What do you do when you're in the middle of a sales call and your prospect says, "I've heard some bad things about your customer service." How do you go about handling this issue?

 When I run into these type of sales calls I never start by defending myself. I always try to learn more about the negative opinion. I will ask more questions to find the source of the problem. I will then try to deflect the negative impression by offering some social proof/testimonials about our customer service. If I don't have the information with me I will always ask permission first before emailing the testimonials to him/her. I will then reschedule the call right then and there so that my prospect will have time to look over the email that I send to them.

 This could involve many concerns such as, response time, call back time, attitude etc. I would ask the person to give you more details about their concerns. It would also be helpful to know where the negative comments are coming from (if it's from your competition, you should inform senior management and let them handle it). If it's from a former employee, that's a problem for HR. I've found that many times it involves a specific incident and can easily be explained or, it has to do with issues in the past that have been corrected.

It gives you an opportunity to correct any negative information out there. You can also supply this prospect with some internal (or external) data that may indicate this was an isolated incident.

Good Luck!

I agree with what has been said so far. Putting yourself in the defensive position right away is a bad move, much like in chess, where the goal is to always be on the offensive, or you will never win the game! Getting more details is the best way to go, because i have often found that they don't even know the specifics of the bad things in the first place (unless it was an actual personal experience). Otherwise it is just what they have heard, and "I heard" is probably the most quoted individual out there (at least that's what I heard....)  :)

At the end of the day, YOU are the one that is going to turn around the negative feelings. Your demeanor, your ability to present and handle their personal issues is going to be key. Your service you give to them is going to be the best way to counter any negative thoughts about what they may have heard or thought in the past. It goes back to the big principle of positioning yourself in a way that they can trust you and know that even if they hear negative elsewhere, they know the truth because they are experiencing it with you right now. You may want to ask them directly if what they have experienced so far with you has led them to believe what they may have heard in the past. (Plus, are they right? If so, then this may be something you need to address internally right away, but don't jump to any conclusions with knowing all the facts first).

This is a challenge I face as a recruiter everyday as our indsutry does not have the greatest of backgrounds, so when there is an organization such as the one I am involved with that is good, it is a daily challenge to counter the negativity that has existed for quite some time. I am interviewing people everyday and have them sitting in my office or on the phone when those issues come up. More often than not, I have to fight the little battles everyday to "brand" my organization in a different way to dissipate the dark cloud that still exists. After awhile, you have so many more people on your side, that you can gather a good group of testimonials that you can use as an arsenal to share with those you are selling to so that they can get specific feedback from others and not just from you. This builds tremendous credibility to address this issue, and it gives you more reasons to thank the clients you are already working with to continue building on those relationships.

I'm fortunate because this hasn't happened to me...yet.  However, in approaching the problem, I think I'd go something like this...

"Thanks for bringing this to my attention.  I hate to hear about bad customer service, but maybe you could tell me a little more about what you've been told.  If I can find out what happened, we can make sure it doesn't ever happen again..." 

By following that "softener" with open ended questions about the negative experience (What did you hear? Tell me more? How did this affect your impression of us?), I think I'd discover one of three things...

1. The experience wasn't really all that bad;

2. There's a serious problem that needs to be addressed;

3. The prospect is just making it up. (SURELY this never happens - cough, cough, cough...)

 After identifying there issues/concerns, my stock reply has been: I apologize for you experience. I can't do alot about what was experienced in the past. I do look forward to working with you in the future to demonstrate how things are usually done. After all, we would not be in our 40th year of business if those experiences were commonplace. I will also offer up the proper contact info for any potential issue that may rear its ugly head in the future.

More often than not, these are usually situations that arise when ever there is a sales rep change.