I have always been a pretty empathetic person, possibly too empathetic. After working at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, I have had to change somewhat when working with customers. I often hear things like, “the customer is always right.” This is true to an extent, but it can be taken too far.
I specifically remember certain customers who always had something to complain about or always gave me some story of why they deserve discounts. The first time that I rented to them I made the mistake of giving them too many discounts, upgrades, etc… The next time they came in, they expected those things and immediately started asking for discounts when they walked in the door. I did not give them all the discounts from then on because it would not be good business for the branch. This caused us to lose some customer service points.
While empathy is good, it is possible to empathize too much and end up hurting business. My branch lost money the first time we rented to them because of all the discounts. The branch also lost customer service ratings afterwards because we could not hand out the discounts the next time. It is important to create a balance right away between empathy and sternness.
I have never experienced this from the seller side but that has been something that I have always wondered. How can companies keep giving out discounts and when do you stop as a seller so you don’t create a customer who depends solely on these discounts? I feel like I would be bad at giving out discounts becasue I would try to sell and to do so I would just cut prices to get that employee. What is some advice in selling to avoid this?
This is a real problem that salesmen deal with every day. If you think you have it bad in a industry that has fairly set prices, imagine how bad it is in the car sales industry where literally EVERYTHING is assumed to be negotiable. There is certainly a fine line between giving the customer incentive to come back, and completely folding to the customer’s desires. Ironically, as I have discovered, most customers are happier when they ask for a mile and you give them an inch than when you actually give them the mile. If you give them everything they asked for, they will always leave thinking, “could I have gotten more?”