Consumers have never had a greater choice of products and services to choose from. This, in turn, means that providing exceptional customer service has become a greater challenge. Putting the customer first is imperative and dissuading customers to switch from one provider to another is no longer about price or product, but how you make them feel and if your reputation holds well in the eyes of previous clients.
So if you are meeting the needs of your customers across all channels, where and when they are, communicating with personalization, then you should be aware that digital channels are not only for responding and solving issues that customers face. They also present an opportunity to sell a better version of what is available to them currently or extras that meet the demands of their lifestyle.
To reinforce this idea, we have gathered tips to show how your company can start selling with customer service.
1 - Turn Support into a Business Driver
Customer service can cross traditional boundaries (provide assistance) by collecting and capitalizing on customer feedback. Analytics and reports can enable agents to upsell and pass on the information to sales.
The number of channels that customers use is increasing and therefore brands that have anticipated the trend have enabled agents with the right tools and single dashboard technology to achieve efficient service that gathers valuable insights from the customer. This can be from peak times to understanding customer preferences.
Customer service reps should communicate with customers frequently and analyze their activities using a product or service to identify opportunities to upsell and cross-sell new products and features
Choosing the correct moment to offer an upsell or cross-sell can make the difference between coming across as a pushy or helpful. For example, if your customer has successfully enjoyed using your product for a few months, you will be the best person to mention another product they can use with it — or alongside it — to get better results.
Digital conversations have helped both the Marketing and Sales departments track and target customers who may be interested in offers available to them. The longevity of the contract or contact with a customer is therefore important and if done right, extended and becomes beneficial to the company. Giving an opportunity to shift the contact center from a cost center to a profit center.
2 - Make it easy for customers to reach you
The time from when consumers receive post-sales support has been shortened by digital technology, generating new openings to generate revenue through customer service. The majority of the revenue from your relationship with a customer happens post-sale and once that happens you want to give them reasons to stay. So producing effective and productive customer service to resolve their obstacles is important. You have to highlight the importance of success in the resolution of an issue.
Digital channels allow to have a more continuous conversation and develop knowledge of customers. In the past, companies developed channel-specific support models that compete for mastery. However, in the eyes of the customer, it’s a single organization and the result is diminished customer experience. Instead, an omnichannel customer service approach is required that blends both digital channels and traditional channels. In this path, the different support touchpoints are designed to complement each other, allowing users to switch between channels without the need to repeat information. Furthermore, multiple channels can be used simultaneously (for example, browsing a physical store while ordering the goods for home delivery from a mobile device).
Brands are tested each time a customer engages with them through digital channels. It’s crucial to taking care of every single conversation to earn a customer’s trust. Conversations are opportunities to do business. When it comes to digital channels, be sure to take care of the query swiftly to improve response times and to effectively resolve them.
if the agent proposes a service that fixes the customer problem it is equally a sale for the business and a content customer. Customers evaluate support quality and it could be the reason that they continue to use over your competitors. It showcases reliability.
3 - Train agents for Sales
Agents need to be skillfully trained as experts on the products or services you offer. They need to be creative and should be able to come up with workable solutions for any problems thrown their way.
They need to have a “sales” culture and know they can go beyond simple assistance. On digital channels, agents need to be a good fit. It isn’t just about applying training related to support a customer, but also to sell the product you should know inside out. Go above and beyond to show the customer why they matter to you and why their business is appreciated, it can also impact your online reviews.
Enable agents to bring some personality to the role. This is critical because it allows advisors to change the way that they handle each conversation. While guidelines are there to help the flow of a conversation to result in a resolution, be sure to differentiate the answers and apply them to the appropriate channel.
Think about incentives to encourage agents to adopt a sales approach (recognition of the best “seller” each month, bonus). Incentivising the process encourages your workers to grow personally and professionally.
4 - Proactively assist customers
A trend in customer service is being proactive (anticipating when a customer has a need) instead of reactive (waiting for a customer to contact us). Organizations need to understand the entire customer journey and not just optimize contact points individually. Building unified and pro-active cross-channel services will deliver differentiated customer experiences that drive loyalty and repeat sales.
This strategy can be adapted to sales: for example, a telecoms operator offering a customer a different mobile data plan when they are about to reach their monthly limit. It’s a case of showing customers what you can do to better their experience.
One way to offer this level of service is live-chat is also an excellent way to proactively assist customers: you can encourage them to start the conversation when they need it while browsing your website. This is particularly true for brands that heavily rely on eCommerce for their day-to-day. A vital element to any sales strategy on a digital channel is to be proactive and not pushy to go beyond resolution and sell.
5 - Leverage available data about your customers
Organizations should use the data they have to personalize the experience and identify sales opportunities: conversation history, data in the CRM. This can truly improve performance, advanced analytics tools should increase efficiency, reduce overheads, and proactively unearth new revenue.
For example, companies using advanced analytics can study the recent successful sales and proactively design aspects of a pitch based on the customer’s behavioral profile. If a customer is identified as potentially regretting a purchase, the script can highlight a hassle-free return or cancellation policy.
Expanding a connected ecosystem empowers organizations to make information available to agents while they interact with customers. For example, accessing CRM data to know their previous purchases. A great platform of the omnichannel variety can be defined by its success to integrate easily. If the solution makes an agent’s daily workload simpler to manage with all the needed information in one place, then that single view can be utilized to great effect with well-trained agents to deliver best-in-class customer service.
Conclusion
A successful digital transformation is a way that companies can address rising complexity, provide excellent customer experience, and manage operations costs with significant ease.
Companies often talk about identifying customer pain points, and contact centers are a clear opportunity, even if most customers view them with trepidation. The best organizations recognize that to proactively differentiate themselves from the competition, improving the experience is key to achieving longevity. By implementing new tools with features that can enhance the customer journey, organizations can more accurately predict what’s coming-allowing them to literally control their own future.
This article is written by Julien Rio:
Julien is an entrepreneur and marketing expert for the past 12 years. During this tenure, he has worked in multiple industries across Europe and Asia. Throughout his international career, he has been in charge of Marketing Strategy and managed both small and large international teams, focusing on all aspects of traditional and digital marketing, including branding, SEO, SEM, communication & PR, web development, trade shows & exhibitions, social media, ABM & emailing campaigns, design, etc.