THE SPARK Shampa's Blog

How to Fix Damaged Customer Relationships

In my last post, we had discussed about the dilemma that most businesses have to go through at some stage of their lifecycle…

The dilemma between customer satisfaction and cost efficiency.

Spend too much… and it leads to reduced profitability.

Spend too little… and it leads to low satisfaction and the risk of customer loss.

Often this boils down to Scale vs. Service dilemma.

To grow a business needs to adopt customer service that is scalable, but that may result in losing the personal touch which is the real competitive advantage.

Although each organization needs to solve this dilemma in its own unique way, here are a few strategies that can be adopted:

• Understand who you are to your customers – Get clear about who you want to be to your customers. This will help you create a strategy where proactive attention meets automated efficiency.
• Understand customer’s paint points – What are your customers looking for? Different customers may be looking for different types of service. Some may need hand-holding whereas others may be happy with self-service. It would be better to meet them at their channel of choice and offer them what they are looking for.
• Understand and use Technology – Technology today is transforming Customer Relationship Management. Used well, technology can give an organization the edge they need by giving deeper customer insights to improve customer loyalty and lifetime value.

If you would like to know more about how ConvergeHub can help you get closer to your customers without increasing the cost, talk to us.

Or, if you would like to check it out yourself, go ahead and create a free ConvergeHub account here.

damaged relationships

Have you noticed that customers are getting angrier?

The world itself seems to have become more uncivil, and customers are much more dissatisfied.

That is actually putting it mildly. Customers are not just dissatisfied… they are plain angry.

In a recent study by Arizona State University W.P. Carey School of Business survey of customer rage found that last year 74% of customers said that they have experienced problems with a product or a service. And they are definitely not shy about expressing their rage.

What were their main frustrations?

In most studies the top frustration is not being able to talk to a person when they have a problem.

The second most common complaint is that they can’t find out how to contact the company.

Technically, these are not difficult problems to fix.

So, it’s easy to blame the organization.

Organizations just don’t care, right?

But there’s a flip side to the coin.

When it comes to serving customers, companies have to do a balancing act between quality of service and its cost.

Spending too much on customer service might lead to reduced profitability, especially if it doesn’t lead to the customer loyalty that the business is looking for.

On the other hand, spending too little on customer service leads to low customer satisfaction and the risk of losing them in the long run.

So how do companies resolve this dilemma between customer satisfaction and cost efficiency?

Let’s talk about it in my next post.

Meanwhile, if you would like to know more about how ConvergeHub can help you get closer to your customers without increasing the cost, talk to us.

Or, if you would like to check it out yourself, go ahead and create a free ConvergeHub account here.

Is anyone listening?

Ever heard a company say that they don’t ‘put customers first’? Probably not 😊

Pretty much EVERY business says that they put their customers first.

And they probably mean it.

But do you know how many people believe it?

12%

According to a HubSpot survey, only 12% of people believe company messaging that says it puts “customer first”.

So, what’s going on here?

In an age when businesses pitch jargons such as “personalization”, “1:1 customer engagement”, “customer-centricity” to anyone willing to listen… why don’t most people believe them?

Because businesses will be able to deliver these things only if they truly listen to their customers.

Not through some half-baked survey asking the wrong questions.

Or a lame we-value-your-feedback form on the website.

For a business, listening is all about data.

Listening is the ability to capture and analyze all structured and unstructured data across all customer touchpoints.

Listening is also about training your customer-facing staff on empathy.

And taking action on what they hear.

By communicating better.

Giving out information that customers and prospects are really looking for.

Not always easy.

But without that we risk making assumptions about what our customers and prospects are looking for.

And that guessing game is dangerous for any business.

If you would like to know more about how ConvergeHub can help you communicate better with your prospects and customers, talk to us.

Or, if you would like to check it out yourself, go ahead and create a free ConvergeHub account here.

Fear, Chaos, Uncertainty, Doubt… and Hope

2023 is shaping up to be a year of challenges.

As collectively we begin to emerge from Covid… battered and scarred… we face a new set of challenges staring at us…

Rising costs
Diminishing budgets of our customers… both business and consumer
Shrinking resource pool to hire from
Uncertain economy

The list of challenges is long
And the result is Fear, Chaos, Uncertainty, Doubt…

So, what do we do about it?

Which way do we turn?

Often during such challenging times leaders instinctively turn to solutions like:
Budget cuts
Reduction in headcounts
Curtailing employee benefits
Minimizing Customer Service

But instead of going with these obvious short-term solutions, which in the longer-term create more challenges than they solve, this is the time for business leaders to look for less obvious solutions, which may take more work to implement but will yield long term benefits for the company as well as the individuals working in it.

