No Pain, No Gain

“When a customer stopped buying our products due to our poor lead times and questionable product quality, I made it my duty to win her back. As the product manager, I knew very well the improvements we’d made since this customer’s bad experience, and on my initial call to her, I addressed the quality and delivery issues at length, reassuring her that I would handle her account personally. I followed up that call with several more, each time trying to reassure, explain and progress to the next step.

On my tenth or so call on this customer, she told me in no uncertain terms that I was becoming a real pain. I wasn’t new to comments, questions, objections or rejection but this insult caught me off guard. Nevertheless, I chuckled diplomatically and told my customer that I wouldn’t give up that easily.

True to my word, I kept calling, and about four months after my initial call my customer decided to place the first of what would become many orders. She now calls me with more orders, questions, comments and sometimes just simple conversation, and our business with her has grown by 86 percent this year. By being persistent and keeping our name in front of this customer, her pain turned into everyone’s gain!”