Hey! That’s My Customer: Whose Customer Is It, Ups, Splits and Referrals

DEFINITIONS: CONTACT, FORM LETTER, REAL LETTER

CONTACT: To contact a customer means that you actually communicate with them in some way. That communication must be personal and relate to them.

• You write them a real letter or e-mail or make a real phone call. A “form letter” is not a real letter. The same message left on a dozen people’s phone machines is not a real communication. It must be personal to that person. A message left on an answering machine, which is personal to that customer is a contact.
• Calling with no answer does not count as a contact.
• Any of the above must have a corresponding remark entered in the contact log or notes in the computer TO BE A VALID CONTACT.

FORM LETTER: The same letter sent to more than one person which is not personal to them.

We have a theory, which has really proven to be fact, and it is this:

The size and quality of our mailing list, and the number of real letters and promotional mailings sent to it, determines our income.

REAL LETTER: “Real letters” are letters that contain a communication to a customer that is relevant and personal to that particular customer.

Over the years, bad habits have crept in that allowed our employees to send out form letters to our customers instead of real letters. Form letters are the same communication over and over that are sent out to many customers. Form letters are not personal and therefore are most often disregarded or simply thrown away. Real letters are written by real people to real people with real communication in them and DO generate real responses from customers. Because mailing lists have gotten so big, many people are not being written to regularly or with real letters.

This must change.

HEY! THAT’S MY CUSTOMER!

In the old days a customer was often thought of as “belonging” to a specific salesperson simply because the salesperson’s name was on the customer’s file. This is not what the policy “Hey That’s My Customer” of 1994 says.

That policy was clear and the last paragraph defines that a customer only “belongs” to a salesperson if they have been written to or contacted by that salesperson in the last 30 days. This new policy now revises that original policy by changing the number of days to 3 months or 90 days.

The original policy was designed to make sure that salespeople kept in touch with their mailing list on a regular basis. The verbal “rules” and agreements that have crept in over the years do NOT conform to this policy.

ALL OF THESE VERBAL “RULES” END AS OF TODAY AND THIS POLICY WILL BE FOLLOWED EXACTLY.

This policy is designed to keep the mailing list updated and constantly written to.

FROM THIS POINT FORWARD THE POLICY WILL BE APPLIED EXACTLY AS IT WAS INTENDED. THIS NEW POLICY REPLACES BOTH THE ORIGINAL POLICY AND ALL “VERBAL AGREEMENTS” BETWEEN SALESPEOPLE.

The simple reason that this policy must be enforced is that too many people on our mailing list are not being contacted. These people have no notes in their files as to what they need and want. We are not finding out why they are or are not happy with their last purchase. Their birthdays and anniversaries and their spouses’ names are not recorded. In other words, these people are being ignored.

The customer list has grown too large and our customers are not all being followed up on.

So, just because your name is on the file does not mean that you “own” that person forever. If you have not been in real communication with them for 6, 12 or 50 months and they finally do come in, they returned because of our advertising and monthly flyers.

This policy will either encourage the salesperson to write more letters and make more calls to their mailing list, or it will allow new salespeople to take up that slack and make the best use of our mailing list.

Since there is an “ups” system in place, customers who have not been contacted for a long time will be randomly distributed to all salespeople over time as they return.

THE RECEPTIONIST ROUTES THE INCOMING CUSTOMERS

The reason for this is that customers come FIRST, not salespeople and their possible commissions. The customer must be helped professionally, seamlessly and quickly without a lot of time and discussion spent trying to determine “whose customer is it” while the customer stands by being ignored. All will balance out in the end as far as how many customers you have and how many you help.

The overall rules are:

1. Reception controls the flow of customers and how they are assigned to which salespeople. NO QUESTIONS. NO DEBATE.
2. All customers belong to the company, not to any single salesperson.
3. We must get someone to help the customer as quickly and smoothly as possible. Reception does not have time to find you in the bathroom or break room and the customer must never be left waiting for someone to be located. If you are not in the showroom, Reception does not have to hunt you down.
4. The exception is if the customer asks for you BY NAME OR DESCRIPTION, then you should help them. Reception will try to determine who the salesperson is by asking two questions or by looking up the last name but this must happen quickly. Reception will try to locate you if you are not in the showroom. If you are not easily located Reception may ask another salesperson to start with this customer until you arrive and then the rules for splits apply.
5. If the salesperson cannot be determined quickly then the customer is assigned to the salesperson that has the next up.
6. The customer should NEVER feel that there is a “battle” over “whose customer they are.”
7. The new salesperson takes them over if there was little or no recent contact by the salesperson on file (see below). This will be decided by the receptionist ONLY. He or she may consult with the Sales Manager but not with any salespeople. The receptionist should use the policies on the subject as a guide but his or her decision is final.
8. THERE IS TO BE NO MORE GOING TO RECEPTION AND COMPLAINING THAT HE OR SHE GAVE AWAY YOUR CUSTOMER. There is to be no asking about, “whose customer is it?” when Reception tells you to help a customer. You just take the customer and handle them. There is to be no discussion when Reception changes the salesperson who is assigned to the customer’s file in the computer.

