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Suppose you work at a furniture store that creates custom-made wardrobes and closets. One day, a couple comes in the shop and sits down with you to pick out the design they want for the wardrobe.
They choose the layout of the shelves, doors, drawers, handles, colours, and the dimensions. Now the design is ready and its finalised. After rendering the design, you get the approval and you tell them production starts tomorrow.
Next day in the early morning, only one person from the couple shows up and sits down with you again and asks for the designs to be changed before they go into production. You change the designs according to the customers request, and everything is finalised again and you go ahead with the production.
When the production is finished and the item is delivered to the customer, the person who wasnt present during the second alterations of the design comes to complain that the product they received wasnt the same product they approved during the design phase. The other person who made the second alterations refuses to admit that the design was changed the second day.The customers then proceed to ask for your manager.
A. How would you explain the situation to your manager?
B. Would you expose the person who asked for the second alterations?
C. How can you prove that youre not lying?
D. How can this type of situation be avoided again?
If I were the sales man, I will protect my self,
but where ever the case is happen,
A. I will told my manager exactly what happens with my, and for sure i ill apologize for not take the situation as serious as it is...
B. I have to expose the requester person for my management only, and i will try to claim down my customer and explain the case.
C. Without any justifications to prove that you are not lying, stay calm, put my points straight without giving any reason, then your status and body language will prove that you are not lying.
D. To avoid these cases, every task should be documented and approved from the customer, and the better way is to ask for the approval from both sides.
A. It is really easy to explain the situation to my manager I already did my job right and of course asked that customer if he and his/her partner are absolutely sure about the changes before the production starts
B. Of course I will expose the customer because that is what he has asked for and I did nothing wrong. I was just doing my job
C. If I haven't been in the company for a while maybe I will ask for a fellow worker who was there on that day or ask them to check the surveillance videos in the shop. After all it's my word against his
D. By sending the changes in an email and getting a confirmation email from the customer about the design. In that way no one can complain nor lie
a) will explain the whole situation as it is with full truthfulness.
b) No as the matter has to be sorted out diplomatically and the person who has made the alteration has to be given a chance to maybe remember that he had approved the changes.
c) As a professional, I would take his signature as an approval for any changes that he has made before sending the order request to my production team, would produce the paper in such a way that the person who had made the changes will have the chance to own up to the changes made by him without looking like a lair in the whole situation.
d) as explained above any work order for made to design stuff has to have the customers approval signature, without which the production team will not undertake the work. this should be the default procedure followed.
That is quite a question I must say. But thanks to the advancement of technology we have surveillance almost everywhere, so if he did not made any changes then what was he doing there in the first place. I would involve the manager as in once the designed was changed I must have informed him already about it.
But before that I would try explaining every details to the customer who was not there because would be the one most furious, I would in fact try to sell the new plan( by talking all positives about the new design ) that was selected by the Man so that he feels a little easy and open the cards himself.
A. I'm sure there are daily reports from the store that goes directly to the manager, so I will not have a hard time explaining to him what the situation is or how did it go that situation.
B. Surely I will expose the person who made the second alteration for he is the one that caused the situation I am in.
C. To think that a design must be approved by a customer before manufacturing I am certain that signed agreements are required. Now I have an evidence to prove my innocence. And the store must have a security camera.
D. Update the current agreement setting that if customers came in as a couple/group/partners etc. have them all signed to it and if any alterations or changes is being asked by anyone from them it should be signed again as a group or give notices to other signatories.
thanks for the invitation!
This is a day to day affair for a sales person. The main criteria for a sales person is to convince the customer and to be transparent to his boss.
so in this situation. first we have to inform what happen exactly to the manager. secondly we have to inform diplomatically and praise the idea of the person who was in the last discussion to the person who was not there . so that we can reinstate that we are not simply lying.
and finally it is our duty to document all the discussions which we had with the customers before executing the orders , so that we can avoid such situations.
I'm agree with Grethyl Egino
Every person has a key that you should know well how to use the suitable key for the suitable character, and this should be supported with your skills and knowledge of knowing types of customers and how to deal with each one, besides a commitment from the customer service leaders for giving alternatives that suits each customer situation.
