It is not surprising that, as potential customers, we have been mistreated in our care.
Probably it has also happened to you on several occasions that when you enter a company or sales premises you receive some, several or all of the following responses as alleged sales management:
- He enters the sector and finds papers on the floor, dirty glass, stained or burned carpet, unpleasant aroma in the environment, worn or maintenance-free counters, etc. He is ignored as a visitor, where all the action of the sector continues to operate as if one were transparent or perhaps a ghost that they neither see nor hear. Where he has to make an effort and request to be cared for. They make him absurdly wait a long time before being treated and he even has to endure the "laundry" of someone he knows from the care staff. Or perhaps he had to extract a number in a place crowded with people and he observes that he still needs 87 numbers to be attended. They receive it with the face of few friends (and sometimes even with the "rabid dog face"), where it seems that the smile is forbidden by house rule. During your attention,He does not receive the minimum kindness or courtesy that is considered elementary in a sales management, and he even feels like he is being done a great favor in serving him at the moment. He asks for information about a product and the supposed "seller" makes excuses. saying that he is new to the position or that the product is new and therefore he did not have time to study it to respond to it. (If you excuse yourself, since many times not even that gesture of dignity is appreciated) He asks about the offer announced in some media, which made him upset to that place, so that they inform him that it is over and that he only has others left substitutes (of course: more expensive and nothing like what you were looking for). Pay ridiculous prices, knowing that such merchandise or service is worth 30% less when you return from that same business,Either you are aware that in other countries that you have known or have been told, it is 50% cheaper. They discuss with you about any insignificance until you get it out of your boxes. You want to take a certain product and make you the scene of making you feel guilty given that it is the last one they have left and it is only destined to be exhibited. (?) They make him return "on an empty stomach, a Thursday at 8:00 with the ballot and the original container", to attend to his claim for change due to some type of defect. Call "service" and:; he is unable to communicate by telephone with the department at any time; when he finally communicates, they take his order and they do not fulfill the announced appointment; they are not presented with the tools or the materials or spare parts to respond to your previously announced claim;They repair their inconvenience for a short time and they do not accept a later claim about it explaining that it is a new service and that it must be for another reason because they consider the above to be repaired, etc. They attend to your phone call chewing "gum" or eating cookies (It's snack time, of course…), and they leave him waiting on the line until his patience runs out after several minutes of pleasant electronic music "box music" type. When he is ready to close his purchase (because there was no sale) They complicate his life with absurd papers, documents that he does not usually carry, pink and yellow copies, data from his ancestors, and they even ask him to return with the cash just tomorrow because the cashier left sick and they usually do not have a small change, etc.He has wished to use a company hierarchy to solve any problem or make his complaint heard and they tell him that the person in charge is not available, that he is in a meeting or that he makes an appointment for the next week, etc., etc.
Please do not be disturbed by the memory of these unpleasant situations as a consumer, since that was not the intention. In addition, you have the consolation and peace of mind that very few of these businesses that expected you to buy from them will soon remain because they felt that they had "the cow tied" and you had no alternative but to turn to them.
Doing a bit of history, this lack of professionalism in sales and after sales had its heyday at the time of hyperinflation, from the closed market to imports and where there was no competition in increasingly better products that exists today in every item.
Competition also in the amount of business for each item and market segment that already exist and that will appear day by day.
Fortunately, it allows you to channel your purchases only in those places where it is well received and professionally cared for as it deserves.
Moving to the other side of the counter, we see that many of those unsuccessful sales for these causes are not recorded in any billing or control means that detects them so that they are highlighted and corrective measures are taken.
But what they achieve, unfortunately for the company, is to accentuate the scarcity of them. That is, the inexorable drop in sales.
This is most evident in times of recession where only those who provide the best care, the best product / service "really required" by their market segment, sell where quality is found at an attractive "cost-benefit" price and where they facilitate to the potential client their will and action to buy, making it attractive in every way.
Even if the register or invoice that reported on these nonsense towards whoever provides the source of income (no less) was invented, something even more important is missing: "the will and determination of managers and entrepreneurs" to correct this deviation and guide management of the entire company towards what should be a professional sale.
The multiplier effect of inadequate customer service for different aspects of management, spreads like a plague on the market with consequences and effects that are difficult to correct immediately.
The greater the delay, the greater the deterioration and the economic effort required to correct it. Expecting saving miracles exist only in one's determination to perform them. (Of course, with God's help for spiritual guidance and support.)
For all these reasons, I would like to insist on a reflection of my own that I hope will become its own in many owners, managers and directors of companies: «The sale constitutes the sap that feeds the trunk, branches and leaves of the structure of any company. When it is scarce, it affects its development and development. When it is insufficient or does not exist, as it happens to trees, the company deteriorates and dies. "
Copyright © 1995 by La Nación
