– Lucy Glennon specializes in customer service training and recruitment and hiring. She can be reached at 866.645.2047 or lucyg@hireguru.com. www.hireguru.com.
CUSTOMER SERVICE – When you hear about your competition falling down on the job and providing poor service, isn’t it tempting to want to tell everyone on your prospect list?
Most sales and customer service people agree that you don’t knock your competition, but some how sales and customer service people keep doing it, and even get dragged into it by the unsatisfied customer.
We all know that ‘Mud Slinging’ is not a professional thing to do, and here is an even more important sales reason not to do it. When you start talking negatively about your competitors, the prospect immediately starts to think about the positive attributes of your competitor.
It may be your best approach when a client or prospect starts knocking the competition is to not understand him. You may want to suggest that ABC company has been around for some time and you thought they were pretty good. You may want to ask, “What’s the problem.”
Typically the client or prospect will give you details of his dissatisfaction with the competition. This allows the prospect or client to reflect on the competition’s weaknesses but more important, it will tell you what their expectations are of you.