Sell, Sell, Sell! » Customer Service

Client Touches – Post-Sell, Up-Sell and Retain

craigklein — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:32:24 +0000

This is the forth installment in our “Email Marketing – The Only Bailout Your Business Needs” e-Book.

In the previous three chapters, we’ve discussed the blocking and tackling of email marketing. How to stay on the right side of the law, how to create emails that won’t annoy your customers, how to provide valuable information to your contacts via on-going emails and how to engage prospects so that you’re the one they buy from when the time is right. Click here to read the 1st, the 2nd and the 3rd chapters.

We’ve all heard how much more profitable it is to sell to your existing customers compared with acquiring new customers. Its true of course. And if it makes sense to engage and nurture prospects with email, then doesn’t it make even more sense to strengthen your relationships with existing customers?

Best of all, if creating a campaign that’s truly engaging to prospects can seem daunting, providing useful information for your customers can be downright easy. After all, you’re an expert at doing what you do. There are countless tips and tricks that can help your customers get more value out of what they’re buying from you. These are a great place to start. You probably have documentation that you’ve spent lots of time and money preparing to guide your customers through the use of your products and services. Of course, your customers probably don’t read it all. They wait to need a specific piece of information, then go looking for it. A well timed email campaign can highlight crucial tips at just the right time.

First Post-Sell

The art of the “post-sell” could be a book unto itself. In short the idea is to help your customer avoid “buyer’s remorse”. The natural human process of questioning one’s decision can be an opening for canceled orders. The most important objective in post selling is to express your gratitude for your customer’s business by reconfirming your commitment to deliver on your promises to them. A simple thank you email is a good start. However, you can assure the customer that they’ve made the right decision best by reminding them why they bought. Detail out how they should expect to benefit from their purchase and ensure them that you’re going to be there to guide them through the process of realizing these objectives.

While you may have focused on the intrinsic qualities of your product during the sales process, it makes sense now to highlight the services you offer to help customers use your product. Let them know what challenges are most common for new customers and how you can help with those challenges. Tell them how to reach customer service and when they’re available. Direct them to set up guides, training programs, etc. Help them see the road forward more clearly.

Up-Sell

Of course, selling more to existing customers IS very profitable. There are surely additional options or upgrades to what has been purchased. You may feel that you reviewed these options with the customer thoroughly during the sales process but, don’t assume that their decision not to purchase those options at the time meant they don’t want and need them. Very often, it just means that the initial purchase was enough of a leap for them. They don’t know what they don’t know. Now that they’ve purchased the basic product and are beginning to implement or use it, they’re seeing more clearly how your additional products and services could benefit them.

You can weave your up-sale into your post-sell if you stay focused on the objectives the customer has. What are they trying to accomplish with your product or service? If there are additional products and services that will help them get there, its completely appropriate to bring them up. Of course, some of these things will be installation, implementation or training services. These can all be highlighted in the “we’re here to help” spirit.

In your business, you may have supplies and replacement parts that customers will need. Start letting them know when they should expect to need their first new supply or replacement and how to get it. Customers may frequently out grow entry level models or services and need an “upgrade”. Help them understand the things they should look for to recognize its time to upgrade.

Another opportunity is to identify additional needs for things you sell within the same organization. Find ways to let your first customer in a large organization connect you with their colleagues. At a minimum, give the customer an easy way to “invite” others to receive your emails. These may simply be the actual users of the product. More points of contact are extremely valuable. You may want to evolve to having different campaigns for different roles with in the customer organization.

Retain

Of course, whether you sell your customer anything else or not, you want to keep their business and ensure they’re pleased with their purchase. A great way to strengthen a customer’s bond with your company is to let them have some input. A simple survey can be very valuable in showing the customer you care about their opinions are experience with your company and helping you improve your company’s offerings.

