The previous segment was the first part of an article recently written by Will English on how he has attained the status as “trusted advisor” to many of our clients and the importance of that. Today we would like to share with you the remainder of this enlightening article and are sure you will find the 3 takeaways beneficial.
The more comfortable you feel with the process, the more your clients will trust you and therefore listen when you make recommendations.
And this means investing in learning the retail industry. RSPA (www.gorspa.org) is just one example of a great resource. RSPA is a trade organization that has POS specific training and certification. You need to be able to discuss with your retail clients GMROI, Inventory turns, Inventory Ageing, End of Day and credit card compliance. J. recently won a large contract by being the most expensive. Sound odd? J. was the only dealer who discussed and recommended the tools they need to be PCI including encrypted credit card swipes. The more you know, the more value you can add and transition yourself from the person that sold them their POS system to a valued member of their team.
Second, learn from your mistakes (we all make them). It’s not the end of the world when you do it wrong. It is the end of your career if you don’t learn from your mistakes and make corrections on the next install.
Lastly, and maybe the most important of all is to do right by the customer, even if it means that it causes you to suffer short term pain to resolve issues that may not be in your control. It is said that if a happy customer tells one or two people about you, that is great, but on average an unhappy customer will tell 6 people of their experience.
Author: English, William S., President of English Management Solutions, Inc. March 2014.
Contributing Author: Lombardi, J., Contessa of CounterPoint, Soft Intelligence, Inc. March 2014.
