Hi everyone,
I hope yesterday’s mini brief on the purpose and significance of the merging of our Retail and Sales departments, was useful.
Today, I’d like to cover the purpose and function of our Client Relations Team. Put simply, our Client Relations team has a dual and important purpose which is to intervene, when required to save a sale or create a sale.
For many years our Client Relations team have done a sterling job of re-engaging with customers who are having second thoughts about the order they happily placed. Last year alone they intervened in a whopping £13m that would otherwise have been at risk of cancellation. They saved over £8m, giving us an enviable industry-low sales cancellation rate of only 6% nationally.
I think it’s fair to say they are exceptional at what they do. Their prime purpose has always been to save sales and in the process make sure customers are very happy having chosen Hammonds.
But there’s more; they also manage other activities which support customers through the order process and their Hammonds journey. That could be a possible cancellation request, or a Return to Sale, or some compliance work checking in with customers to ensure they are happy, and Hammonds is always FCA compliant (Financial Conduct Authority) .
In the case of a job that has been returned to sales. The purpose is very clear; we want, together with the Designer or Surveyor, to resolve whatever issue has occurred and get it back on track so we can hand over to our Pre Fit, manufacturing and installation colleagues. This could be a large change the customer wants to make to the design, it could be a design error, or perhaps a miss measure of the space which alters the design and layout, or a whole host of other niggly reasons why an order may not be able to proceed through the order process system.
Reacting quickly to a call from anyone in our Client Relations team means a job will go ahead smoothly and swiftly, and our customer will maintain their confidence in Hammonds to do a great job. I think we all agree that this is an amazing service for us all in the field. What is obviously crucial is that we ALL participate in this service such that our customers are well looked after and cared for. Client Relations cannot do this alone.
Each day the busy Client Relations team communicate with a whole host of colleagues across the sales function. The team is led and managed by Anna Sharpe, who is very structured and organised in her approach to the departments output. The workload is shared to team specialists and everyone has daily, weekly and monthly tasks assigned to them.
More recently Anna has taken over the management of the Chase & Pitch activity for me. The purpose of the this new area of our business is fivefold.
1.To enhance the customer experience and ensure customer satisfaction.
2.To gain feedback and/or identify areas in our sales and order process which can be potentially improved and developed.
3.To maintain FCA compliance (we are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority).
4.To ensure all customers are treated fairly.
5.To identify and support the business, where appropriate, in achieving incremental sales.
Anna has a dedicated team who contact all customers during their Hammonds journey – for FCA compliance, these will be a weekly sample of customers who have already bought and all of those who have not yet decided.
If you’re wondering how you may be able to get the best out of Client Relations? It’s really easy.
At making an appointment and the design visit stage, when we do an excellent job of establishing needs, meeting and exceeding those needs and follow the Hammonds Steps to Success sales process, their job is an absolute delight and they are often able to help a customer make that final decision to choose Hammonds. However, should there be any lapse in service which has occurred along their journey up to this point, the customer is nearly always left with a rather ordinary opinion of Hammonds and the service we offer. This is clearly not conducive to buying.
So, in a nutshell, our Client Relations team are here to always support customers ... and here to support us, as and when required.
Should you ever be in Head Office, please do drop by and say hello to Anna Sharpe and her team – they’d love to meet you in person. And should you ever get a phone call or email from Client Relations, please act on it swiftly. It’ll be because a customer needs help in moving along the order process. Afterall, that’s what we are all here for, to make customers happy.
Tomorrow I’ll look forward in sharing the purpose and goals of our Training team.
Kind regards,
Audrey
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