EASY PEAZY

I don’t know why, but over the past few weeks I have heard numerous stories from friends about how difficult it has been to do business with some companies.

I have listened and shook my head at some of the absurd things that I heard, but that was about as involved as I got…. UNTIL YESTERDAY!

I have written an e mail to the company I had trouble with, and until I hear back and see how they handle the problem, I won’t mention them by name.

I live in a 40 year old house. It is in GREAT shape and I do my best to either fix things myself or I have someone come out and fix whatever I need in a timely manner. Bottom line, I am not going to let my house “run down”.

Of all things to go wrong, the door knob from my garage to my kitchen (the door that is used the most) has worn out. This seems like a very simple problem with a 15 minute fix. Go out buy a new knob and replace it, RIGHT?

WRONG! All my locking doors work off the same key, so I need a knob that can be rekeys to all the rest of the locks. Remember I said my house is 40 years old? Well the door knobs are also 40 years old and the new locks sold everywhere, can’t be rekeyed to work with the same key as all the rest.

I did my homework, and found the manufacturer of the knob. They are still in business, but have been bought by a giant company. Thank goodness for the internet, I was able to find the company and they had a phone number to call. I called the customer service number and that is when the fun began!

First Problem – Electronic Answering, I was connected to an electronic answering system that asked my question after question. The problem was after the third question, my situation wasn’t one of the reply options.

Second Problem – No Operator. I pushed the “0” key on my phone trying to get to a “real person”. The “0” key simply started the recording over from the beginning.

Third Problem – “I Can’t Transfer Calls”. Being the smart resourceful person I am, I hit several option selections trying to get to a “real Person”. Option 4 did the trick! I was connected to the accounting department. A very nice lady picked up the phone and when I told her my LONG story, she said, “You need Customer Service”. She then gave me the customer service phone number, as she said it I followed along on my screen seeing that the number she was giving me was the same number I have been calling. I asked her to PLEASE transfer me to CS. That is when she dropped the bomb, “I’m sorry, I can’t transfer calls”

To keep this post to a manageable length, I will shorten the rest of the story.

After several more attempts, I finally got through to someone who said they can help me. I sent pictures of the knob, I sent pictures of the key, I sent pictures of the door, I sent everything they asked for. It took about a week and I got a return call from the company. GOOD NEWS, they told me. Because of the age of the lock, it has a LIFETIME WARRANTY and they will send out a replacement…BUT… they are out of stock and it will be 4 to 6 weeks until they get them back in stock. Seeing no other choice, I said I will wait.

Fast forward 3 weeks.. I got an e mail that the knob is in and they are shipping it to me. 2 days later a package shows up at my home with my NEW KNOB! I open the box and there is a note in the box telling me that I need to take it to a locksmith to have it keyed to my old locks, NO PROBLEM, I expected as much and had already found a place close to my house that will do it.

YESTERDAY…remember I said that this hit home yesterday?

Yesterday I went to the locksmith, he took one look at the lock, a look at the key, and then said, “THEY SENT YOU THE WRONG LOCK”! The lock was for a different key. I was in shock!

I went home and made the call, yep to the only number I had, and it all started again. I then sent the e mail that I am waiting to get a reply to. STOP LAUGHING AT ME!

Please, LEARN from this story. Make doing business with your company and with you as simple as possible. Remove any obstacles a customer may encounter when trying to spend their money with you. Help the customer get what they need the first time they contact you. Finally, be accessible to solve any problems and answer any questions the customer may have.

SPENDING MONEY NEEDS TO BE EASY PEAZY!

I’M SORRY

It has been almost 5 ½ years since I last posted to The Training Buffet, Help Yourself. 5 ½ years… I wish I had a great reason, I don’t. I wish I had a great excuse, I don’t. I wish I had a clue, I don’t. The truth is, I just didn’t.

As the saying goes, LIFE GOT IN THE WAY!

I am back now, I am motivated to start posting, I am also done saying I because "The Training Buffet, Help Yourself" is about you. I write it about experiences I have, but the message is always about YOU.

YOU CAN LEAD A HORSE TO WATER, BUT SOMETIMES YOU NEED TO HOLD THEIR HEADS UNDERWATER UNTIL THE BUBBLES STOP BEFORE THEY DRINK!

I went into the field with a rep a few weeks ago, who was struggling, to say the least. He had not been selling much. He had no real plan and was more or less just driving around looking for a place to try and sell.

After the first 3 sales calls we made on day 1, I asked him to stop at a diner that we passed so we could set things up. We pulled out his active account list and his past 4 weeks of sales calls. WHAT A MESS!

He had customers that he had called on 3 times in the past 4 weeks that bought nothing and customers he hadn’t called on at all that had purchased hundreds of dollars from him on the last sales call and everything in between.

The rep then said words I have been hearing for years as the top excuse for not calling on a customer… I DIDN’T WANT TO SEEM PUSHY. I told him I didn’t even know what that means.

I asked, did he think calling on a customer on a regular basis was pushy? Did he think being in a business on a set schedule was pushy? Did he think SERVICING a customer was pushy? He said no. So I asked him what he considered pushy. NO ANSWER.

We put a quick plan together for the rest of the day and I asked him to work on the next 3 days that evening and come pick me up from the hotel ready to go to work the next morning.

YUP, you guessed it, the next morning, NO PLAN. He gave me 5 bad reasons he hadn’t done what I asked him to do. I wouldn’t let him leave the hotel parking lot. We went into the lobby and I had him make a plan for the day. At the end of the day I gave him the same assignment as the night before, make a plan for the next 2 days we would be working together.

Stop shaking your head, you know darn well he had NO PLAN the next morning. We went through the same exercise and that afternoon when he dropped me off at the hotel, instead of asking him to make the plan at home I made him (almost kicking and screaming) come into the lobby and make the plan for the next day.

15 minutes, that is how long it took, 15 minutes for him to have a plan that I was happy with. You could look at his face and see how mad he was that I made him do this, but the next day we sold more than the 3 previous days combined.

This was an extreme example of holding his head under water until the bubbles stopped to make him drink, but, he drank. The next week, he had his best week in the business and when he called to tell me about it he said it was because he had a plan every day and it worked.

It took me being PUSHY and forcing him to do something he didn’t feel was worthwhile to see what he needed to do to succeed. Look at your daily habits and identifying what you can do better, and then holding your own head underwater (remember, don’t actually hold your head underwater, or anyone else’s for that matter) until you make the adjustments to help yourself succeed.

Lorin