Neighborhood Training

While there are many great sales books on the shelves and many outstanding consultants to give you advice, I believe you might learn most from your own personal buying experiences.

Let’s take a look at some examples from the “outside world” and consider how you might incorporate these strategies, comments and behaviors into your own business. Have you ever experienced any of these situations?

1. The physician who calls the next day after outpatient surgery to see how you are doing.
2. The waitress who spends an extra minute or two at your table making sure she has the order correct.
3. The FedEx delivery person who leaves your package. The last thing you see is a smile on his face, and you hear him wish you a great day.
4. The billing person at the phone company who graciously corrects your bill with all those incorrect long-distance calls and sincerely apologizes for the problem.
5. The salesperson in the department store who not only takes back the blouse you decided you didn’t want but is actually eager to help and invites you back again.
6. The shoe salesman who, even after you have tried on 10 pairs and haven’t found what you like, is still smiling.
7. As you reach the checkout line at the food market, the cashier who says hello and asks how you are even before you have had a chance to empty your basket.
8. The teller in the drive-through window at the bank who has taken an extra moment to locate your name on your check so she can greet you appropriately.
9. When you finally get some help at the restaurant takeout counter, the person at the register who thanks you for your patience since the line was so long.
10. You register for a teleconference but then find you are unable to attend. The office manager tells you “no problem” and says the company will refund your registration or apply it to another program — you make the choice.

Now let’s translate these scenarios into your own home care business strategies:

1. After you make the delivery and leave the 78-year-old patient home alone with that oxygen concentrator, it should be valuable to call the next day to see how she is doing. Your call will show you care and possibly catch a problem before it erupts into something more serious and is repeated to her physician and/or hospital discharge planner.
2. Taking an extra minute to verify a patient’s address, directions to their home or their Medicare number can help to reduce costs and ensure rapid payment.
3. When the delivery person leaves the patient’s home or the customer walks out of your store, make sure that the last words they hear from your company are pleasant, considerate and caring.
4. When you have sent an incorrect statement and the patient calls to complain, you might want to begin by saying you are sorry for the error and inconvenience.
5. When a customer appropriately returns a product, take it back without a hassle and avoid expressing any unpleasant comments. The customer leaves the store hearing that you hope he or she will return so that you will be able to help at another time.

1. After a customer spends an hour looking at every scooter you have in the store, you understand the psychological decision the purchase represents. Even if no scooter is bought during the visit, invite this customer back and let him or her know you appreciate how important the decision is.
2. Make sure that every customer is greeted as soon as they enter your store. Do all you can to make that first impression a positive one.
3. Make sure you know the name of the customer or locate it in your computer system, and then address them with their name rather than with just “sir.” Do all you can to personalize each customer interaction.
4. When you return to talk with a customer who has been on hold while you were talking to another customer on the telephone, begin by apologizing for the wait. What a great way to start the conversation!
5. When scheduling a delivery or accepting a product for return, offer options such as an afternoon or morning delivery, or allowing a full refund or applying the credit to the purchase of another product. Do your best to give the customer some empowerment within the sales process.

My message is that business training is all around us. Ask your staff to bring a sales experience that has impressed them to your next meeting. We need not learn just from our home care business colleagues but also from the experienced and well-known businesses around us.

There’s the greeter in the Hilton lobby who, as I entered, asked if she could help me find a meeting or the registration desk. And the eye doctor who has now decided to place large-type books in his waiting room. And the orthopedic office manager who offers coffee or even a free breakfast coupon for the Denny’s next store if the physician is in surgery and the wait is about to become excessive.

It’s possible you don’t need business training — you need business watching. When something works really well for the businesses you deal with, write it down, discuss it with your staff and see what elements of good business sense you can take back to your office. All the training and education you need could be right in the neighborhood.

Read more Sales Notebook columns.

Louis Feuer is president of Dynamic Seminars & Consulting Inc. and the founder and director of the DSC Teleconference Series, a teleconference training program. You can reach him through www.DynamicSeminars.com or at 954/435-8182.