CONSULTING THE COMPUTER

It has always been policy that the salesperson looks up the customer before they begin to help them to see if there are any important notes in the file. Some salespeople have stopped doing this. This must be done once again from this point forward.

THE CUSTOMER’S FILE IS LOOKED AT BEFORE THE SALESPERSON GOES TO HELP THEM. If you have been helping them recently you will not need to do this, but if you don’t know them or they have not been in for a while you MUST look them up.

The reason for it is that often this will tell you something about them that might be important for you to know, such as “they are a grinder from hell,” or “he buys for both his girlfriend and his wife; make sure you know which he is buying for!” or “she loves anything with a poodle on it.”

WHAT MAKES A CUSTOMER YOUR CUSTOMER?

1. A customer is “your customer” if they come in, or call in, or e-mail and ask for you no matter how long it has been since you last contacted them. The best protection to keep the customers that are under your name is to have a personal relationship with them so that they ASK FOR YOU BY NAME OR DESCRIPTION.
2. If a customer asks for you but is in the computer under a different salesperson who has contacted them in the last 90 days then you will help the customer as long as you are available. This will be a split sale between you and the salesperson whose name is in the customer file. This customer file will now be turned over to you in the customer file since they will most likely be asking for you in the future. All future sales made by you will no longer be split with the former sales person.
3. They are your customer if YOU have been in contact with them during the last three months (90 days) and this is verified by notes in the computer records. If you instruct an assistant to call a specific customer with a specific message pertaining to that customer, this would count as your contact so long as the computer records show what the message was and that you instructed them to make that specific call.
4. A single general letter or card in the last 90 days does NOT automatically make them YOUR customer, as that system was abused and not fully practical.
5. A contact by your assistant doing random phone calls, or a generic call or letter does not count.
6. If you contacted a new customer outside the store and the customer contacts us or comes in looking for you but doesn’t know your name they are still your customer even with no notes in the computer records.
7. Number five demands that the receptionist or whoever makes first contact with the customer in the store uses a little judgment to determine to which salesperson they are referring when they say, “the lady I met at the concert last night…” or “my sister said to come see Leo’s wife who helped her before…” (“Leo’s wife” usually means Lisa.)
8. If a “dead-filed” customer (one who was taken off the mailing list) contacts us, they would go to the last salesperson that contacted them. If that person is not available at that moment or they are at another store then this person is simply given to the next up.
9. If a customer comes in that has not been promoted to in the last 90 days that customer MAY be given to the sales person whose name they are under, if they are free and available, but if they are not, the customer goes to the next “up” salesperson and the receptionist changes the sales person to the new sales person. The old sales person has NO claim to this name if they are not free to take them immediately. They may not come into the sale later and try to take them over. There is no split. They have NO claim at all once someone else starts with them.

DEFINITION: REFERRAL

REFERRAL: Someone sent in by another customer.

1. A referral belongs to the salesperson that last sold to the referring customer (the customer that referred the new customer). If that salesperson is not available to help the referral, then it will go to the next salesperson that is up and the sale will be split between the two salespeople. The customer will then be put in BusinessMind under the salesperson that was up and helped them.
2. Obviously if a referred customer comes in asking for a specific salesperson, by either name or description, then that referred customer belongs to that salesperson.
3. Once you sell to a customer or take them over, you will ask your Sales Manager to change the salesperson’s name on that customer’s record to yours. From this point forward only Sales Managers, or Reception in Old Town, will be able to change the salesperson’s name in the customer records on the computer to prevent any accidental migration of customers from one salesperson to another.
4. Sales Managers’ customers are treated like anyone else’s customers as regards this policy.

Example: Bob referred Sam. Salesperson Jodi sold to Bob last. Jodi gets Sam as her customer.

Example: Joe referred Tina. Joe’s salesperson Ned isn’t available. It’s Dirk’s up, so Dirk helps Tina and splits the sale with Ned. Tina is entered into BM under Dirk.

DEFINITION: UPS

UP or UPS: “Ups” are the rotation of salespeople to get new customers, equally, fairly, and in a predetermined order. If it is your “up” (your turn for a new customer) then the next new customer is yours.

