Although the main objective of a contact center is to offer the best possible customer service, part of that operation also includes the ability to generate sales. After all, quality customer service interactions allow you to identify what a customer wants and offer the opportunity to sell them exactly what they need.
Despite this, many companies struggle to effectively generate sales from the contact center. When you consider that callers are looking for answers to questions and solutions to problems, sales can get a bit lost along the way.
For this reason, we offer you the best tips, steps and answers that your contact center agents must apply to close more sales and achieve customer loyalty.
10 tips to increase sales with the Contact Center
1. Train your agents
Cultivating the “hard skills” of the agents in your contact center is an obvious task, but it should not be the only one. Many managers tend to underestimate the importance of “soft skills“, that is, those interpersonal skills that have an impact on the way agents relate to the consumer, such as empathy and the power of persuasion.
Fostering these skills is crucial in the customer service sector, since they have a direct impact on the image of the company, for better or for worse. In this sense, taking care of the modulation and tone of the voice, understanding how to treat each type of customer and being able to choose the best words and phrases for each occasion, is essential to satisfy the final customer.
It is also important to ensure that the agents in your contact center are well aware of the structure of the company, the products and services and the culture that represents it in order to reflect the same image and avoid confusion or inconsistencies. Maintaining a solid corporate identity will help increase the trust of customers, but also of the employees themselves, promoting better retention of talent within the company.
2. Choose the best work tools
How agents answer the call is just one piece of the puzzle. In order to offer a satisfactory experience to the consumer, it is important to invest in tools that guarantee the quality and effectiveness of this communication. Therefore, it is important to maintain good audio quality, respond in a noise-free space, use self-service tools such as FAQs, or implement automation methods such as IVR or chatbots.
Our omnichannel software EVOLUTION offers a wide range of resources specifically developed to meet the needs of any contact center, working with the most innovative technology to facilitate agents’ tasks and multiply end customer satisfaction.
3. Serve your target audience
How to know which customers are more likely to accept our calls? Reviewing the call history. This process is usually laborious, so we recommend using an omnichannel software such as EVOLUTION that allows you to integrate the CRM to find all this information automatically, manage it and increase productivity while saving time and money.
4. Personalize every conversation
We like to feel unique and we appreciate a close and personalized treatment, especially when this interaction is between the customer and the company. From a contact center point of view, and to maximize sales, it is essential to ensure that agents know how to treat customers so that they feel valued. Luckily, and thanks to current tools, addressing each customer by their first and last name is a simple task (as long as you are using omnichannel software such as EVOLUTION, and, even better, linked to a good CRM) that it helps to generate greater value in the call.
Potential customers generate a series of data that is easy to collect and take advantage of, to establish close conversations. Agents can refer to previous interactions carried out, the sections that they have consulted in advance or the articles that have interested them, to give the feeling of exclusivity and relevance.
5. Set achievable expectations and track metrics
Companies tend to be overly optimistic when setting expectations for their agents. But when these goals are not calculated correctly and realistically, they lead to failure and disappointment. That is why it is essential to apply what is known as SMART objectives.
SMART stands for: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-based. These parameters differ depending on each company, so it is essential to take the time to adapt them to the relevant size and needs.
Remember to base every decision on historical data, and when in doubt, evaluate the competition. Compare your business with other competitors or other leaders in the sector to identify the room for improvement and have a realistic reference for each objective within your specialty.
6. Don’t force sales
Although the main objective of any business is to get sales, you must teach your contact center agents to focus their efforts on the quality of the call and not so much on the culmination of it in a purchase. As we have already mentioned, people want to feel valued and respected, and above all, they do not want to feel forced to have to buy a product or service.
Therefore, you must prioritize generating genuine, kind and respectful interactions. Learn to actively listen to the wishes and needs of the client, and only persuade him/her at the right time.
7. Sell perks, not features
Another formula to promote greater conversion is to focus the argument around the advantages or solutions offered by your product or service, instead of just naming the features that can otherwise be found on the web.
Talk about interesting facts, testimonials, own experiences, solutions and advantages that help you generate a stronger connection with the customer.
8. Cross sell and upsell
If you’ve managed to build a relationship with a customer and it’s ended in a sale, there’s a good chance you can do it again. Even easier than the first time. After all, regular customers are a factor of value for the annual income of any company.
The two best practices to help you get those sells are up-sell and cross-sell. Here we explain the differences:
Upselling is offering customers an “upgrade” to the product or service they are already using. Often this takes the form of various pricing tiers, such as “Standard”, “Advanced”, and “Pro”. The more expensive the level, the more features it includes.
You can try to upsell a customer even when they first buy a product, promoting all the amazing things your top tier has that your cheapest tier lacks. But upselling works best when users are given time to acclimate. After they’ve been using your product or service for a while, contact them again to explain how an update could make their experience even better.
Cross-selling, on the other hand, focuses on selling the customer an entirely different product that complements their initial purchase.
9. Anticipate customer needs
Agents must always be one step ahead of the customer, be proactive and take advantage of sales opportunities. They must know the answers to customer questions before they are asked, offer helpful solutions, and address anticipated problems before they occur.
Tip: Make sure your team has access to relevant information on all products. This includes all features, potential service issues, costs, compatibility issues, etc. They must use this information, as well as information about the customer, to anticipate your needs.
10. Follow the processes from start to finish
Finally, the last tip to improve your sales success rate is to know your customers. By implementing call tracking, you can better understand where they are coming from, their needs, complaints, and suggestions to better prepare your customer service team.
Discover how ICR Evolution helps you generate sales with your Contact Center
Now that you know how to increase sales with a Contact Center, all you need to do is integrate the most innovative technology on the market: our software EVOLUTION.
At ICR Evolution we have a powerful omnichannel tool that will allow you to keep all channels integrated on the same platform. As well as offer an optimal service to your team and generate the necessary metrics to improve the processes for your company. Request a demo and discover how we can help you!
