Every time a customer complains is your biggest opportunity to sell more!

Why is it that business operators’ do not see the potential of increasing their sales whenever a customer calls up to complain? They are already your customer, meaning they have previously purchased your product or service. You do not need to canvass or prospect hundreds of people to convert them into a customer.

They have previously committed to becoming your customer and are a potential fan IF you treat them right. They wouldn’t be calling you if there was no opportunity to keep them as a customer. If that were the case, they would just drop your service and move on without telling you why.

The fact that they are calling is demonstrating their loyalty to you.

You should do everything you can to keep them as a customer.

I think every business should have a designated sales person, that is skilled in customer relations and with enough authority to make things happen immediately, assigned to the service department. When a customer complaint is aired, the call should be transferred to this person. We’ll call them your “Service Concierge”. And, they should earn a commission on all customers that are “saved” by his or her actions.

They should be extremely accessible, personable, and posses a desirable trait of being an effective listener, a good problem solver, and possess no fear to take action. They need to be able to see the big picture and understand the lifetime value of a customer. I will venture to say that they can also provide more new pre-qualified leads than most marketing programs do.

How many times have you called service or support, only to encounter an experience that drives you away from that vendor whom you’ve shown maybe years of loyalty to and recommended their service to all of your friends?

On the other hand, how many times have you called for help and received such good service that you actually up-graded and came away with an even greater degree of loyalty to remain a customer? So much so, that you even give a referral when asked or recommendation whenever you are talking to your friends and associates.

What’s the real value of “keeping a customer” through superior service when the opportunity of a “customer complaint” is given to you?

You can get more new sales by simply taking care of your existing customers than you can by cold-calling for fresh new customers!

Try it. The results might surprise you.