So I was
following up with several people I had met in the last week to schedule
follow-up calls and I had two similar experiences with contrasting responses.
Both people I spoke with were client-facing professionals that were currently
meeting with clients when they answered my phone call. These were the
scenarios/responses:
Scenario 1
Me: “Hi [Health Practitioner], how are you? I’m Alexandra I
met you last week at XYZ event.”
Her: “Oh hi, how are you?” (in a near whisper)
Me: “Great, thank you. I wanted to follow up to schedule a
time for us to chat, but I noticed you are whispering. Is this an okay time to
speak?”
Her: “Actually, I’m standing in front of a patient. It would
be better if you called me after 3pm”
Me: “Okay no problem, have a great day and I’ll speak to you
then”
Her: “Okay thank you, bye”
My Observations: As a healthcare
practitioner, this lady wants to make sure that people feel well. She also
wanted to acknowledge whoever was calling her (me). She politely told me she
was standing in front of a patient and implied that it was not the best time to
speak; however, at no point was she rude about that. Notice that I was very
intuitive in picking up that she may not be available because she was
whispering, so I was also mindful of the other person's environment and
respectful of their time--a good strategy when you are calling people you have
not yet established a relationship with.
Scenario 2:
Me: “Hi [Concierge Professional], how are you? I’m Alexandra,
I met you last week at XYZ event.”
Her: “Uh hi. I’m with a client right now. I’ll call you back
at another time.”(speaking quickly and rushing off the phone)
Me: “Oh, okay b…..”
Her: (hangs up phone)
My Observations: Interestingly this
person is a concierge business owner that also focuses on making people feel
good. Yet, she did not acknowledge who I was, rushed me off the phone, and did
not try to set up a specific follow-up time to speak. If the client was so
important that this lady couldn't take 30 seconds to have a
normal conversation with me, then she should never have answered the phone at
all. Frankly, she was rude. Plus we had been emailing back and
forth about scheduling a call, so it’s not as if I was a cold-caller or a pushy
marketer. She made me feel completely unimportant, and in the services industry
this is a big NO-NO! How does she know that I wasn’t referring her business or
that I was interested in becoming a client myself? Well, she definitely lost my
business AND lost any potential referrals because the way she spoke to me was
not acceptable. I’d be mortified if she ever spoke like that to someone I referred
to her—so needless to say I won’t be taking any chances.
The ultimate lesson here is that client-facing
professionals should always treat the person they meet or speak to like a
potential client or a referrer of potential business, even if there is an
unsolicited call or if you’re in the middle of a client meeting or an
“important” call. Even better, treat them like a $100,000 client or $100,000
referrer of business, because you just don’t know.
Your customer is KING...or QUEEN! Imagine how many more clients you'd get if you treated everyone you spoke to like royalty?!
