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FOCUS ON RETENTION
Keep Your Promises
By Terrel Transtrum and David Taylor
You are in the relationship business. At the heart of relationships is making promises and keeping them. Whether or not you realize it, you make promises every day to prospects, new recruits, and those already on your team. The promises you make and keep provide the foundation of trust that will drive your business success.
You may be saying to yourself - what promises? I don't remember promising anyone anything. Of course, promises are made in the explicit and the implicit commitments and representations we make to others. If you say to a prospect - we always stand behind our products - that's a promise made by you on behalf of the company you represent. You must do all within your power to make it reality.
When you really boil it all down, your prospects, recruits, and team members are looking to be part of a business opportunity where three basic types of promises are kept:
- Product Promises (Quality products delivered on time)
- Commission Promises (Accurate commissions on time)
- Service Promises (Caring, competent, consistent service with exact follow-up)
Keeping these important promises is a responsibility that you share with the company that you represent.
So, what is your role in keeping these important promises?
Product Promises:
- Do you accurately explain the features and benefits of the products or services you represent?
- Are you capable and available to answer detailed questions about your products or services?
- Do you do all you can to assure that all orders are processed effectively and efficiently?
- Do you follow up quickly on defective products and breakdowns in the delivery of your services?
Commission Promises:
- Do you accurately explain your company's compensation plan to prospects and new recruits? Do you check for understanding to make sure they really get it?
- Do you teach new recruits and team members the processes they must follow to assure they are paid accurately, and on time?
- Do you help team members take advantage of special promotions and programs offered by your company?
Service Promises:
For your business to truly succeed in the way that we know it can, we must convince you that there is something more important than money. After all, we are not saying that your products and services must compete solely on price - be the cheapest. To be successful, you must offer something else. That something is service; it's convenience; it's the special touch; it's the extra mile. You must remove hassles. You must try to make life easier for your team members and customers.
The Retention Leaders are great service givers. When someone contacts them-via telephone, mail, fax, e-mail, or in person - they give caring, consistent, competent service with impeccable follow-up.
Caring service encompasses the virtues of empathy, concern, warmth, and genuine interest in the wants and needs of your team members and customers. True caring anticipates those needs before someone contacts you. The Golden Rule still rules.
Competent service demands that you possess a full working knowledge of your products, compensation plan, policies & procedures, promotions, calendar, administration; and that you have the skills needed for positive interpersonal relations, effective communication, critical thinking and problem solving; and the motivation to serve.
Consistent service contemplates a system that results in the right solutions at the right times for all. Consistency is the backbone of credibility and trust, and the Retention Leaders wisely construct internal frameworks for assuring consistency in giving good customer service, every day, all the time.
Exact follow-up is perhaps the single trait that differentiates the very best retention leaders. To drive the point, consider the last time that you were promised some resolution or action that did not come as promised; sadly, you probably accepted this as the norm. And when someone really does follow up and follow through, on time, as promised, you are delighted, surprised, and your faith in business is significantly restored. The Retention Leaders recruit the very best people, develop them, establish expectations of service and follow-up, and provide them with the tools that they need to make sure that all service-related issues are addressed and resolved in a timely manner.
Now, let's begin to move from theory to practice. A key point to remember: promises are kept when people use reliable processes that assure the promises are kept. Absent either element - the people or the processes - and promises are broken. Broken promises lead to loss of motivation, and eventually the loss of team members.
It is impossible to keep your promises if you don't know what promises you have made, and are now making. You need a straightforward system for identifying each of the promises that you (or your company on your behalf) make to customers and business builders. This will require a methodical, thorough sweep through your literature, field manual, website, correspondence, forms, publications, and policies & procedures. In addition, the best at retention keep careful notes of promises made during team meetings and conference calls.
There are five steps to evaluating your promises.
- Step 1 - Identify the promise and write a short statement of the promise
- Step 2 - Specify the place(s) where the promise is stated or implied
- Step 3 - Classify the promise as a Product, Commission, or Service promise
- Step 4 - Assess the standards that define the promise
- Step 5 - Evaluate the systems and processes that support fulfillment of the promise
Step 1 requires a complete evaluation of all the sources of documented promises. Remember, that those field reps and customers you bring into the business hold you personally accountable for keeping promises - whether those promises are made directly by you or by your company. Here are some places to look for promises that have been made or are being made:
- Conference calls
- Team meetings
- Field manuals
- Policies and procedures
- Starter kit information
- E-mails and letters
- Newsletters
- Websites
- Training materials
- Signed agreements
- Product literature and labels
- Catalogs
- Forms
- Other Correspondence
Step 2 provides a catalog of locations where the promises are found, and it should be updated as new promises are added, or new sources identified that reinforce or clarify the promise.
Step 3 is a convenient way to classify your promises for review and training purposes. It creates consistency in reference to and organization of the promises.
Step 4 requires a careful assessment of the standards that define the promises. Some helpful questions are these:
- Do our team leaders know the promise?
- Do the right people know what needs done, how to do it, and when to do it?
- Do performance standards exist and are they clearly defined? Do performance standards need to be created or updated?
Step 5 requires an evaluation of the processes and systems that ultimately support the fulfillment of the promises. Consider these questions:
- Do our systems and processes support the consistent fulfillment of the promise?
- What specific forms, processes, scripts, IT support, and / or training are required to ensure the fulfillment of promise, on time, every time?
Our Challenge:
Identify the promises you are responsible to fulfill. Follow the 5 steps above to evaluate those promises and the processes that lie behind their fulfillment. Make sure you are keeping track of promises you and your company are making now and in the future. Make sure you and your team have well defined processes in place to assure the promises are consistently fulfilled.
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