioned above, BUSINESS IS GOOD OR GREAT. This brings up an interesting complication. When business is GOOD or GREAT, we have less time to spend building more business. Very few businesses experience even volumes throughout their sales calendar. What goes up must eventually or at least temporarily at some point come down. If we do not build business in the good times, the bad times will be even worse!

Take a moment today to take stock of your business building activities. Are you over-promising and under-delivering or under-promising and over-delivering. The first can ruin a businesses reputation, while the latter can line the profit coffers. Schedule time in your slow months or weeks to make a customer contact and customer follow-up plan for the hectic weeks or months. Take advantage of the slow months or weeks and realize that they are an excellent time to reconnect with past customers and determine future needs.

If business is good, you may have to SCHEDULE time to make sure it becomes and stays GREAT!

Anyone who has ever taught a child to drive knows that it can give you grey hair before your time. Trying to smile while holding on for dear life requires nerves of steel. One day while accompanying my daughter on a drive into town, I gasped as she changed lanes without looking. “Amanda,” I said, “did you know you just changed lanes?” She replied with a confused look on her face… “But I kept going straight?!” “Yes,” I countered, “but the road DIDN”T!.” A slight curve in the two lanes had allowed her to completely change lanes without turning the wheel.

How many of us unconsciously continue on a straight path while the road of life twists and turns? What have we missed by failing to turn our wheel and follow the road of opportunity to destinations far more interesting than the road directly ahead of us? Just as with my young driver, the greatest danger is not being alert and practiced enough to see a possibility to turn in a different direction.

Just as individuals must be willing to change, so must any successful business. The blockbuster product of today can quickly become the lackluster product of tomorrow. If we listen to our customers, they will tell us where the road is going. In order to listen, we must somehow learn how to ask the right questions. In a nanosecond, the mind of a customer can change direction. We must be tapped into their wants and desires or we may miss quickly changing preferences.

Siezing opportunity does not happen by accident. It is a skill that we must practice daily in both our work life and our private life. Being open to turning in a new direction keeps our perspectives fresh and ready for new avenues and ideas to change the destiny of our lives!

Teresa Allen works with businesses who want build profits through enhanced employee performance. A nationally recognized speaker, author and business consultant, Allen presents customized keynotes and training programs across the country. For further information, please call 800-797-1580 or send an email to tallen@AllenSpeaks.com.