Making_it_happen
New Contributor
Hi,
I design and manufacture products of a technical nature and sell them through my website. The products cost between a couple hundred to a thousand dollars each.
I am having a terrible time of managing customer interactions. I feel like I am giving far to much customer service, but I just don't "feel right" dialing it back.
I have customers that seem to want to become my buddy prior to and after the sale. I honestly just give too much in terms of service and advice and I don't really know how to help myself when it comes to stifling the huge flow of questions I get. This seems to be the case with about 10% of my customers.
To make this concrete: I have one customer right now who has not even received his product yet who has emailed me literally 25 times asking different questions. About 10 of those questions were pre-sale, and the remaining 15 questions (post-sale) range from verifying capabilities of the product to asking why I designed certain things the way I did to asking me to weigh in on something he read on the internet about these types of products and how that applies to my product
I feel a bit "trapped" when it comes to entertaining this onslaught of questions because my business is very much social media based: FB, instagram, a discussion forum, etc.
How should I handle things like this? I find that this type of customer will send the same question through every media channel I have if I don't answer them in whatever time they expect they should be answered.
I also get caught up in technical discussions on Facebook PM that are really beyond the scope of what I do. For instance, let's say that I'm selling computer hardware systems on a "you add your on operating system and software" basis. I might get caught up with a "WTF this computer doesn't work help me please!" type customer complaint when the issue is really a software installation matter. Then once engaged with the customer to explain this I get "well what can I do to make it work" and end up providing a lot of support there that is a total distraction from selling product.
Basically, I need to know how and where to draw the line and what an appropriate amount of customer interaction is. I was really struck with how big of a problem I have when I emailed another company who is in a related industry about becoming a reseller of their product. They impersonally directed me to a form to fill out to request to be contacted by sales. I thought to myself, "here I am bending over backwards to service a $800 sale I've already made and this similar company (that isn't that large) is directing me to fill out a form when I ask about what would amount to $50,000 in annual purchases." My company and theirs obviously are at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to service and customer engagement.
I'm trying to figure out just where one should be on that spectrum.
Thanks in advance for any advice you can provide.
I design and manufacture products of a technical nature and sell them through my website. The products cost between a couple hundred to a thousand dollars each.
I am having a terrible time of managing customer interactions. I feel like I am giving far to much customer service, but I just don't "feel right" dialing it back.
I have customers that seem to want to become my buddy prior to and after the sale. I honestly just give too much in terms of service and advice and I don't really know how to help myself when it comes to stifling the huge flow of questions I get. This seems to be the case with about 10% of my customers.
To make this concrete: I have one customer right now who has not even received his product yet who has emailed me literally 25 times asking different questions. About 10 of those questions were pre-sale, and the remaining 15 questions (post-sale) range from verifying capabilities of the product to asking why I designed certain things the way I did to asking me to weigh in on something he read on the internet about these types of products and how that applies to my product
I feel a bit "trapped" when it comes to entertaining this onslaught of questions because my business is very much social media based: FB, instagram, a discussion forum, etc.
How should I handle things like this? I find that this type of customer will send the same question through every media channel I have if I don't answer them in whatever time they expect they should be answered.
I also get caught up in technical discussions on Facebook PM that are really beyond the scope of what I do. For instance, let's say that I'm selling computer hardware systems on a "you add your on operating system and software" basis. I might get caught up with a "WTF this computer doesn't work help me please!" type customer complaint when the issue is really a software installation matter. Then once engaged with the customer to explain this I get "well what can I do to make it work" and end up providing a lot of support there that is a total distraction from selling product.
Basically, I need to know how and where to draw the line and what an appropriate amount of customer interaction is. I was really struck with how big of a problem I have when I emailed another company who is in a related industry about becoming a reseller of their product. They impersonally directed me to a form to fill out to request to be contacted by sales. I thought to myself, "here I am bending over backwards to service a $800 sale I've already made and this similar company (that isn't that large) is directing me to fill out a form when I ask about what would amount to $50,000 in annual purchases." My company and theirs obviously are at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to service and customer engagement.
I'm trying to figure out just where one should be on that spectrum.
Thanks in advance for any advice you can provide.
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