Your Complete Guide to Customer Retention: Service and Follow-Up (with Examples)

Customer Retention: Service and Follow-Up is Step 10 of your Ultimate 10-Step Sales Presentation.

It has been a long road to get to this point! You combed through dozens of potential leads to develop a handful of qualified customers. You learned about the customer’s needs and wants. You crafted a benefit-driven sales presentation that knocked the buyer’s socks off! The buyer said, yes, the product was delivered, and you banked a big commission check. All is right with the world.

So, now it’s on to the next customer. Right?

Wrong!!!

Back the bus up!

You’re not done with this customer yet. Before you move on to the next customer, you need Step 10: Customer Retention: Service and Follow-Up.

For a few years, my dad tried his hand at selling cars. He was not cut out for sales, especially car sales, but he did ok. The reason he did ok was, he learned right away that the key to his success was satisfied customers.

It turns out he might make $500 when he sold a car. However, if that customer was satisfied with the buying experience and the car, that buyer would come back and buy another car from dad. In fact, over a lifetime, that buyer might buy ten cars for themselves and their family. So yes, that first car sold was a $500 paycheck, but the value of that customer over a lifetime was more like $5,000!

Dad realized if he treated every customer like a lifetime customer, he would have more lifetime customers.

You see, sales is really not about how many customers you can sell, as much as it is about how many customers you can keep selling to over and over!

The difference between a single sale and a lifetime of sales is in how many customers you can retain through service and follow-up!

So, let’s dig in and learn how you can leverage your service and follow-up skills to become a successful salesperson!

Content

In this article on Customer Retention: Service and Follow-Up, we’ll examine:

The Importance of Service and Follow-Up
Building Long-Term Business Relationships
Business Relationships and Customer Retention
The Product and Its Service Component
Customer Satisfaction and Retention
Does Service Increase Sales?
The Importance of Account Penetration
The Role of Service in Customer Retention
Handling Customer Complaints
Building A Professional Reputation
The Path to Success

10 Step Ultimate Sales Presentation

The Importance of Service and Follow-Up

From the very start of this series, I stressed the role of a relational salesperson is to help customers. Once the sale is made, the best way to further help the customer is to continue to build on your relationship through regular follow-up and service after the sale. The goal of post-sale follow-up is to ensure the product is performing as expected and that the customer is satisfied with their purchase.

The buyer will evaluate every salesperson and every purchase asking the same three questions:

Was this salesperson trustworthy?
Did the product and the salesperson do what they said?
Did the salesperson really care about me?

If you think about it, these three questions center around trust and relationship. Were you honest in every statement and claim you made? Did you care enough about the customer to establish a relationship with them? If the answer to these questions is less than a resounding “yes,” you have little chance of selling this customer a second time.

Building Long-Term Business Relationships

One of the keys to sales success is building long-term business relationships. Imagine you have a relationship with a buyer that exists for years or even decades. In all likelihood, your relationship will grow from a simple casual relationship to a business friendship.

A business relationship develops over time, much like your personal relationships. There are people with whom you are merely acquainted, people you consider casual friends and a few people with whom you enjoy an intimate friendship.

Acquaintances are people you see occasionally, but you don’t know much about them. For a salesperson, these are customers you are meeting for the first time. You don’t know them, their needs, or their likes and dislikes. As far as business relationships go, the baristas at Starbucks fall into the acquaintance category for me. They know I come in on Sunday mornings with my son, and they know how I like my coffee. That’s about it.
Casual friends are people whom you know and like and see on a fairly regular basis. You share common interests with these friends, and you trust them. In terms of business relationships, several buyers I called on over the years fall into the casual friend category. We knew each other fairly well. We knew each other’s preferred selling/buying style. We even knew a bit about each other’s families and pastimes outside of work.
Intimate friends are people you know well and trust. You care about them and their families. In business, these intimate relationships are built over a period of time. The relationship is a close one where each party knows and cares about the other. Over my entire career, I experienced this level of intimate business relationship only a few times, but each was incredibly satisfying and rewarding to me. Our relationship grew well beyond a simple business relationship to be a caring, personal one.

Business relationships, like personal relationships, take time to build and work to sustain. The relational salesperson recognizes the importance of these relationships to their long-term success and diligently works to maintain them.

Business Relationships and Customer Retention

Salespeople bear the bulk of the responsibility for contact with the customer. Very few people outside the sales organization ever have contact with a customer. So, it falls to the salesperson to develop a relationship with the customer.

