Around 72% of businesses say that improving customer experience is key to achieving their goals, yet only 63% of marketers have turned to new technology to help them achieve this goal, according to research by Forrester.
Sending confused clients support emails, considering handwritten rather than typed messages, or thinking ahead so as to ease customers’ experience with your products and services can help, but all these efforts need to be backed by technology if you want to stay at the top of your game.
In this article, we focus on new technologies and trends that will enable you to offer your clients top grade service.
Taking care of your most valuable tool: Your car
According to mileagetrakker.com, most sales representatives travel around 10,000 miles per year. Many see various clients in a day, meaning that they need to ensure their vehicle is in tip-top condition, and that it is covered for any breakdowns that may occur while on the road. In addition to taking out as comprehensive coverage as possible for your vehicle, you should also rely on smart car technology. Apps like aCar inform you of the cost of running your car per day and per mile, predict when you will need to fill up your tank, calculate your fuel efficiency, and remind you of when your next maintenance is due. Therefore, you won’t ever have to call a client last-minute to tell them you can’t see them or deliver goods because of a vehicle breakdown.
Relying on team collaboration tools
Even if you work as a lone salesperson, you probably have to communicate with the rest of the sales team and your managers. Consider using a cloud-based collaboration tool such as Slack, which has different channels in which you can communicate within a group, or in private messages with a particular colleague. You can also use this platform to upload files such as Excel sheets or Word documents, which is useful when you are visiting a client and they require information asap. Slack never sleeps, so someone from the team will usually be online to respond quickly or send you information your client needs.
Cutting edge chatbots
You may not have the time to deal with every client personally and if you are on the move, clients should be able to receive answers to their inquiries and solutions to their problems while you are on the road. If you are part of a large sales team, your company may have chatbot technology in place. As noted by Forbes, “the best chatbots are able to not only respond to requests and questions, but also recognize when the customer is confused.” Chatbots can streamline the customer service process considerably, but they need to be capable of identifying when it is time to pass the inquiry to a human support representative. Top examples include Dialogflow (which integrates voice and text artificial intelligence applications to Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana and Amazon Alexa), and Chatfuel (which requires no coding ability and which offers live updates on data, news, and interesting information for clients).
Enhancing the client experience
If you are selling software, hardware, or any tech-based product, your customers will have more questions than occurs with other types of products. While manuals go a long way towards helping clients use the technology correctly, you should also consider live streaming (if you have few clients and your products are in the high-end sector) as well as dedicated videos or video courses that will take clients through everything from starting up to troubleshooting.
We have mentioned just a few ways in which technology can boost customer success and satisfaction, yet by doing so salespeople are ultimately killing two birds with one stone. Happy clients mean loyalty, retention, and word-of-mouth marketing. It also involves fewer complaints, inquiries, and calls, which can interfere with the goals you set out to achieve.
