Planned Persuasion

The “new customer offer” with my satellite television supplier had come to an end. Our monthly bill was now too high. We do have a wedding to save for, after all.

Something had to give, and it looked like soccer on the sofa would be the first to go. I didn’t want to lose our subscription – or any of the features that came along with it – just to pay less. Christine has her own guilty pleasures on the box, so we were in this together.

My first tip: Pick up the phone! If you don’t do that nothing happens. It was time to call.

I needed a plan beforehand:

• Shop around. The best I found was a 25% increase, rather than the 100% proposed.
• Be creative. Various “pay as you watch” deals would save a decent amount.
• Know your numbers. Our bill had risen by more than 100% in the past three months.
• Know what you have and what you need. We pay for a phone line… and don’t have a phone!
• Know what you want. We only really watch football and box sets… and as I said above, I had options.
• Check recent changes to your current deal. Football is my priority and there were far fewer games on offer.

Are you willing to walk away? The Euro Championships was on terrestrial TV over the summer, so pulling the plug for a while was no big deal.

Their opening offer was a 10% reduction with a few bits and pieces thrown in. I said no thanks, so they put me through to the cancellations team.

Here are my thoughts on the call:

• Don’t take the first offer. Even if you are pleasantly surprised, at least catch your breath and think.
• Speak to the cancellations team. They have the power to offer you a deal.
• Show you know your stuff. Put your options out there, elegantly, at the right time.
• Be nice! But be assertive. They will likely be terrific at both (it’s their job…).
• Say what you want the deal to be. I wanted to keep the whole package, ideally.

Be willing to walk away and know at what point you will do that. Have a maximum and minimum position, with a bit of personal wriggle room. Don't be completely inflexible.

Eventually I was put on hold to “see what kind of deal he can offer me”. The system returned one that was around the figures that I had quoted to my new tele-pal earlier.

A good result… I would like to think was an away win, but was probably a score draw.

Now to persuade Christine that football is best watched on the big telly in the living room, not the wee one in the bedroom.

I’ll need to put together a plan for that piece of persuasion too!

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Matt Wardrop is our Client Relationship Manager. If you would like to know more about this subject, drop him an email and we will be in touch.