Servicing Checklist

1. Ask customers what they want.	Ask what service they would consider perfect.
2. Ask customers what competitors do.	Ask what competitors are best at servicing and what they do that is so good. Use the answer as a benchmark and deliver better service.
3. Set servicing objectives.	After you discover what your customers’ expectations are, set specific objectives for giving outrageous service.
4. Always say “thank you.”	As soon as you get an order, compliment your customers on their good judgment, thank the person who gave you the order, and, of course, leave quickly. When you return to the office, send a brief handwritten note saying “thank you” again. Handwritten notes are much more personal than e-mails.
5. Review your account list regularly.	Some salespeople review their account list every three days. Do not let a week go by that you do not review all the accounts on your list. Do not rely on your memory because you will forget to call on the grumps and over-call on the sweetie pies.
6. Presell	Servicing is selling, so always take the opportunity to sell a new benefit or advantage. Your preselling will serve you particularly well when a customer or buyer is under pressure to make a buy in a hurry.
7. Make copy, ideas, and schedule improvement calls.	In situations where advertising copy can be changed easily, as in medium- and small-market radio, make a copy call, suggest a commercial copy be revised, and recommend a new angle. This recommendation can be welcome in situations where a client has been running the same piece of copy over and over again for months and may be boring everyone, especially the listeners. Furthermore, poor copy is often the cause of poor results for a client. Keep on top of how customers are doing. Is the advertising creating traffic, sales, or other results? If not, is it the copy? Is it the schedule? Change both if necessary, but do not hide your head in the sand and just hope for things to improve. Do something to help your customer. Improvements in schedules, such as moving spots to a new time slot (for example, from daytime to early fringe in television), often allow customers to reach a new audience. Making an unsolicited improvement for your customers can be a wonderful relationship builder. This service should be used rarely (on an occasional and random basis), though, or customers come to expect it.
8. Handle complaints immediately and honestly.	Fast response to client complaints is a must. If your medium has made an error of some kind, customers are probably upset; do not add fuel to the fire with a slow response. If you have made an error, admit it, apologize, and set about correcting the situation immediately. Problems tend to make customers impatient, so do not put them off. Give them status reports if a complaint takes longer than a day or two to be resolved. Do not allow clients to think you have let it slip your mind. Be quick to admit your own errors. If clients have to tell you first, you lose some trust. If you tell them first, you maintain your credibility. Also, if you tell customers first, you are more in control of the proposed solution. For example, the reproduction of a client’s newspaper ad is streaked and muddy, call the client immediately and offer a suitable make-good. Your chances of getting approval are much greater with this method than if a customer calls you.
9. Ask for referrals.	There is no better endorsement of you and your medium than a thrilled customer. After you are assured that customers are delighted with their campaign and their results, ask them to refer you to someone else for whom you might be able to solve some advertising problems.
10. Develop case studies.	Case studies are more effective than client success letters. Case studies can give specific details on how you solved marketing and advertising problems. Case studies can be used to demonstrate how an organization can marshal its resources and expertise to help customers achieve their specific marketing objectives. In addition, if you develop good advertising success case studies, you will hone your skills of defining and solving advertising problems—the perfect solution-selling approach. Finally, if you develop a case study with current customers, you will find that you will not only cement your relationship with those customers but also that you will come up with additional ideas for them. See “How to Write an Advertising Success Case Study” in Appendix A and on www.mediaselling.us.
11. Ask for feedback.	Third-party surveys are best, customer polling by management is next best. If you cannot get either of these, then always ask customers, “How am I doing? Is there anything I could do to give you better service?”
12. Adjust and improve.	When you get feedback, use it to adjust your service approach and improve your service until it is outrageous.