BE NICE!
Of all the tips on success that I have come across, simply being nice to people may be the easiest and most important one of all.
Nordstrom observed; “We found that we could hire nice people and teach them to sell. We had trouble hiring salespeople and trying to teach them to be nice”.
Be nice to your customers; even those that are not nice to you.
Be nice to your co-workers; even those you don’t like.
Be nice to your friends; regardless of your mood or theirs.
Be nice to your family members; even when you are upset by them.
Be nice to EVERYONE; ALWAYS.
Be Nice! It’s Easy
April 28th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
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Don’t Say One Thing And Then Do Another!
I recently went shopping for a new car with my son and daughter-in-law and as you can probably imagine, I came away with a number of observations of the salespeople we encountered and the process as a whole. As with almost any experience, there was good and bad. I will share both sides with you but I will start with the bad experience, allowing me to leave you on a positive note.
We had actually found a car that they both liked and were ready to make the choice. We sat down with our salesperson and went over everything from the trade-in and interest rate to the monthly payments. Everything seemed to be progressing along smoothly and the customer service that we received from our salesperson was first rate. He even went so far as to offer us a small bite to eat and something to drink, as it was lunchtime and we had been there for a while. We completed our business with the salesperson and were ready to move on to the finance person to sign the papers required.
As we began speaking with the finance person, everything again seemed to be going smooth and we had zero issues with how we were being treated. In fact, we were very impressed and pleased to that point.
Then it happened! When we got to the page that was the actual loan agreement, the monthly payment was substantially higher than the one given by the salesperson. We, obviously, asked the question of why is the payment higher. The finance person then began to talk about everything from taxes to dealer fees that were not included by the salesperson in the initial stages. While what he was saying may or may not have been true, is not the issue at hand.
The bigger issue here is that the customer had agreed to a deal with a salesperson and a dealership were now walking out of that dealership with no car. One of the fundamentals of selling and customer service is keeping your promises. We were promised a certain monthly payment that we agreed to, shook hands on, and then we were told that the payment quoted did not include all of the fees and expenses. A completed sale was lost because a promise and thus trust was broken.