It’s important that you keep the contact details of your prospects and customers up to date. But here’s an example of the wrong way to do it…
I got a phone call a couple of days ago from IBM – or rather from one of their offshore call centres.
Is that Mr Brodie?
Yeah, that’s me.
Can I confirm your address please?
Hang on, who is this calling?
I’m calling from IBM. [Now sounding quite annoyed]Can you confirm your address please?
Er, no.
I’m sorry. Can I confirm your address please so that IBM can contact you?
Actually, no. I don’t think I want IBM to contact me. Bye.
Now there are many things wrong with they way they handled that call. But the biggest thing it brought to mind for me is the huge shift in my (and most other people’s) willingness to put up with these sorts of calls over the last 5 years.
5 years ago I’d have been most obliging. I’d have given my details over so that IBM could get their stuff to me.
Today, not only do I not particularly want to give over my details in case I get sent junk – but I even feel resentful that they’re wasting my time with the call.
Today, if you want to get anything from me on a call – even answering a few quick questions, I’m going to have to feel I’m getting something of value in return. In fact, I need to know that within the first few seconds of the call or I’m already tuning out and thinking of ways to get rid of you.
I don’t think it’s just me. We’re all incredibly short of time these days, incredibly cynical about why people want our details, and incredibly intolerant of being “sold to”.
So next time you or your team need to make a call to get some information from a client or prospect; think how you can actually make the call valuable to the person you’re calling rather just a drain on their time and energy.
If you want to confirm their address, for example – offer to send them a free report in a subject area of interest to them. That way they get something in return and it’s logical that you need their address to be up to date.
Want to carry out a client survey to get feedback on where your firm can improve its performance? Offer to create an individual action plan as a result showing how you’ll improve your performance for them.
Anything you need from them: give them something back in return.
Otherwise each non-valuable communication is one step further to them becoming an ex-client.
———-
What do you think?
Are we all less tolerant these days of communications that don’t add value to us?
Or is it just me getting grumpy in my old age?
I’d love to hear your views – drop me a comment in the comments box below.
Thanks!
Could it be that if they wanted to ‘confirm’ your address, they already have it, so the junk mail is still on its way!!
Also you could have pointed out that as he was talking to you at that very moment, IBM had achieved their objective of wanting to contact you.
I find these calls annoying too, but I like to try & wrongfoot the caller, who is probably following a script & my responses 9 out of 10 times don’t fit their script!
As accountants, we speak to HMRC quite a lot and when we ring them, we understandably have to go through security checks.
However, they do not seem to appreciate that when THEY ring US, we are just as entitled to ask them for security information. In fact, it completely floors them and usually results in them becoming more irritated!
Going back to cold calls, the person ringing assumes that price is the only factor. They assume everyone is greedy and wants to pay less. Screw service levels! I am quite happy with my printers/phone system/mobiles/etc.., if I really want to save £50 A YEAR, I will search you out and let you know!
Yeah – I hate that too. They seem incapable of understanding that £50 quid a year (with the pain of switching) isn’t even worth me spending 5 minutes on the phone with them for – far bigger fish to fry.
Ian
They may have achieved their goal of contacting me – but if their overrching goal was to contact me with a positive outcome of some sort to nurture out relationship then they failed badly.
But I’m guesing they didn’t have a relationship goal for the contact – just to get my details updated – and that’s their problem – they need to think about how every contact will progress the relationship (or not as in this case).
Ian
It’s soooo not just you! And this grumpiness doesn’t just apply to telephone communication either in my view. Whether it’s an email, a letter, a call or a visit to a website you have only seconds to demonstrate that listening to what you have to say is a valuable use of our oh so precious time. Big fail from IBM then!
Genius… Makes me want to buy IBM.
It all started a bit “Pear Shaped” Too direct…
If the conversation started ” Hi Ian – we are just updating our records & we’d like to confirm a few details with you so we can keep you updated on exciting developments / events at IBM in 2011″.
I would be more inclined to listen further to this approach.
Loving your articles & tweets – very catchy.
#Sales101Fail
Absolutely spot on. This is you, me, Sonja (clearly) and the zeitgeist.
IBM – like a lot of the big names – have not caught up and inflict more damage with every call they pay to make.
This is part of the change I’ve started to call ‘The New Marketing’ where you have to treat your audience with respect – if for no other reason than with social media (and blogging) it can answer you back. Publicly as you just did!
Companies wanting to contact their customers or prospective customers should understand what Chris Brogan, among others, have written about “levels of interruption”. A telephone call is the most interruptive way of contacting people, so it should be reserved strictly for issues that can’t wait — and for promptly responding to issues initiated by the customer.