After months of putting it off, I finally found myself at the car dealership in POS to buy two replacement parts for my car. I got one and the other was out of stock. The attendant keyed in my part # and on determining he did not have it, he then proceeded to enter a “lost sale” into his electronic system. ( a very clever way to tell the stock room that they need to get crackin on the re-order for that part and it may also help them reduce stock outs altogether)
This got me thinking about the concept of a lost sale which we normally associate with physical products but is also relevant for service businesses. Remember when Dorothy told Jerry Maguire ‘You had me at “hello”. You had me at “hello”?’ Well some receptionists kill customer relationships at hello. And this is not to beat up on the first person people normally come into contact with in a company. Rather it’s about asking ourselves what touch points are most important to our customers, what their expectations are and how do we wow customers at these points.
So is that “Reserved for Managing Director” parking sign right next to the entrance to your business pleasing to a customer who just walked three blocks in the hot sun to find parking?
How many clients slip through your fingers? Go find the lost sales in your company. We may not need new customers. We all just need to serve the ones we have better.
