As you expand your business, it becomes more and more important to find ways to reach potential customers beyond your storefront or website. You’ll need to start reaching out, and a dedicated call center is a great way to do that. Call centers allow you the opportunity to provide great customer service while also pitching your products and services to new leads. You’re not limited to phone calls either, because modern call center features allow you to reach customers through text, email, SMS, live chat, and more. The convenient and varied communication options available in modern contact centers make for more efficient customer journeys and can give your sales experts the opportunity to reach more leads than ever. When used correctly, your call center can be a vital tool in expanding your business. The following are just a few of the best ways to use your call center.
Tailor your sales pitches
While you should be able to explain exactly what you offer compared to your competitors, and how your products can outdo them, that shouldn’t be the entirety of your sales pitch. Customers have become wary of this “one size fits all” approach to sales, and some experts suggest that even solution selling is dead. This isn’t necessarily true in all situations. It should still be fine to take a solution-selling approach with customers who call in with questions and concerns. Providing quick and truthful answers about how your product solves a specific problem a customer is having can still earn sales and inspire customer loyalty, but you may want to try a different approach when you’re reaching out to leads.
This is especially true in B2B sales, where things continue to become more stressful for buyers. Let’s say you’re meeting with a potential customer looking to buy wholesale pallets cheap. This is a pretty standard goal, and odds are if they’re sitting in front of you, they’ve already decided your products can suit their needs. You need to sell them on your business practices and your insights into their company. This is known as insight selling, because you’re showing the buyer that you have a deep understanding of their customers and their needs. Buyers are more comfortable with businesses that can show exactly how their products will give them a competitive advantage, and they’ll trust those who demonstrate they have their best interests in mind.
Make personalized offers
Fluid communication is mandatory for any contact center agent, and when making hires, you must look for candidates who demonstrate empathy. Compassionate agents will take the time to understand customer concerns or frustrations and make the best effort possible to address them. These agents are also more likely to understand the importance of personalized service, and modern contact center software can offer great options for storing and accessing customer data. This can be used to make personalized offers to returning customers, or you could run promotions like discounts or faster shipping on first-time orders. While customers certainly appreciate quick service, personalized service can go even further toward turning them into repeat customers.
Streamline your service
Speaking of quick service, software packages for call centers give your agents all the tools they need to make order processing as painless as possible. The last thing you want is to lose a sale at the end simply because a customer became frustrated. With omnichannel communications, customers have control over how they interact with your company, and they can even select self-service options to make orders at their own pace. Customers are saved from ever having to repeat information, even if they’re transferred from one agent to another, because all communication channels are unified. Customer interactions are built upon, rather than reset, so communications are always productive.
