10 Sure Ways to Lose a Customer

(Editor’s note: This is an excerpt of an article that I wrote in 2007 for ENX magazine. It’s just as relevant today as it was then.)

If you’re selling imaging technology you don’t need me to tell you how competitive it is out there, especially if you’re in a major market. Even if you’re not, you’re probably not the only show in town. Every day, if you’re good at what you do, you’re probably touching base with your existing customers and courting new ones. But so is every other imaging technology dealer in your market.

You pride yourself in service and taking good care of your customers. Occasionally, you lose one to a competitor, and if you’re lucky, you win one of theirs or somebody else’s customer.

It takes time and effort to hang onto what you’ve got. But what does it take to lose a customer to a competitor? I’m not talking a competitor who comes in with a lower price that any self-respecting dealer would be a lunatic to match, but the things that dealers say or do that turn them from a shining star in their customer’s eyes to a black hole. What follows is a time-tested list of 12 sure ways to lose a customer based on conversations with dealers across the industry.

1. Tell the customer you will be there today and don’t show up until two days later. “It happens all the time,” says Glen Plank, service and parts manager with Spectrum Business Centers in Huntington Beach, California. “I can’t tell you how many calls we get where the customer says, ‘We called our regular provider, but it’s been two days and they still haven’t shown up or given us a call, so we’re calling you.’”
2. Tell the customer you will return with parts and then not keep them informed of when you expect them. Plenty of dealers are good at providing customers with an quick response on a service call, but then the tech needs to go back to the shop to pick up a missing part or the part is on back order. Three days later the customer still hasn’t heard anything. “If you kept them informed, they’ll understand, but if you don’t tell them anything, that’s the end of it,” states Plank.
3. Leave the customer’s machine down when they have no other equipment available to them. It happens from time to time that their equipment is down and the tech doesn’t have the part and it’s going to take a week to get it. But to just throw your hands up in the air and say, ‘Sorry.’ Give them an option.  It may be as simple as telling them, ‘I can get your machine running poorly, but it will at least kind of work until then.’ Or maybe it’s providing a free loaner or a lower volume machine that they can rent for a week or two until the part comes in.  “At least try to work with them and feel their pain and find them an alternate solution until you can get their machine running,” observes Plank. If you don’t give them options, they may call someone else for a loaner or a rental. “That lets the competition in the door and you’re looking bad and they’re looking good,” says Plank.
4. Consistent poor response times on service calls. Your guaranteed response time may be four hours, but things happen and sometimes it takes longer than that to reach the customer’s location. But when it happens all the time, then it’s a problem. If you’re consistently giving poor response time, the customer is sitting there saying, ‘Do I really want these guys as my servicing company?’
5. Stop showing customers that you care. “This is sales 101,” says Al Aaron, sales manager with Saxon Office Technology in Morrisville, Pa. “It’s so simple that it’s hard. People just don’t get it. When you stop showing people that you care, they go away. It’s that simple. As a salesman, you put in so much energy to get a client and if you only put in just half that energy to keep them, they’d stay forever. What happens is most people put in no energy, so they go away. It’s like dating. You know how hard it is to date and you finally got her and then you start taking her for granted, things fall apart. It’s the same concept. You’ve got to let them know you care.”
6. Don’t give them what you promise. “If your promise was that you’re going to perform, however you’re going to perform, and you don’t follow through on those promises, you deserve to lose them,” opines Aaron.
7. Don’t make promises you can’t keep. “If I can’t do it or I don’t know I can do it, I’ll let the customer know,” says Aaron. “I don’t want to promise something I can’t deliver.” He acknowledges losing customers because of that honesty. Aaron often sees competitors promise things to customers that they can’t deliver. “Here’s the problem with our industry,” he explains. “You’ve got a salesman who lies to their customer. The customer buys into it and they’re stuck for the next three to five years and then they complain to me for the next three to five years, saying, ‘I should have gone with you.”
8. Not returning phone calls or e-mails in a timely manner. Timing is everything and not returning phone calls and e-mails ASAP is a great way to lose a customer says sales rep and Print4Pay Hotel founder Art Post.
9. Vague quotes. “There can’t be anything left open to question,” contends Post. His example of a vague quote is a document written in MS Word that shows the customer the price per month, the term of the lease, and that there are 360,000 copies of service and supplies included for black. The problem though was the leasing rep was providing a quote on a color machine. “It mentions nothing about tax, nothing about who is paying for color toner, nothing about who is paying for color service, and nothing about insurance, taxes, delivery, installation, and  installing software or print drivers,” says Post “Even though it’s all on the lease, most customers will not read what they sign. In order to not lose a customer you need to make sure up front you tell them these are charges you’re going to have down the road.”
10. Being pushy and talking down to people. Post has seen his company lose deals to competitors and win deals from competitors because of overly aggressive sales people or sales people that treated customers like idiots. It all goes back to the Golden Rule of treating people the way you want to be treated.