Spot the misfit:

• The national fruit of Israel is the sabra – very prickly on the outside, yet juicy and tasty on the inside.
• In the world of selling, building strong relationships with customers is paramount, and that requires many skillsets including an ability to be empathetic from the start.

Just recently, my wife and I have had to suffer three two large Israeli concerns on a consumer issue. Once we had come through most of the ordeal, we realised that they all had the same techniques, humiliating and time consuming. What it boils down to is that while these retail giants thought they were improving their sales potential, they were actually shooting themselves in the foot.

For the record, I am talking about a credit card company and a cable TV outfit. ( I will name the third one in another blog). In both instances, we were calling up to cancel. And in both cases…………

• They did not spend enough time listening to what was the key issue
• They continued to insist they were so brilliant….when it was their so-called brilliance that had led us initially to our negative decision.
• When we showed our perseverance and demanded a cancellation, they offered us discounts, which effectively had been available up to then but we had never known about! More insults.
• And finally, the big trick!!! When they internalise that they are losing you as a customer, they say: “Please wait a moment, while we put you on hold”. As you can imagine, this becomes one of the longest “moments” in history. Why they need to put you hold in the first place is a mystery, except as a delaying tactic. They hope you become so exasperated that you will hang up, and thus they keep you on as a paying customer……..at the full rate.

Many years ago, El Al, the national airline, was considered so awful that the letters in its name were thought to stand for ‘every landing always late’. Times have changed. The company from top to bottom has learned. Today El Al is one of the world’s best selling stocks for airlines, and the customers are coming back.

Amazing what you can achieve, when you are nice to clients and treat them properly.