Page 56 - Kindness - No Forward

This technique can be tried with any criticism, whether at work or at home.

For example, a client of mine had been trying for five weeks to collect on a
$108,000 bill from a customer. At one of our seminars, we role-played the
communication with this customer. After they tried it, they collected the
money.

This is what happened:

My client, we’ll call them the ABC company, had installed a telephone
system for their customer. There were a few parts missing but they didn’t
affect the performance of the system, and ABC agreed to install them when
they came in. The customer (a LION) was angry and didn’t want to pay for
any of the work at all.

ABC Company contacted the customer and said “John, we have a problem.
There is a $108,000 balance due on your account and we need to resolve it.
What can we do to satisfy you and collect this balance?”

John, the customer, answered “I’ll tell you what you can do…get the parts
in!”

“John, I understand how you feel. We’d like to get the parts in, too. I can’t
get the parts for three weeks, but what I can do is get some loaner parts
until your come in. Would that work?”

“I feel like this: it’s as if I have bought a green Cadillac and you delivered a
white Cadillac. If I’d wanted a white one, I’d have ordered a white one.”

ABC rep responded, “I understand that. I can’t get the green Cadillac, but I
can let you drive the white one until the green one comes in. Would that
work?”

With that, the customer approved the deal and paid for the work which had
been done. After weeks of arguing and explaining, it was simplified when
non-defensive behavior was combined with problem-solving.