TWICE IS ONCE TOO MANY

Have you ever filled out forms for a company and a few days, weeks, or months later had the same company ask you for the same forms and the same information a second time? It happened to me today.

I went into one of my signature rants about how unprofessional, unorganized, and downright stupid this was and my wife calmly looked at me and said, “I can remember you complaining that your company did the same things to its customers”! OUCH… That hurt.

Here I was ranting about something that I (as in the company I worked for) was doing. It made me realize how our customers felt. I then went back into my files and started looking at other times that I had filled out documents and had the same information requested several times, and what do you know, I found 3 examples over the past 5 years. (This being the fourth)

Now this may not sound like a sales problem or something a sales trainer should be talking about, however it is directly related to customer facing and as far as I am concerned, ANYTHING THAT AFFECTS MY CUSTOMERS AFFECTS ME! So this is definitely something for me to cover.

Let’s first start by looking at the type of information that I have been asked to duplicate, in 3 of the 4 times it included financial information. How do you think a customer feels about turning over financial information the first time, much less being asked for the same information twice. And what do you think the customer is asking themselves? I am sure the same question I asked, what happened to the information the FIRST time I sent it? Did it get lost, picked up by someone else, left on a park bench... the possibilities are endless and none are positive.

Other types of information were personal information. These bits of information have me really concerned as to their whereabouts. Imagine someone having your SS#, address and some financial information of yours! This is what identity theft is made of.

Now I am not saying that your company or my company lost, misplaced, or left the information behind on a park bench, but I am saying these are the things that ran through my mind and I am sure they are the kinds of things that run through your customers minds.

So what can a sales rep do to head this kind of information duplication? First, if you can know who the information is going to in your company. Follow-up with the person that the information got to them and that it was complete. Second, make sure your customer understands that the information needs to be as complete as possible to keep duplicate requests from being sent. Third, be able to explain what the information is for, what will be done with it, and who will be viewing it. (I know in larger companies this may be impossible)

If you can do these 3 simple steps most of the duplicate requests will be eliminated and the anger and frustration of your customers will be minimized.

Lorin