How to refer a customer to an expert colleague
Featured in the Selling through Customer Service training manual
By Tony Gillen
Category: Sales Skills
Credit price: 3 download credits (Single user)
This training activity uses a mix of whole group discussion, syndicate work and skills practice (role-play). It focuses on one specific aspect of the sales process – passing a customer on to a colleague. The handover is often the part of the sales process where momentum and the personal relationship is lost. The customer feels less involved and the newly introduced salesperson can feel less ownership of the situation. The original contact salesperson can either give the impression of ditching the customer or can feel resentful that the other salesperson will treat the customer less well than the customer deserves. In organisations where long-term customer relationships are essential for business growth, this state of affairs can be the cause of much lost business. This training activity addresses that issue.
The training activity begins with the participants working in pairs to consider how to refer customers and the intended outcome of the referral. This second element is usually a real eye-opener for most participants. Once this activity has been reviewed in the whole group session, the participants go back into syndicate groups to explore in detail how to refer customers using a model scenario. The scenario deals with a bank customer opening a new account. Each element of the customer transaction is explored along with the advantages, for all parties, of using this process. The whole group discusses and highlights different aspects of the process before applying key points in practice sessions. The practice sessions are carried out in threes (two salespeople and a customer). Each group of three carries out its own immediate and detailed review of each practice. A final group discussion to share learned points rounds off the training activity.
Who is it for: This training activity is intended for use by trainers to encourage participants to explore the real reason we have ‘experts’, and how to pass customers to a colleague so that the customer stays positive, the sales is enhanced and teamwork in improved.
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 6 |
| Max Group Size: | 12 |
| Typical Duration: | 02:00:00 |
| No of Pages: | 17 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Purpose: This training activity is intended for use by trainers with all customer contact staff. More experienced staff will benefit from using their other sales skills in the handover process. Less experienced or less successful staff can focus more on the actual handover process itself.
Download the training activity, How to refer a customer to an expert colleague as featured in the Fenman training manual; Selling through Customer Service