The worst words to use when trying to solve a customers issue...

One of the very first things I taught as a trainer back in my days of the lovely field of Call Centres was to never try to solve a customers issue/problem/concern by starting off with the statement, "What you will need to do is..."

This will often cause the friendliest of customers to go off the deep end with a tirade of "Who do you think you are for telling me what to do..." The "What you need to do is..." statement can only be beaten by "I can not do that!" as a response to a customers request.

Customers are not part of your company or trained on the inner working of how things are suppossed to be done. When a problem does arrise you need to make them your friend when you try to help. Change the two statements above into the following and you capture a much more pleasant response.

"What you will need to do is..." becomes "I can help you made the needed changes today..."

"I can not do that!" becomes "Let me see what I can do..."

The key is to turn the negative into a positive. You are 9 times out of 10 going to get the customer to do all the work or lower their unattainable expectations of a solution by simply showing empathy. With the negative or positive wording of your reponse you are saying the exact same thing, the only difference is your customers impression of your help.

The above came flooding back to me today as I tried to help a customer pay his invoice to us by having it split between two of his companies. I was told by out admin staff "We can't do that..." I work for the company and can't get a compromise, imagine the customers reaction if he had called my admin person and heard that. In the case where a customer is looking to pay you for services provided you need to be flexile on how you get your money and making the customer feel good.

Let's see if the customer pays...

GTA Construction Report Feb 2011 Issue

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Ontario Construction Report Feb 2011

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Feb 2011 Publishers Viewpoint

This past month I attended the Barrie Construction Association Annual General Meeting and was re-elected to the board for a new two year term. The difference this time compared to when I first joined in 2009 is I have an idea of the things I want to tackle.

One of the ideas I shared with the board last year was looking into exploring a name change of the association from the Barrie Construction Association to a regional name, The Simcoe County Construction Association. The association re-branding of the would reflect some of the changes it has taken on by putting a new focused effort into building relationships with local municipalities and institutions such as Georgian College and Base Borden. The expansion and re-branding would also include strengthening relationships with surrounding associations to create new potential for alliances and membership growth. It will be interesting to reflect back on how successful this idea may be and also examine any challenges that may pop up.

The next thing I will be tackling is our first initiative in publishing of a special issue of the GTA Construction Report with an insert of the annual BCA publication. In the past, a contract publisher produced a glossy magazine that circulated just 1,000 copies. I proposed to the BCA to produce a tabloid format publication, which would reach 4,000 subscribers with our printed edition as well as 75,000 additional readers with our online edition. On top of these copies, I will then produce between 500 and 1,000 copies in a high-quality version for the BCA to use for marketing to potential members and industry partners. I will start marketing the publication in March and look to have it all wrapped up and delivered to the BCA in time for the Members Day BBQ this September.

Over the next two months I will be attending several industry events that I hope to see you at. First up is the National Heavy Construction Show March 3 to 4 at the International Centre in Toronto. We will be publishing a special edition of both the Ontario Construction Report and the Canadian Design & Construction Report on the show. If you are attending as an exhibitor drop me a note so I can get some photos of your booth and an interview set up. Next up is that the seventh Annual OGCA Symposium in Collingwood March 31 to April 2. The Construction News and Report Group is a Gold Sponsor of this event. We will publish two special symposium issues of in March and May. If you wish to publicize your business or project to Ontario's most successful general contractors, please call or email me.