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Key Steps to Enhance Your Customer Service Part 5

Guest articles > Key Steps to Enhance Your Customer Service Part 5

by: Daniel Milstein

There are multiple instances in sales where you can go above and beyond for your customers. If you engage in these opportunities, both you and the customer will reap mutual benefits.

There are numerous, slightly less extreme examples of 'going the extra mile.' For example, one of our loan originators was waiting at a title company when his customer called to postpone the closing, because she was stranded on a roadway with a flat tire. The easy thing to do would have been to cancel and reschedule the appointment. However, the originator drove to the customer's location, took her to the closing, and afterwards returned to her car to change the flat tire.

In another instance, one of our salespeople was handling a purchase loan for a couple that was expecting a baby within the next week. He took care of their loan in the normal fashion and they chose a Thursday afternoon to close at their house. Of course, with the pending arrival of their new child, time was critical. Wednesday night the client went into labor and delivered a baby girl. The new father explained the situation and then asked about their options. Our loan originator mentioned that he and a notary public could go to the hospital during visiting hours and have the docs signed or he could extend the loan at no additional cost to the borrower and we could reschedule. The new father said 'Come on by, we aren't going anywhere.'

So that afternoon the Gold Star loan officer and the notary went to the hospital to get the documents signed and deliver the keys to the family's new house. While they were signing the docs, the originator was allowed to hold the baby girl and was amazed that he was able to be present for such a special experience of his client, creating a bond with this family that is still just as strong. He has since handled several additional loans for this family. When one of our clients wanted to close on his new house but faced a delay because the seller lived in Nice, France where he couldn't find a notary, we made a quick decision. We arranged to fly the seller to Michigan at our expense, so he could sign the necessary documents. It was an expensive one-day trip, but worthwhile considering the strong relationship we had with our customer.

A friend of mine, Tony Franchi, is the highly regarded national sales manager of a major food distributor. Earlier in his career he was a route salesman and one of his accounts was a small sandwich shop, whose owner insisted on only paying him in cash for the regular deliveries. The store proprietor had developed a trust with his favorite salesman. Of course, when Tony was promoted to manager, responsible for overseeing sales activity in 15 states, he was no longer responsible for handling individual accounts. Yet the sandwich shop owner wanted to continue dealing with him alone. Tony agreed to make a weekly trip--his only remaining sales call-- to receive the owner's payment. He did so because he was truly interested in satisfying this loyal customer,

A few of our celebrity clients have even asked us to watch their homes while they are traveling. In one instance, I stopped by a prominent hockey player's house only to find that a pipe had burst and caused flooding in the lower floor. I was able to call a plumber and help avoid further damage.

Daniel Milstein is the bestselling author of ABC of Sales. For more information, visit: http://amzn.to/ABCARTICLES.

Contributor: Daniel Milstein

Published here on: 12-May-13

Classification: Sales

Website: http://amzn.to/ABCARTICLES