Common Misconceptions!
When you coach a wide variety of people you can hear a great deal of perspectives. People believe what they believe because that is what they know, not always what is true. The world is full of people who have always believed what they believe and have never had cause or reason to challenge those beliefs. However, many people have never reasoned out their positions one way or the other and are often spending time questioning them or abandoning their beliefs for something that appears more popular.
In our profession we are subject to constant pressure of outside influences. Market conditions change so we must adjust to them, but often we never question the adjustments we are making. Are the adjustments we are making really the correct ones to make? In many cases what has worked before will work again. In other situations, we must explore new solutions to old problems. However, we often don’t think about old solutions to new problems!
With the world full now of algorithms to solve every problem, the quality of the customer experience is now left to an artificial and programed response instead of a person communicating with a person. Just like the incredibly frustrating phone trees when you call many companies that try to electronically answer your question in a number of ways until you either hang up, or have to wait for a live person to answer and they have to ask all the same questions all over again to figure out that THEY now have to transfer you to yet another person to help you and you have to answer all these questions all over again!
Technology and speed are not bad for customer service, but its the failed integration of technology and personal attention that causes a great deal of modern frustration. So let’s have a look at a few things that can help mitigate some of the customer service nightmares and provide guidance to our customers and referral partners on how to have a great customer service experience by integrating our technology and our personal connection to our customers.
The number one misconception in our industry is that we must be available 24/7/365. Since that isn’t even remotely possible, why do we even try? Clients and referral partners will understand and appreciate knowing exactly how you handle calls and messages; and when they can expect a response. When you use a combination of voicemail, email, text, video and old fashion phone calls, you can provide a great experience for most everyone in your market and have a life at the same time.
The next biggest challenge seems to be lead generation. Everyone seems fixated about generating or gathering leads. I actually have to laugh at this because there is an entire multibillion dollar industry thats sole purpose is to sell leads to people that won’t spend a few minutes a day to generate them themselves! The belief is that the more leads you generate, the more money you make. Um, NO! The more deals you CLOSE the more money you make! So why is it that so few people in our industry have even the slightest idea of what their actual conversion rates are, and how to improve them?
The last misconception of the day is the actual VALUE of each referral partner and the COST in time, money, and effort that each referral partner takes. So much of the time I see people investing 30%, 40%, 50%, or more of their time, money, and effort into a referral source or area of business that produces less closed revenue than the percentage of the revenue invested in it. WHY? There needs to be a direct connection between effort and outcome!
So what are your challenges? What do you want to talk about? What are the areas of business that you want to discuss? Please let us know!
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