Good Sales and Good Search
I wrote not too long ago about the dearth of good customer service in the world these days, and now I’m seeing it in the sales function. I’ve also written about a search function called “find my (whatever)” in blogs past, and boy, would it come in handy. Trying to furnish a new home in a pandemic is definitely a first-world problem, so I’m not going to complain. What’s not okay, though, is salespeople not returning calls.
We interviewed someone to deliver a service at our home, and they came out and visited and left the meeting saying they’d send a proposal. I should have asked “by when shall I expect to receive it?” but didn’t. Nor did they say when it would be sent. It is now one week later, and one text later, and nada. If you’re too busy, then just say so: “I’m at capacity, and we can’t manage your business right now.” That would be okay. But to have a request for service go into a black hole seems weird to me.
In trying to buy a car this past week, the salesperson didn’t call my husband back. They have a car on the lot; it fits our spec. He called, called, and called again. Why are people in the business of sales if they don’t return calls? When one wants to buy something, that means they’re serious prospects, right? Too many salespeople these days seem to have not gotten the memo.
We are all in service businesses these days. My rule of thumb is to always tell folks when they’ll hear back from me with a proposal, and then I try to beat it by a day or so. With our recent move, I missed a promise, but it’s rare. Still, to not pick up the phone or respond to inbound requests seems just wrong in business these days. Why is this going on? Are people that disconnected from the business they work in?
I’m also still waiting for a “find my…” search engine. Why can’t we go into a search engine today and say “modern office storage — 50–52 x 30 x 16”? Instead, you have to put in “modern storage,” wade through images, click, click, click to go see things and read descriptions, only to find that the measurements aren’t right or the piece isn’t available. Why can’t I say “I’m looking for x and here’s what I need” and have sellers respond to me? Why must I do all the work?
I was looking for a white sweater for eons and wrote about that in the past; today it’s a piece of furniture that needs to function in a certain way, look a certain way, and be a certain size. But finding it on the web is a challenge. Put in “turquoise vase” and you get a zillion hits. There are plenty to buy, but when you want certain features/functionality, it’s impossible. I still think there has to be a modern shopping service that allows people to put in parameters and have vendors respond.
Anyway, we can certainly always improve service, but it starts with picking up the phone or helping a buyer find what they’re looking for. Even our sales lead response data shows that there are broken links on websites, 800 numbers that don’t work, and contact info that leads to nowhere. Start with picking up the phone, and please, have salespeople call real buyers back.