SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 200,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each week in our newsletter.
How well does your organization stand behind its product or service?
- Extremely well: We ensure 100% customer satisfaction. 47%
- Very well: We stand behind our work the vast majority of the time. 35%
- Well: We generally stand by our work but occasionally miss. 11%
- Not well: We regularly miss customer expectations and standards. 6%
- Not at all: We don’t back up anything we do. 2%
Backing your product matters. 82% of you make pretty strong commitments to backing your product or service. For the 18% of you not in that group, recognize it may not affect that customer sale or relationship today, but it’s costing you dearly tomorrow. It’s far too easy these days to build a bad reputation for your business, given online reviews and the speed of information sharing. Many times, the commitment you need to make isn’t big relative to the cost of lost opportunities.
The next time a customer or client has an issue with your product or service, try resolving it on the first interaction. Go above and beyond what they might expect. You will see the immediate benefit of a happy customer and, more importantly, you’ll see future sales come through due to your enhanced reputation and referrals to your business. Don’t all into the trap of winning an argument today that will cost you dearly tomorrow.
Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS, which includes TITAN — the firm’s e-learning platform. Previously, he worked at McKinsey & Co., Capital One and Scotts Miracle-Gro. He is a West Point graduate and author of three leadership books: “One Piece of Paper,” “Lead Inside the Box” and “The Elegant Pitch.”