There are three levels of customer relationships:

The salesperson sells to the buyer one time and does not expect to contact them again. Most retail sales fall into the transactional category. The buyer walks into a store, buys something, and leaves with no expectation of working with this salesperson in the future.
The salesperson expects to make multiple sales to a buyer over a period of time. The salesperson develops a relationship with this buyer following up after the sale to make the buyer is satisfied with their purchase. Almost all of my sales relationships over the years fall into the relational category. Even if I knew I would only work with the buyer for a few months, I did everything I could to develop a trusting relationship with them.
The salesperson works with the customer on multiple aspects of the business to improve the customer’s operations, sales, and profits. Partnering with a buyer was my absolute favorite role throughout my career. I had customers who presented me with business problems and asked for my team’s help in solving their problems. A partnering relationship with a customer differentiates you from all your competitors.

If you look back at the three levels of business relationships and compare them to the levels of customer relationships, you’ll see some similarities. Acquaintances are likely to be transactional in nature. Business friends are likely to be relational. While partnering relationships are reserved for intimate business relationships.

Relational and partnering business relationships take time to build. However, having these relationships with customers makes you a preferred provider in the eyes of the buyer. Once these relationships are established, competitors have little chance of taking the business away from you, and you will have a customer for years to come.

The Product and Its Service Component

When a buyer buys, they are deciding about more than a product. Yes, they are buying a product for what needs/wants it fulfills, but they are also buying anticipated service after the sale, and to some extent, the reputation of the seller’s company.

For example, if I need a dress shirt, I know Turnbull & Asser makes shirts for me that fit well, look great, and will give me years of wear. However, when I buy a Turnbull & Asser shirt, I am also buying with an expectation of a high level of customer service to go along with the quality of the product they sell. My confidence in the company is reinforced by their reputation as a provider of high-quality men’s clothing for over 130 years. So, when I buy a Turnbull & Asser shirt, I am buying the product, their service, and their reputation.

From a wholistic standpoint, customer service is all of the activities, programs, and services the seller provides to the buyer. This includes warranties, credit, delivery, financial terms, ordering systems, gift-wrapping, and so forth.

So, remember you are selling more than a product. You are also selling all the components of customer service and the reputation of your company. This leads us to the next important topic which is the intersection of customer satisfaction and customer retention.

Customer Satisfaction and Retention

A customer will be satisfied when their expectation for customer service is met. A customer will be dissatisfied when their expectation for service is not met.

For example, I have little expectation of customer service when shopping at Target. I expect shopping carts at the door, the product I need to be in stock and easy to find, and a cashier to ring up the sale. As long as they do that, I feel they have met my needs.

On the other hand, when I shop at Nordstrom’s, I have a much higher expectation for customer service. I expect salespeople to be courteous, to offer to help me, to give me expert advice, to tailor clothes that need fitting, to ring up the sale quickly and efficiently, and to put all my goodies in fancy bags! If Nordstrom’s fails to meet these expectations, I may still make a purchase, but I will have some level of dissatisfaction.

So, if there is a negative gap between my expectations and my actual experience, I will be a dissatisfied, unhappy customer. I may not be back for a repeat purchase. Additionally, I may just tell all my friends about my bad experience.

On the other hand, if there is a positive gap between my expectations and my actual experience, if you overdeliver, I will be exceptionally satisfied with my purchase. I will more than likely return to make repeat purchases and if all goes well, I will become a loyal shopper. Plus, I will tell others about my great experience.

Since customer retention is critical to the long-term success of a professional salesperson, you’ll want to ensure that you deliver above and beyond customer experiences every time.

That is why overdelivering on service is a sure way to help you build sales!

Does Service Increase Sales?

There are only two ways you, as a salesperson, can increase sales. You can either sell to more new customers or sell more to existing customers.

Either way, the level of customer service you provide impacts your ability to increase sales.

For example, you are trying to sell to more new customers. What do you suppose is the most reliable and productive source of new customers? If you answered, referrals, you are absolutely correct!

And who do you think will be most anxious to give you a referral, a happy, satisfied customer or a dissatisfied customer?

So, if you are trying to sell more new customers, you need to provide excellent service to the customers you have, so they will be inclined to provide you with productive referrals.

What if you have plenty of existing customers and you want to increase sales to them? Again, by providing over the top, beyond expectations for customer service, you increase the likelihood of someone giving you more business.

Finally, what about the customers you failed to sell? Maybe your product just wasn’t the right fit for them, or the timing wasn’t right. For whatever reason, you didn’t make the sale. Do you suppose that by building a relationship with them and giving them great service through the selling process, they might be more interested in doing business with you in the future? Do you suppose these folks might also be willing to give you referrals? Of course! So, even if you didn’t close the sale this time it behooves you to provide an excellent customer eservice experience for every customer, every time!

One way to help you deliver excellent customer service is to know your customer inside and out. This is why account penetration is so important to your long-term success!

The Importance of Account Penetration

Account penetration is the ability to contact and work with a variety of people of a target customer. Why you may ask, is account penetration important for customer service?