These long-term solutions could include:

Increasing efficiency – Looking for ways to increase efficiency in how we market, sell and serve our customers. This could include using data to identify and remove bottlenecks, introducing customer self-service, changing operating hours or mode of operation, and so on.

Automation – Using chatbots, automated emails or texts, voice-bots, etc. to preempt customer questions and provide them with the answers they need. Providing sales agents with reminders and information just when they need it. Automation takes on different forms with many benefits.

Customer Retention – As every product and service is becoming more and more commoditized, businesses need to look beyond their base product or service offering to differentiate themselves from competition. Although customers are increasingly focusing on costs, the true value of a product or service depends on how much and for how long customers are able to use the product/service to realize its benefits.

Data Analytics – Instead of focusing on cost efficiencies, businesses can use data to create better offers that appeal to their market segment, use automation to improve their outreach, better personalize their services to retain customers, not to mention improve their processes and increase productivity.

If you would like to know more about creating sales processes and how ConvergeHub can help you get through these challenging times by enabling you to implement these long-term solutions, talk to us.

Or, if you would like to check it out yourself, go ahead and create a free ConvergeHub account here.

The 7 Steps of a Sales Process

Couple of weeks back I wrote about Sales Process and how important it is for your organization to have one… now let’s talk about the different steps of a sales process so that you can create one easily…

Okay… let’s step through it 😊

A typical sales process starts internally with training your sales agents. It then moves through prospecting, following up and closing the sale. But it does not stop there. The best sales processes include continuous nurturing the customer as the final step.

Here are the 7 steps of a typical sales process:

The time and effort you have to spend on each of these steps may vary but ensuring that you do follow through these 7 steps will go a long way in helping your organization meet their revenue goals.

If you would like to know more about creating sales processes and how ConvergeHub can help you close more sales by helping you implement clear effective sales processes, talk to us.

Or, if you would like to check it out yourself, go ahead and create a free ConvergeHub account here.

Get your hands dirty

As a technology builder and business owner, if you ask me for one advice on how to use technology to grow your business, this is it – Get your hands dirty.

As an entrepreneur or business leader, you are extremely busy with a never ending to-do list. You do understand that technology, when done right, is the competitive advantage that will take your business to the next level. And so you decide to make that investment and go for it.

You pay for the technology, hand it over to your team and go right back to your to-do list.

Life goes on as usual, everyone works hard at their job, and nothing changes…

Months go by, maybe a year..

And one day, while looking at the financial numbers, you remember the ‘competitive advantage’ and ‘business growth’ that was supposed to happen but never showed up.

What happened to that technology we paid for?

Nobody knows.

You ask your team how the technology is coming along.. everyone using it, right?

Uncomfortable silence.

All this time, your expensive technology was sitting on the shelf gathering dust, right beside your dreams for ‘explosive growth’ and ‘competitive advantage’..

And that is why, when you decide to invest in technology, do not make it the responsibility of someone else.

Whatever you do, DO NOT take a hands-off approach.

Get your hands dirty.

Get involved.
Try the app yourself.
Know who is in charge of setting it up.
Make sure team is trained.
Put in the checks and balances.
Look at reports.
Check-in from time to time.

If you invest in the right technology, implement it in your business in the right way with everyone using it to their full capacity, there is no reason why you should not see that growth you are looking for.

If you have questions on how you should plan your technology implementation, we’re right here for you.

Or, if you would like to check it out yourself, go ahead and create a free ConvergeHub account here.

Why you need a Sales Process

In my last blog, I talked about what a sales process is and what an ideal sales process should be.

Continuing this discussion, let’s talk about the why – Why should you bother creating a Sales Process for your organization… what’s the fuss about?

Having a defined Sales Process has many benefits, here are a few of them:

• Stay on track – When you have a defined process, it’s easier to make sure that every team member follows the correct steps to guide the prospect along the journey and close the sale quickly.
• Measure performance – Sales process helps you create the right metrics to track Sales agent performance.
• Accurate sales forecasts – Since you can track the sales stage of each lead, you are able to forecast your sales numbers more accurately.
• Understand prospects – Having a well-defined process invariably leads to setting up better buyer personas and better research of your prospects.
• Right focus – Since leads are now better qualified, reps can focus on leads that have higher chance of converting.
• No lost leads – Helps sales reps follow up frequently and engage with prospects at the right time reducing the chances of leads falling through the cracks.
• Better customer experience – By mandating the sales process steps you can ensure that reps don’t rush the prospects in order to try and close the sale quickly, which could easily result in a lost sale.

There are many more benefits, but these should be enough to convince you to go ahead and define a new sales process in your organization or take another look at your sales process if you already have one defined.

