A recent company meeting revealed what management called a “handoff problem.” The sales team would close deals, then toss them over the wall to the service team, which would promptly fumble the relationship because they didn’t understand what had been promised or why the customer bought in the first place.
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Sound familiar?
What’s most telling about this situation: The company had spent months reorganizing departments, creating new processes, and building elaborate handoff procedures. They were treating the symptoms while completely missing the disease.
The real problem? They were thinking about sales and service as completely separate functions when there’s far more overlap than most people realize. And more importantly, their customers don’t give a damn about their internal org chart.
The false division
Walk into most companies and you’ll find sales and service living in different worlds. Sales sits over here, service sits over there, and never the twain shall meet. Sales people think service folks don’t understand business development. Service people think sales folks make promises they can’t keep. Both sides are probably right.
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Comments
Sales and Service
I think for many companies the separation is getting worse. With the rise of AI, customer service functions are often turned over to an AI operated chat system. After sale contact with the supplier is limited to a phone number. When the customer calls, give them a choice: be placed on hold for half an hour or interact with a robot who has limited training with respect the product/service. I prefer contact with a real person. This allows the conversation to move in unanticipated directions. Still not perfect. I sent our health insurance company a written appeal for a dental bill learning coinsurance meant self insurance. They promised an answer within 60 days. In four calls to customer service they deny receiving our appeal. The dentist says they went Out of Network and notified the insurance company, but the insurance company did not change their records. The insurance company customer service says the dentist office didn't notify them of the change. Why is any of that our fault? Email is my second preference because I end with a record of my request and the reply.
I want to stop text messaging on my phone. But the company doesn't provide an email address, only an AI chat or 30 minute wait. I waited. The customer service person says they will turn texting off immediately, but two weeks later I still get on average 30 texts/day all from politicians, none of personal interest.
A pox on all their houses. Your article is a point in the right direction.
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