The short answer is, the more you know about the customer through a variety of sources, the better you’ll understand their situation and needs. The more you know about their situation and needs, the better you’ll be able to match your products and services to their situation.

For example, when I was the sales manager for P&G’s Foodservice division, my personal account was a major grocery chain. They had a central bakery that supplied all the baked goods to all their stores in three states. One day when I was working with them, one of the bakers told me how they were having trouble getting their pies to bake evenly. It had nothing to do with a product I sold, but I used this information from the baker to work with the commissary manager to help him solve the problem with his pies.

Because I knew the baker, he told me about a problem, and I was able to use that information to provide expertise to the commissary manager. I provided an “above and beyond” level of customer service because of my account penetration!

The Role of Service in Customer Retention

By now, I hope you understand how important service is and the impact it will have on your ability to retain customers.

Loyal customers don’t become loyal customers by accident. Their loyalty is the result of a mutually beneficial relationship developed over time.

There are four ways customer service will help build your relationship and develop loyal customers.

1) Walk a Mile in their Shoes

People buy from people they like and trust. Think about how you like to be treated as a customer. What makes you feel extra special, like a valued customer? Endeavor to provide that kind of experience for your customers.

Build your relationship by getting to know them.
Use account penetration to learn more about your customers.
Demonstrate how you are unique. What is your competitive advantage?
Ask them how you can serve them even better!

2) Then Go the Extra Mile

Begin by treating customers how you would like to be served, then go the extra mile to provide above and beyond levels of customer service. Very few salespeople go the extra mile in their customer service, so this is one way you can differentiate yourself as a relational salesperson!

3) Show Your Appreciation

Saying thank-you is becoming a lost art—especially in the business world. A very small percentage of salespeople acknowledge the opportunity to meet with a buyer with a thank-you. Of those who do say thank-you, many salespeople send simple form letters.

So, if you want to differentiate yourself, to stand out from the crowd, then start saying thank-you the right way! Here are four tips for saying thank-you to a buyer.

Be Prompt. Send the thank-you as soon after the meeting as possible, preferably within two days.
Be Personal. Address the thank-you directly to the person using their name and reference specific aspects of the meeting. While we’re on the topic of personalization, dropping the first name into a form letter is not personalization. A thank-you on social media does not count as personalization either. In fact, if you really want to stand out, get some personalized stationery, write a note by hand, and mail it to the customer!
Be Precise. Whenever appropriate, state in precise terms what will happen next. Will you call for a follow-up appointment? Will your warehouse call to schedule delivery? Whatever the next steps are, be specific and precise.
Be Positive. The tone of your thank-you should be warm and upbeat. Let them know how much you appreciate their time, attention, business, etc.

Remember, most salespeople do not take the time to follow-up with a thank-you of any kind, so differentiate yourself by being a salesperson who always says thank-you!

Some years ago, I went on a family shopping trip to Nordstrom’s. I was a reluctant shopper, but my wife and daughter insisted on some updates to my wardrobe. The salesperson that helped us was outstanding. He met all my expectations. The next day he set himself apart when he called and asked if everything fits well, if I was satisfied, and if there was anything else I might want. Plus, two days later, I got a handwritten note from him thanking me for giving me the opportunity to work with him! The handwritten note put him head and shoulders above every other retail salesperson I’ve worked with over the years. When I went back to the store a couple of months later, I learned he had been promoted to head of the department. I was not surprised.

4) Treat Every Customer Like a Key Customer

Treat every customer as though they were your most important customer.

I know when I go into the local gourmet meat market to buy a piece of meat for a special occasion that I am not one of their top customers. They don’t know me from Adam. Nonetheless, I’d like to think that I am an important customer whether I am spending $20 or $100.

I know I am not alone. Every buyer wants to be treated like they are special.

So, treat every customer like a key customer. The person that spends $20 today may be the person who ends up being a loyal customer, spending thousands of dollars.

Handling Customer Complaints

It is bound to happen. No matter how conscientious you and the rest of your organization are, mistakes will happen. A customer will let you know they are unhappy with some aspect of the product or your service. There will be times when you did everything you said, and the product is exactly as you described, and the customer still complains.

What do you do? Sometimes the customer is right. Sometimes the customer is wrong!

When the Customer is Right

When the customer is right, make every effort to deal with the customer’s complaint quickly and fairly. This is another time when going above and beyond what you have to do to correct a problem or resolve a complaint is to your long-term advantage.

For example, I recently purchased a mattress cover for a guest bed. When I took the cover out of its package, I noticed it was soiled. When I notified the company, they asked me to send a picture, which I did. I immediately got a response back from the company. They apologized and said a replacement cover was being shipped immediately. I expected them to ask me to return the soiled cover and they said, no, just keep it along with the new one!

