Do you scare your customers?

Over half of my consulting work since Five-Star Customer Service hit the shelves in 2005 has been to business owners and C-level executives in the IT/Technology sector. A number of these firms are small-to-midsized businesses serving companies in fields outside of the tech sector.

My clients serve as trusted outside experts, just as I do.

Quite unintentionally, I've become something of a technology customer-service guru.

...Which is kind of funny for anyone who knows me well, since no one has ever accused me of being very tech-savvy. Am I a big fan of technology? Oh, you betcha! But I've been slow to master it on a personal level. For instance, my very first Tweet (@tedcoine) was only three weeks ago.

Why would these company leaders come to me for business advice, then? For starters, I tell them right off the bat: "I am your customer."

Which I am - or at least was, in my Coiné Language School days. Back then, there were times when half the people in our office were techies: web-designers and code-writers for our online English-language school. At times we employed these folks ourselves, but much more often we contracted with outside firms.

And you know what? They scared me. No, scratch that: they terrified me!

Technology is a blind item - especially software, networking, and other intangible stuff we Luddites can't quite wrap our minds around, can't quite "see."

It's like a mattress: what's in there, anyway? Is there really a difference among the $100 mattress, the $250 version next to it; the $300? The $500? What am I getting for that extra $400? Is the expensive one truly five-times better than the el cheapo one?

So, we customers have to trust the folks selling to us. And that's hard. It's extra hard when they have no social skills - or more likely, when the sales pros have plenty of personality, but the people they bring in to do the actual follow-up work are... icky. Unpleasant. Rude. Or even just a little, I don't know, too quiet.

Chances are you aren't in technology, and you don't sell mattresses, either. So what has this got to do with you?

As ever, what more general lesson can you learn from this posting? What I want my readers to walk away with is the undeniable certainty that if you're in sales, you scare most of your customers.

Scared people are much less likely to buy.

If they do buy, they'll try to save money, even if for them that isn't the best choice.

You have to win them over. And that ain't easy. If it were, your competitors would be able to do it, too - and you wouldn't enjoy an advantage.

Today's lesson? Win trust - which is a gradual process. Do it with integrity - which is not a sometimes-thing, but a 100% of the time effort. You can never, ever cut corners on ethics if you're trying to build something great - something such as a reputation.

And realize that you're starting at a disadvantage. Your customer fears you. It's that simple.

I recommend you look at every policy and practice with this question in mind: "Who does it serve?" If the answer isn't "My customer" then don't do it! No exceptions.

Take care of your customers. They'll more than return the favor.