If you’re in business, you know about selling. But what are sales through service? The best way to explain it is with an example. Could this be one of your best ways of boosting sales revenue while taking good care of your customers? Imagine this scenario.
Your sales prospect is about to convert, but instead of just closing the deal, your customer service agent notices an extra need your customer may have. Perhaps it can be addressed by buying additional items or a rather more complex version of what the customer initially intended to buy.
So far, your prospective client has had a great experience with your business and its agents, and the suggested improvements sound beneficial. The sale is closed with extras in place and the result is a happy customer and a better sale for your business. That’s sales through service in action.
Sales Through Service Techniques
Getting those extra sales through customer service requires a sensitive approach. Without it, you’re at risk of earning an awkward reputation as being “pushy.” To avoid this, your customer service agents should have a clear understanding of situations in which there are opportunities for upselling or offering extras. Motivate them to act on this by showing them that in doing so, they’re actually providing better service rather than simply pushing for bigger sales.
Of course, a well-trained and skilful team is needed to implement sales through service techniques effectively. They shouldn’t just be good at delivering a sales pitch. They need to listen carefully to their customers and have the ability to match products to individual needs. Understanding these means paying attention to feelings as well as facts – customers don’t always know the terms they should use to describe their requirements.
Here are some ways to increase sales through customer service so that you genuinely help your customers and don’t leave them feeling pressured.
Offer Related Goods or Accessories
Related products could help your customers to get the best out of the items they want to buy. They’ll often be small extras like the offers of phone accessories or insurance you’ll usually get when you buy a mobile phone or the sporting goods store that offers to sell you tennis balls when you buy a tennis racquet.
Find Out Why Your Customer Wants the Product They’re Buying
Customers are usually happy to tell you why they’ve chosen a specific product. In fact, they’ll often volunteer the information, but if they don’t, the agent can ask questions to determine whether the product is a good match. A good customer service agent should know your product range well enough to know whether a costlier product might serve a customer’s needs better and why this would be the case.
Offer Subscriptions for Top-Ups
Selling something that gets used up and needs regular purchases to maintain? Offering subscriptions saves your customers the effort of having to remember those top-ups and guarantees you extra sales.
Have an Easygoing Returns or Cancellation Policy
While people may be willing to try your extras and upsells, they might not be perfectly sure whether they really want them till they’ve tried them. Making it easy for them to return items or cancel new subscriptions gives them the confidence they need to give it a whirl. Provided your customer service agents’ suggestions are good ones, there’s an excellent chance that customers will see the benefits and keep the higher-value item you offered.
Have In-House Experts
When customers have very specific needs, handing them over from customer service to a person who has specialised expertise in that area builds confidence. Your agents should introduce them clearly when making the transfer, providing a summary of the customer’s needs. The customer knows they are talking to an expert who will give them good advice and the expert can pick up where your customer service agent left off.
How to Increase Sales Through Customer Service: Sales as a Service
Sales through service means providing service that results in bigger sales, but it’s not just a trick to make customers dig deeper. Instead, it’s a process that helps your clients to experience greater satisfaction.
Sales as a service, on the other hand, means outsourcing sales to specialised companies with expert personnel who may be able to achieve even better results than your in-house teams can. Surprised? Let RSVP surprise you even more. When we work with you to provide customer service, our first aim is to achieve results that are as good as anything that you already achieve in-house. Our next step is to do even better – and our track record shows that it’s a goal we’re well able to achieve.
Let us help you to increase sales through customer service. Our London-based team has what it takes to help you win and retain clients. We invite you to reach out to RSVP today – we’re looking forward to supercharging your sales.