Bottongos.com

Committed for Better Business

Most of us negotiate every day, if only when we influence our kids to finish their homework or get to dinner on time, when we encourage our co-workers to do their fair share of the heavy lifting, and when we schedule the appointment to repair the washing machine at a time when we can be home to meet the technician.

But some occupations negotiate more than others. Lawyers are constantly negotiating and so are sellers.

And we know that dental hygienists are always trying to get us to floss.

But what about customer service representatives?

Not long ago I called one of my credit card issuers to have the late payment fee waived.

After a bit of banter, the rep stated, “Okay, I’ll waive the fee, but just this once!”

Were we negotiating? Absolutely, and that CSR, and millions like it, are empowered with some discretion to give callers what they ask for.

But if CSRs don’t have formal negotiation training, they won’t be sure of the precise amount of discretion they can use, making them seem insecure and even unknowingly unlikable.

Additionally, if customer service representatives are not trained in negotiation skills, they are likely to make at least one of three common mistakes:

(1) They will be inclined to give the store away too often; gold

(2) They will be so greedy as to never compromise, even when it makes good business sense to do so, for example, when a customer relationship is at stake; gold

(3) They will negotiate defensively, taking the process personally and leaving the customer with a sour taste even if they are given what they asked for.

When the CSR released that “I’ll only do this once” gossip, it was defensively issuing an ultimatum that was unduly personal because it was framed in the first person: “I” will only do this once.

One of the keys to effective negotiation is to maintain pleasant relationships so that you can come back, another day, in the right frame of mind to do even more business. If you slam the door when the customer leaves, you are diminishing this potential, while unnecessarily damaging the relationship.

Investing in negotiation training is guaranteed to return ten times your investment, or more. If you are interested in providing negotiation training to your staff or obtaining it yourself, please contact us.

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