If you would like to know more about creating sales processes and how ConvergeHub can help you close more sales by helping you implement clear effective sales processes, talk to us.

Or, if you would like to check it out yourself, go ahead and create a free ConvergeHub account here.

Your Sales Process

Being a business leader you know that a business does not run on individual excellence or knowledge…. a business runs on its processes. For an organization of any size to succeed in the long term, the management needs to set up strong fundamental processes.

And this is even more true for the Sales department.

So, let’s talk about Sales Processes today.

We’ll cover the basics in this blog and dig deeper over the next few posts.

Let’s start by defining what is a Sales Process.

A Sales Process is a series of repeatable steps that an organization follows to take a prospect from being unaware lead to a paid happy customer and beyond. A well-defined sales process provides a common roadmap or framework that moves prospects through various stages of the sales cycle along the customer journey until they become paid customers.

Sales processes may change depending on the company’s product or service, prospect’s industry or need, but most effective sales processes have a few characteristics in common.

An ideal sales process is:

1. Actionable – Should clearly state what a sales agent or another team member should do
2. Repeatable – Each team member should be able to follow it every time
3. Predictable – The steps should be pre-defined and known by the team member expected to act on it
4. Flexible – It can change depending on situation

Given the advantages, use of sales processes by every sales team should seem like an obvious decision, but you’d be surprised how many organizations don’t have defined sales processes.

If you would like to know more about creating sales processes and how ConvergeHub can help you close more sales by helping you implement clear effective sales processes, talk to us.

Or, if you would like to check it out yourself, go ahead and create a free ConvergeHub account here.

Empathy in the age of algorithms

A lot is being said about Artificial Intelligence nowadays and you must have heard at least some of it…

Some say it’s the greatest revolution…

Some say it is the greatest threat to humanity…

Some are excited…

Some are terrified…

But keeping the hype and fear aside, a question that is beginning to bother us, especially those of us who are in the business of working with customers and the relationships that businesses have with their customers, is how that relationship will change in the future…

We all know that building long-term relationships with our customers is essential to the growth of the business. So, when the intelligence is artificial, but the customer is real, how can a business build long-term relationships?

Customers are real people – with feelings, emotions, and personality.

They want to be heard. Especially when they are frustrated or upset with your organization, they want to feel listened to and understood.

And that is where empathy comes in.

Empathy is the ability to put yourself in another person’s shoes – to look at a situation from that person’s perspective. That’s not easy, but often that is what makes the difference between losing a customer to a competitor versus building a loyal advocate of your brand.

Customer empathy helps identify a customer’s needs, establish connection with them, and also manage conflicts better. Often it is not about solving a problem or receiving a refund. Even when a situation has no resolution, sometimes just acknowledging a customer’s feeling helps provide a better experience.

In a recent study by Salesforce, 84% of customers said that being treated like a person, not a number, is very important to winning their business.

So, the question every business needs to ask is: Can artificial intelligence make your customer feel like a person?

If you would like to know more about how ConvergeHub can help you build long-term customer relationships by providing better visibility, talk to us.

Or, if you would like to check it out yourself, go ahead and create a free ConvergeHub account here.

the enemy of innovation

When you think of ‘innovation’ what comes to mind? Do you think innovation is inventing something totally new that changes the world? Do you think inventiveness is only limited to scientists and engineers? Does it only apply to creating new products?

In today’s world ‘innovation’ is ‘doing or building something different that creates or adds more value’.

Inventiveness is not limited to scientists and engineers.

It is not limited to achieving big breakthroughs.

Nor is it limited to creating new world-changing products.

It could be a small everyday improvement …
that makes a difficult task easier …
that makes the complicated simpler …
or the expensive more affordable …

So, if everyone can innovate, why is it not more common?

There are many reasons why innovation is so hard to achieve.

There are many barriers to innovation …

But the biggest barrier to innovation is also the one that is least obvious and least talked about.

Inertia.

Organizational Inertia.

Businesses are built to deliver predictable results.

Consistency.

Certainty.

Reliability.

These are the traits that make a business successful today.

But these are also traits that stifle innovation that will make the business successful tomorrow.

And that is the challenge that organizations face.

Rewarding the status quo will not trigger meaningful innovation.

Original ideas are not predictable.

Fear of failure does not generate bold ideas.

So, the first step to break this Inertia is to deliberately commit to innovation.

Start small.

But reward bold innovative behaviors.

And don’t back off when bold ideas fall flat.

Because that is where innovations begin.

If you would like to know more about how ConvergeHub can help you drive innovation by making complex time consuming processes simpler through automation and intelligence, talk to us.

Or, if you would like to check it out yourself, go ahead and create a free ConvergeHub account here.