I am currently involved in a project to review customer care in our company. A point has come up re customer care vs. selling.

By that I mean a customer is calling our company with a problem; we work hard to resolve the issue and leave the customer satisfied with their experience.

Is it appropriate to sell when you are handling a service call or do you run the risk of not focusing on the issue but on forcing a possible sale which the customer may afterwards feel hard sold into ?

There is no harm in combining sales activities with customer care if done professionally. As we know from research - "a well handled problem builds more loyalty than no problem at all" so a satisfied complainant is very likely to consider your sales messages.

The secret is doing it well. The first priority must be resolving the customer's problem and sales activity only kicks in when that has been achieved. It also needs to be focused to their needs - e.g. "Did you know that if you upgraded to our ABC service that problem would not have arisen because...". Customer care people often feel uncomfortable in sales roles but really they are selling the Company all the time - it's just getting the perception and balance right.

More important corporately - if the customer care team can be seen to be supportive towards sales there is an increased likelyhood of getting the resources needed to operate an effective customer care team.

Good luck!