In addition, just as it makes sense during the initial sales process, providing useful information that helps your customers do their jobs establishes your expertise and causes them to look forward to your communications. Continue to keep customers engaged using industry news and educational content even after the sale. You can be more specific now because you know they are the proud owner or user of a certain type of product or service. Safety tips are easy and appreciated.

News about your company should be part of the mix. They depend on you now and they want to know where you’re heading. Upcoming developments in your business should be of genuine interest. Planned improvements to your products or services – new models, expanded service hours, etc. – are all things that customers want and need to know about.

If you have subscriptions or contracts that renew periodically, create a sequence of emails that alerts them to the upcoming renewal early, so they can plan for it, then walk them through their options step by step.

One of the most valuable ways to strengthen your customer’s relationship with your company is to ask for referrals. Again, they have come to depend on your company and therefore, its in their best interest to help you grow and remain strong. However, asking for referrals is a great “gut check” on the relationship. If there are hidden frustrations, asking the customer to recommend you to a friend or colleague will generally bring those frustrations to the surface. Better to know now while there is still time to address the problems. Take any negative feedback very seriously and take aggressive action to remedy the situation to the customer’s satisfaction. By doing so, you can turn a minor frustration into a major bonding moment between your customer and your company. More often though, you’ll be surprised at how willingly customers will provide you with referrals. Be clear and specific about the kind of contact you’re looking for. Help them help you.

Overall, building a series of emails to nurture, retain and up-sell your existing customers may be a great place to start your email marketing efforts. Its often more familiar subject matter and you can ask your customers what they’d like to see. In any case, it should not be over looked. Nurturing clients should be on-going throughout the customer life cycle.

In our next installment of “Email Marketing – The Only Bailout Your Business Needs”, we’re going to focus on building your list and taking the first steps to get your campaign underway. Register to receive the entire eBook here.

“Getting Started” will appear here at Sell, Sell, Sell! on June 22. So stay tuned!

Special thanks for contributing to this installment go to Steven Greene. Steven’s written and managed lead generation and nurturing campaigns in industries from banking to boating. His input on email marketing is invaluable. To learn more about Steven click here.

Free eBook – Double Your Sales in 2009 – available now

craigklein — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:57:42 +0000

The entire 5 part series is now available for immediate download as a complete e-Book!

Double Your Sales in 2009 has been more popular than any other article, whitepaper or e-Book we’ve ever released, by far!

Stop listening to the doom and gloom in the news. You can take charge of your own destiny in these challenging times and super charge your sales engine!

These are simple steps any business can take immediately without spending a dime!

Here’s a summary of the Double Your Sales in 2009 e-Book:

Qualify Early and Often – define questions that indicate the "qualification" of any lead and ask every lead right up front before you invest lots of time and money in them.

Timing is Everything – create guidelines for what makes it worthwhile to take each step in the sales dance with each prospect.

The Law of Attraction – teach everyone on your team to say no to prospects unless they are sure that the investment of their time and your money will yield the desired result.

Set the Mustangs Free – make it easy for sales reps to track what happens with each lead, the answers to your qualification questions and the sales activities invested in. Hold them accountable for following the process by sharing the results of this tracking with the team.

Pour in the Jet Fuel – track the source of each lead and redirect marketing efforts and investments toward the lead sources that generating the most frequently qualified and close-able leads.

This process does not have to take months. If you start today, within 30 days you’ll begin to see improvements in relationships with the most valuable sales prospects and you’ll begin to see where your marketing investments should be realigned.

There is no reason that 2009 can’t be the best year you’ve ever had. Your selling process is about to turn into a high performance selling machine. Wasted time and money will be minimized and your sales team will be focused on the best possible opportunities more often.

Download the entire "Double Your Sales in 2009" series as an e-Book here.

The Operative Word in “Customer Service”

craigklein — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:26:59 +0000

… is SERVICE!

In my last post I talked about how some of my competitors are hitting their customers with surprise charges after they’re signed up.

When I say “service”, I mean it in the sense that you learned in Church – Giving to others without regard for your own interest.

