1. Problem-solvers, not product-sellers
Customers keep their guard up when talking to sales reps – they know you are trying to make a sale.Conversely, they will usually see your customer service agents as problem-solvers.Brian Tracy describes the most effective sales method is to “approach each customer with the idea of helping him or her solve a problem or achieve a goal, not of selling Bahamas Phone Numbers product or service.”This puts your customer support team in a uniquely strong position to make a sale, as they are already there primarily to solve your customer’s problems.When your sales team recommends a product, the customer assumes they are trying to get a sale. When your customer service team recommends a product, the customer assumes they are trying to solve the problem.Make sure your customer service training included understanding who your customers are and the problems your products solve for them.This will enable your customer service teams to recommend products to solve a customer’s problem.
2. Upselling as problem-solving
Train your customer service team to problem-solve by upselling.A strong understanding of which products and services complement each other is an integral part of this.Customers may trust a customer service agent’s recommendation more than sales reps. Customers expect the sales team to sell, and the customer service team to solve their problems. You know it’s more complicated than that, but this is how many customers look at it.These expectations allows your customer service team to make recommendations that a customer may dismiss from a sales representative.Your customer service team can support your sales team by taking transfers during a sales call.Some customers want reassurance about the product by speaking to a ‘non-salesperson’.
3. Customer and product knowledge
It can frustrate to contact businesses for information only to discover that the agent knows less than you do.Your teams need as much training on service and policy changes as they do on the products themselves.Make sure your customer service teams understand changes and the reasoning behind them.Customers can lose faith in your organization from a single agent who wasn’t up to speed.product-knowledge
4. Personalized Service
Knowledge about your customers is just as important as knowing about your products.Keep detailed notes in your CRM about every interaction any department has with a customer. Having instant access to such a knowledge base can help in establishing and maintaining healthy customer relationships. The more your customer service team knows about a customer, the better they can tailor their approach to that customer. Even simple info like how a customer wants you to address them can make a big difference.Enabling your customer support agents to provide a personalized service in this way makes customers feel you care about them.Keeping an existing customer can be 5 times cheaper than attracting a new customer.
“It never ceases to amaze me that companies spend millions to attract new customers (people they don’t know) and spend next to nothing to keep the ones they’ve got! Seems to me the budgets should be reversed!” –Tom Peters
Spending some extra time to showing your customers matter is a smart investment.As much as we like to think we do business for logical reasons, often it comes down to how we feel about a business.When a business remembers us and treats us as individuals, we view that business in a positive light.In the words of Ben & Jerry’s Co-Founder Ben Cohen:“There is a spiritual aspect to our lives — when we give, we receive — when a business does something good for somebody, that somebody feels good about them!”
