Quiz 14: Building Long-Term Partnerships

Business

A customer is claiming you misrepresented the product in order to get the sale so the contract should be voided. You know from other sources that the customer is in dire financial straits. You did not, at least in your mind, misrepresent the product. If your company agrees to cancel the contract, it is the same as saying you did misrepresent the product and you could face termination or lesser negative consequences. What should be done? Based on an actual event.

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Essay

Misrepresentation of a product stand for the demonstration or delivery of different product to which the customer has agreed to buy from the seller. When misrepresentation of product take place, the customer could refuse to buy the product and could void the contract. Mr. Y is a sales manager at a firm wherein one of the customers is claiming that Y has misrepresented a product and that is why the contract should be cancelled. Y is aware that the customer is facing tough financial conditions, and it is also the fact that Y has not undertaken misrepresentation of product. But if the firm accepts to cancel the contract it would show that misrepresentation of product has actually taken place and it could also lead to dire consequences for Mr. Y and his position in the firm. In this situation, Mr. Y should try to bring the truth to light by providing the proof that misrepresentation of product has not taken place and this is the reason the customer cannot cancel this contract on this basis. He should first of all convince the seniors in the firm and then try to bring this to the customer's notice with proves. And, if even after this the customer does not agrees, the firm should file a case against him. This way all the truth will come in front and will clear all suspicion.

Q 2

Your company sells manufacturing equipment and a new machine had a control problem that affected about 20 percent of customers. The problem was written about in several magazines before your company fixed it. The problem turned out be a software glitch and could be fixed by downloading a patch from your company Web site, and could be done by the customer. How would you deal with this problem if a customer brought it up? How would you respond if a prospect brought it up? Once the patch was written, what would you do?

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Essay

Customer compliant is not at all good for the overall goodwill of the firm and this is the reason why the firm should always strive to work and function in such a way that customer do not find any scope for filing a complaint against a firm and make the firm face loss of its reputation. Mr. Y's firm sells manufacturing equipments and one of the machines sold by it had a control problem which is affecting 20 percent of customers. Before the company could have resolves the problem, several magazines published this glitch and issue with the company's machines. The solution to this problem could be provided by downloading a software from company's website by the customers. This problem could be resolved if a customer brought it up in front of the firm by ensuring that all the customers of this machine are informed about the patch software that could be downloaded by them from the firm's website and could be used to resolve the software issue that the machine faces. This will make the customers satisfied and comfortable in using the machine. In case this issue is brought up by a prospect, then Mr. Y could make the prospect understand the complete situation and the solution that the firm provide din resolving the issue. This will make the prospect to have confidence over the firm and its products. Once the patch was written, Mr. Y would have sent it to all the customers who are the owners of this machine so that the customers who are facing the issue could get the solution for the same, and the customers who are not facing the issue could get a solution in advance and could be made use by them when required. This would have made the customers gain their confidence over the firm.

Q 3

The fairest solution to customer's complaint is one that turns out to be against company policy, though certainly not against the law or unethical in any way. If you tried to do it, the chances are you could get away with it. What would you do?

Free

Essay

Customer compliant is not at all good for the overall goodwill of the firm and this is the reason why the firm should always strive to work and function in such a way that customer do not find any scope for filing a complaint against a firm and make the firm face loss of its reputation. It is said that the fair solution that an employee could provide to the customer's compliant might go against the company's policy, but it is certainly not against the ethics or law for that matter. If an employee secretly is capable of providing fair solution to the customer, then it is completely alright, but if he is caught, then he could be terminated from his job. In this situation, Mr. Y will definitely try to find a mid-way at which not only the customer's complaint is resolved but also the company's policies are satisfied. By doing this, Mr. Y will be able to create goodwill for himself in the eyes of both- the customer as well as the firm for which he works for resolving the compliant and issue by conforming the company policy to some extent without making the company to face legal issues. Thus, to conclude it could be said that Mr. Y will find a mid-way and will resolve customer's complaint.

Q 4

Explain how active listening can be applied to a situation in which a customer makes a complaint. What can applying this art accomplish? What forms of active listening might actually cause more problems?

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Q 5

Read through "From the Buyer's Seat 14.1" and "Building Partnerships 14.1." These seem to be advocating opposite perspectives. How do you reconcile these two seemingly opposite positions?

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Q 6

The Miami Heat, like lots of sports teams, has a sales force that sells season tickets. Once someone is sold a season ticket package, the customer becomes someone else's responsibility. Every person in the office, no matter his or her regular job, has responsibility for a group of current customers; management believes this makes everyone more responsive to customer needs. But some customers complain; they would rather have the same salesperson who sold the tickets fix any problems. When should salespeople handle all complaints? When is it better to have everyone in the company take on some customer responsibility? When is it best to have one customer service department? Justify each response.

Essay

Q 7

Some research suggests that how salespeople handle complaints is more important than whether there are problems. In fact, handling complaints well is one way to win loyalty. So should a company not fix a problem that it knows will lead to some complaints, thus giving its reps a chance to satisfy those complaints?

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Q 8

What is your reaction to the statement "The customer is always right"? Is it a sound basis for making adjustments and satisfying complaints? Can it be followed literally? Why or why not?

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Q 9

In the chapter-opening profile, John Tanner says that service was essential to his strategy. Is that just because he's in a service business? In what types of situations involving products would service after the sale be a strategic sales factor?

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Q 10

How do you know when full-line selling, upgrading, or cross-selling strategies are appropriate?

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Q 11

What are the various ways that a salesperson can provide a potential champion with knowledge in order to build confidence? What types of knowledge will the champion need?

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Q 12

Assume you are Mark. What should you do?

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Q 13

Does the stage of the relationship matter? Which buyer is most important, BP or DTE?

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Q 14

Your first call after hanging up with Allison is with the senior engineer who gave you the wrong information. He claims that there is a simple fix, but a DTE engineer will have to make the trip there to do it and it is about $5000 trip. First, what would you say to your manager who has to sign off on that expense? Second, how do you handle Allison?

Essay

Q 15

Nash Bagby, CEO of CSP Services, was livid. For the third time in two days, a customer called him to complain of a defect-the same defect. He called Mack McGuire, senior VP of operations. "Mack, what's the deal? I've had three customers call me about the feed mechanism not working properly in a brand-new Quantum." "Really?" Mack replied. "I've not heard anything. Let me check it out and get back to you." Mack hit disconnect on the phone, then dialed Sara Marshall, director of customer service. "Mack, I don't really know what you're talking about. Let me ask around with some of the customer service reps." Sara hung up and walked around the cubicles, where each of the 32 service reps was busily taking phone calls, handling instant messages on the service chat desk, and e-mailing customers. She managed to catch four reps between calls and quickly learned that each had taken a call on the Quantum's feed mechanism that morning. But one said the issue was due the operator not reading the instructions, while another had used some unauthorized supplies that could affect the feeder's operation. As she returned to her office, she thought about how upset Mack seemed to be and why. The last thing she wanted to do was create problems for Bagby, CEO of the firm, or for Mack. But she was proud of her team's ability to resolve customer problems. After all, customer reports indicated a first-time call resolution (meaning the problem was fixed the first time) rate of 73 percent, well ahead of the industry rate of 58 percent. And she was operating the center at 12 percent under budget. What could she do to identify issues that crop up quickly like the Quantum feeder, and how could she help others in the company craft a better customer experience to avoid problems in the first place?

Essay

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