When the new mattress cover arrived, there was a note of apology, and a 20% discount offer good on my next purchase.

Contrast their professional response with this experience that happened the same week.

I ordered a cover for my car to protect it from the birds and foul weather. The company’s website claimed to ship custom covers within two weeks. Within two days of placing the order, I was thrilled to get a shipping notice.

Days went buy and no product. I called and sat on hold with customer service for 30 minutes before I could ask about my car cover. At first, they claimed the product had shipped. They asked me to wait two more days and call back if the cover didn’t arrive. After two days and no cover, I called back. This time they said it hadn’t really shipped, it hadn’t even been made yet! They promised to expedite manufacturing and shipping.

At nearly the one-month mark, which was two weeks late according to their website, the cover finally arrived. When it arrived, I unpacked it only to find that some accessories were missing. They had not shipped the entire order! I had to call customer service again and they promised to ship the accessories immediately. As of this writing, it’s been another week and I still don’t have the rest of my order.

What kind of reference do you think I’ll give the first company versus the second company?

My point in relaying these two stories is when you get a customer complaint, and the customer is right, at a minimum get on the problem immediately and resolve the problem to the customer’s satisfaction. If you want to do something to stand out, do something nice for the customer that they didn’t expect that demonstrates how much you appreciate their business.

When the Customer is Wrong

There will be times when a customer’s complaint is invalid. When this happens, you need to determine whether the customer is being honest and wrong or is deliberately complaining in an attempt to take advantage of you!

Customers make mistakes just like you do. Occasionally a customer will complain, but the mistakes are theirs. In this case, you need to decide how to handle the situation so as to maintain the relationship. You may agree to correct the situation as far as company policy allows.

Honest Mistake

I recently purchased some replacement floor mats for my car. When they arrived, I attempted to install them, but they did not fit correctly. I called to complain, and the customer service person insisted I had ordered mats for the wrong model. My mistake, they said. I asked if I could return the mats in exchange for the correct mats. “No,” they said. “All sales are final. See the fine print on the bottom of our website?” No amount of pleading or groveling on my part made a bit of difference. I was stuck with mats that didn’t fit my car. I still needed new mats for my car, but guess what? I didn’t order them from this company, and you can be sure I won’t return to them for any other accessories I need over the years to come!

Dishonest Customer

On the other hand, there are customers who will lodge a complaint trying to take advantage of you and your company. This happened to me a number of times when I was a young sales representative. In one instance, a customer claimed they were owed merchandising allowances for the product they purchased. They even showed me a receipt for the purchase from a wholesaler. When I delayed paying their claimed allowances, they complained loudly and vociferously to my bosses’ boss! In the meantime, I checked with the wholesaler and found yes, they had purchased the product, but they had returned it to the wholesaler on their very next order! They were lying and trying to defraud my company and me!

Needless to say, we stopped calling on this customer. You don’t need customers who behave like that!

Building A Professional Reputation

Over the course of this series, I have referred to the importance of building and maintaining a professional reputation. Let’s review what it takes to build your reputation as a professional salesperson.

Be honest. Tell the truth. Don’t exaggerate claims for your products or services.
Be knowledgeable. Know your products and services inside and out. Continue to build your own skill sets.
Speak well of others. Don’t run down people in your own organization or your competitors.
Keep confidences. Keep customer information confidential and do not share with their competitors.
Don’t use undue pressure. Be assertive but do not use unfair pressure tactics to take advantage of a customer.
Be community-minded. Where possible, support local community events and causes—especially those important to your customer.
Provide above and beyond customer service with every customer, large and small.

It takes a concerted effort over time to build and maintain a professional reputation. It takes only one misstep to throw it all away. There will be times when you are tempted to compromise your ethics, your standards, to betray a confidence, or to overstate a claim. Don’t do it! The short-term gain from these tactics is never worth losing your reputation as a trustworthy salesperson.

The Path to Success

Some of you may be familiar with the Ask, Seek, Knock verse in the Bible. Jesus said in Matthew 7:7,

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7).

For the professional salesperson, the order is Seek, Knock, Ask, and Serve.

Seek new customers and new ways to serve existing customers, and you will find them.
Knock on many doors, and some will open to you.
Ask for the order, and customers will buy.
Serve before, during, and after the sale, and you will develop loyalty among your customers.

Selling is service. Your role as a relational sales professional is to serve the customer. Your ability to deliver above and beyond customer service every time to every customer will determine how many customers you sell, and how many of those customers you will retain who will become life-long loyal customers!

The 10-Step Ultimate Sales Presentation Series

Step 10: Customer Retention is the eleventh in a series of articles, created to teach you how to craft and deliver the Ultimate Sales Presentation in 10-Steps.

If you missed a previous article in this series or you want to review one again, you’ll find them here:

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Category: Salespeople