The simple rule for “ups” is that Reception gives a new customer to the next salesperson who is currently available in the ups rotation. If you are next in the rotation and are not available at that moment, whether because you are with another customer, on lunch break, or just not in the showroom, you lose that turn and will get the next new customer when your name comes around again in the rotation. Reception does not keep track of missed ups or go backwards to fill them in.

We must get someone to help the new customer as quickly and smoothly as possible. The customer can see if several other salespeople are sitting at their desks NOT getting up to help. The customer doesn’t give a fig about our “ups” system. All he or she knows is that there are people who could be helping right now and for reasons unknown he or she is being made to wait.

Therefore the customer must never be left waiting for someone to be located and Reception does not have time to find you in the bathroom or break room or outside or in Inventory. If you are not in the showroom, Reception does not have to hunt you down; you simply lose that turn for an “up.” Telling Reception where you will be does not change it. The customer is not made to wait for you to come back from wherever you are before he or she is helped.

The rotation for ups starts each day on the salesperson after the last one to take an up the day before.

WHAT COUNTS AS AN UP?

1. A customer who has never been in before or is not in the computer records is a “new name” and is counted as an “up.”
2. A referral is an up. If it was your turn for an up and you get a referral, that counts as your up and the rotation moves along.
3. A repair customer assigned to a salesperson is an up.
4. Taking a phone call from a new customer is an up. It is up to you to get that person on the mailing list and make them your future customer.
5. Any new lead, such as an internet lead, is an up.
6. Helping another salesperson’s customer is not an up. Ups are always new customers, never existing customers.
7. Sales assistants only take new ups when there is no one else available to assist them.
8. Sales Managers do not take ups.

DEFINITION: SPLITS

Splits: Any sale that is split between two or more salespeople or a salesperson and the store. The store can receive a split when a non-commissionable person helps a sale such as a Sales Manager or Leo. Neither of them takes commissions so the commission would go to the store.

If a salesperson is on vacation, or out sick, and their customer comes in or refers a new name, a split is done. The original salesperson keeps the original customer but not a referred new customer. In this case, the referred new customer is kept by the salesperson that helps them, and is treated as an “up” for the salesperson that helps them.

A split can also be done when two people work on the same sale.

A split can be 50/50 or 70/30 or any such. If there is a disagreement as to how much help one of the salespeople gave then the sales manager for that location decides if there is a split.

Because salespeople need to be able to close their own sales, if a Sales Manager closes or significantly helps a sale, the sale is split 50/50 with the store. The Sales Manager makes this call and should err on the side of the store as the Sales Manager should not be closing sales or spending significant time on them. The salespeople should improve their skills so that they don’t NEED the Sales Manager to close.

Splits between salespeople at different locations can happen when a customer shops two locations. These splits can be coordinated between salespeople prior to the sale if known about in advance. The split is worked out by the salespeople involved and noted in the customer’s record. The sales stat will count in the store where the item was picked up.

If it ever happens that two salespeople end up helping the same customer (at two different stores, or over the phone or at different times) and a sale is made and one of the two did not update the computer fully, then the sale may NOT be split. Updating the computer is that important. The sale belongs to the salesperson that updated the computer.

Example: Customer Beeg Spender comes in one store and learns all about HOF. Beeg spends two hours with salesperson Lazy Jo. This happens at the end of the day. Lazy Jo decides to only update the computer that the customer came in. Beeg Spender goes to another LHFJ store and asks to look at HOF and buys a 5ct engagement ring from Slick Sally. The next day Lazy finds out and screams to high heaven, “Hey! That’s my customer!” Sales Manager Terrific Terriey looks up the customer and sees a note that says, “Beeg Spender came in on Tuesday.” Nothing about HOF, engagement rings or anything else. The ENTIRE SALE can go to Slick Sally because Lazy did not fully update the computer.

Fully updating the computer protects you.

DEFINITION: SPIFFS

Spiffs: A spiff is a special commission or bonus paid on a particular item over and beyond the regular commission.

Spiffs belong to the person who made the sale, or are split if the sale is split.

SHOPPERS AND GRINDERS

Some customers attempt to play a salesperson at one of our locations against one at another location to get a better price.

To prevent this from happening salespeople can do two things:

1. Update the computer records fully with all the data that will be needed to handle the customer if they shop another location.
2. If the salesperson at the second location looks up the customer’s record in the computer and sees that this customer has shopped at location number one, they should quickly call the salesperson noted in the file and get the whole story. Then both salespeople can work together to handle the customer and split the sale.

Simply updating the computer and checking it each time a customer comes in will handle this. Don’t let customers turn us against each other.

SUMMARY

This policy should keep our customer mailing list constantly contacted and answer any confusion as to “whose customer is it?” Any time that this question comes up, your answer should be found within this policy.

Write and call your customers to keep them “your” customers!