Things Not To Say

I recently had the chance to visit with Jim Welch, keynote presenter for the 2010 TechMecca Conference & Expo in Austin. A "growth leader", Jim has a strong background in sales and marketing, with over 25 years cumulative experience between Hallmark and Proctor & Gamble. I was particularly interested when he mentioned something about pet phrases about things not to say when going for the sale. See what he had to say.

There are words we should all avoid using with customers because they erode their loyalty.  They are the words that will cost us customers and their business.  Here are some great examples of words that lose customers every day:

“But I saw it this way.”

“You have to look at it from our point of view.”

“Here is why we took that position.”

“But I didn’t intend to…”

“Let me explain why we did what we did and why we believe we are right.”

“I’m not sure, that is not my area of responsibility. You need to check with…”

“We had to stay within policy guide lines.”

“That requires Supervisor approval and they are not here right now.”

“I need to put you on hold.”

“We don’t have that service available now.  Please check back next month.”

“No, I’m sorry but we cannot solve your problem.”

“That violates our policy and we cannot do it.”

“I don’t know the answer to your question.  You should contact…”

“We are really busy right now; can you call back later this afternoon?”

“We can’t do anything about that problem.”

“You have a good point, but…”

“That is not available right now.”

“You’ll have to contact that department to find out.”

“I can’t help you with that issue.”

“If you read our customer agreement, you will see that is not covered.”

“You have to…”

“No, that is not correct. It’s right here.”

“We’ll have to call you back later.”

“To be honest with you…”

“If you had…”

“Calm down, please do not be emotional about this.”

“That is our final decision.”

“If we did what you are asking for, we would have to do it for everyone.”

“You will need to…”

“We have a computer problem right now.  You will need to check back later for that information.”

“That is not our problem.”

“We have no control over…”

“You will need to check with them.”

“I will try to solve your problem.”

“I’m not sure, but I think…”

“We are not allowed to make exceptions.”

The one big thing all of these words have in common is that they are about us and not the customer.  These phrases look at this issue from our side of the table only.  Successful growth leaders engage the customer and go through a co-discovery process to find the solution together.  We often find out that we can turn lemons into lemonade and build a stronger customer relationship going forward.  The greatest customer loyalty of all is built by resolving problems together.  In the end, the strength of our customer relationships is the fuel that drives our growth engine every day.

Have you found yourself or your staff using any of these phrases? Been of the receiving end of these statements?

Thanks Jim for giving us a refresher and reminder to think about how we phrase our responses to members, customers, co-workers, family, and friends.

Shout out if you have other phrases that should be added to this list or have phrases that work well in difficult situations.