Yeah, I know, we’re talking about business here so, it is by its nature about my own interest. However, I’ve learned that Customer Service shouldn’t be managed strictly by profit and loss. We’ve all heard the cliches – “going the extra mile”, etc. It still amazes me that my company’s approach to “serving” its customers is so unique in our business.

..and yes, I’m proud of it. Here’s a quote from a client emailed to me today:

“What I am most impressed with is the support and attention I get from all departments I’ve dealt with so far, training, tech support and billing. This is the kind of company that gives you the feeling that they really care about each customer.”

Man, that is good to hear!

Stay tuned to read how unusual this approach is in the online CRM and contact management business.

Improve Service and Keep Customers with Chat

craigklein — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:09:31 +0000

I am not a patient person. When I need technical support or customer service from a big corporation, a feeling of dread wells up in me.

You know the feeling. We’ve all been there. On hold, wading through phone menus, wasting time. The most frustrating thing is when you tell your story to one rep, then they decide they need to hand you off to a different department, and so on.

Well I must give credit where credit is due. Yesterday I had two truley surprising customer service experiences. In a GOOD way!

First the webcam on my Dell notebook wouldn’t work. I went to their site and noticed a “chat with a technician” button and went for it. The technician responded quickly, asked the right questions, diagnosed the problem and posted a link to a download, then used GotoAssist to install and configure it for me. I was back in business in 30 minutes.

The best part was that during the entire chat, my cell phone was ringing off the hook and I was able to take every call and take care of business while the Dell rep was taking care of my computer. It was as painless as it could have been.

Then the same evening I had a rare opportunity to pick a pay-per-view movie of my choice and relax. The kids were having a sleep-over and my wife was out with her family. But, the Comcast Movies On Demand service was giving me an error.

This time I just called the number on the screen and started wading through the phone system, and got disconnected, twice.

So I hit their website and noticed the Chat button again. I tried it again and within 10 minutes, my movie was on. Again, the best part was that I wasn’t chained to a phone. The pizza guy came while I was chatting with the Comcast technician, I let the dog out, a phone call came in, life continued uninterrupted.

One note – I asked both the Dell and Comcast reps where the actually were and they were both here in Texas. I think that makes a difference.

SalesNexus has been using Chat for support users of our online, hosted contact management system for a couple of years and its definitely been a win-win. Its more efficient for us and our customers find it quick, easy and convenient.

I have to give Comcast and Dell Customer Service Grades of A+ for the way they leveraged chat to do an excellent job taking care of me.

The great news is that its also easy to set up in any business, even the smallest of businesses. If your business has a website, you can set up a chat button within a day, or less. Boldchat and LivePerson are two that we’ve used and have been pleased with.

No matter what business you’re in, chat can be a real win for you. There are always going to be times when you’re team is tied up on the phone and the next customer ends up on voice mail or on hold. Chat can be another answer.

Now, imagine that you have a Chat button on your site AND you have a good contact management database available to the Chat attendant. A client initiates a chat by entering their name or email, your attendant looks them up in the contact management system and sees the history of their relationship with your company and now your client is really getting treated like a king!

I know I’m going to be finding new ways to leverage chat. You should too.

BTW – I watched “I Am Legend” with Will Smith. Pretty darned good.

Your business is hitting the wall!

craigklein — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:58:59 +0000

If you own a small business, you know what your larger competitors have that you don’t. They’ve got resources to do things bigger and “ostensibly” better than you can.

But, do you know what you have they your competitors don’t?

Your lack of size and resources can actually be your greatest advantage!

You can turn your organization into the most responsive organization your customers have ever dealt with!

Because you’re lean and mean, you have the opportunity to transform your organization. When your clients call, every individual within the business can have the right answers, on the spot.

If you’d like to make your competitors look like chumps by responding to your customers’ instantly, stay tuned!

In the coming few days, I’ll be releasing a new report packed full of specific actionable suggestions for turning your company into the “go to” company in your industry.

More info to come early next week!

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