When You Need to Clarify Commitments
Robert Bacal
THE SITUATION
Customer service isn’t always a one-way street where the employee is the only one with commitments to keep. There are situations where both you and the customer have to do certain things to meet the customer’s needs. While this situation exists in normal interactions with customers, it’s far more frequent when you’re working with internal clients.
TECHNIQUES USED
■ Summarize the Conversation (1)
■ Ask Probing Questions (2)
DIALOGUE
Over the course of this conversation, the employee has committed to developing a formal proposal to be forwarded to the client. Since the proposal is based on information that must first be sent by the client to the employee, the client also has to make and keep a commitment.The following conversation is an example of clarifying and summarizing commitments.
Customer: So, you’re going to get the proposal to me by the end of the week, right?
Employee: Yes, but I can do that only if you send me the portfolio information by fax sometime today. Can you do that?
Customer: Yes, I’ll do that.
Employee: OK, let’s make sure we are on the same wavelength. You’re going to send me the portfolio by fax. That document includes [details]. I should receive that today.Then I’ll use that to draft a proposal that includes [details] and get it to you by the end of the week. Is that what we’re saying (1)?
Customer: Yes.
Employee: Good. One more thing. I don’t see anything that might cause me to be unable to get the proposal done on time. Is there anything that might come up that might interfere with your getting the portfolio here (2)?
EXPLANATIONS
This is a straightforward discussion that includes a bit of negotiating and the use of a basic communication technique to avoid the consequences of misunderstanding. The initial part of the conversation involves both parties agreeing to meet some specific commitments by specific deadlines. In this scenario, both parties must keep their commitments for the customer to receive the proposal he wants. Once the initial agreement is made, the employee summarizes the conversation (1). This might seem like overkill to you, but it’s always better to err on the cautious side. Making sure communication is working is better than running the risk of a project going askew due to a misunderstanding.
At the end of the conversation, you’ll notice the employee doing something interesting. He uses a probing question (2), asking whether the customer can foresee any possible barriers to keeping his commitment to fax the material. Why? Because sometimes people will make commitments to do something without actually thinking enough about the commitment. By using this probing question, the employee encourages the customer to think a little more carefully. Since the employee’s ability to keep his end of the bargain depends on the customer keeping his or her commitments, it makes sense to do that.
HINTS
Whenever commitments are made, the conversation should end with a summary of those commitments.
See Also: 12. When a Customer Needs to Follow a Sequence of Actions, 51. When an Internal Customer Isn’t Following Procedures to Request Service