Making Sales Work in the Call Center Environment

Original Publication: Customer Management Insight - October 2007
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For many organizations, generating revenue through service functions continues to be more of a dream than a reality. The simple goal of getting service staff to offer additional products and services seems constantly thwarted by historical and organizational forces.

In one form or another, the question of why sales, service and fulfillment can’t all work together occurs to everyone charged with increasing revenue through service. And it’s an important question: After all, expanding a customer relationship improves business performance and the prospect of continued employment.

This question has deep historical roots. Mom-and-pop storekeepers who owned and operated the small-town general store of yesteryear knew that they alone were responsible for the complete customer relationship. They personally handled sales, delivery and service with careful attention. They knew all their customers by name and kept a mental database of individual preferences. That allowed them to make relevant and timely offers tailored to individual needs. Mom and Pop were the perfect CRM model.

Today’s mega-corporations achieve cost efficiencies through specialization. The quality of the customer experience depends on different departments working intelligently together: manufacturing, sales, marketing, fulfillment, service and even other functions outsourced to subcontractors who may be far removed from direct customer contact. In many companies, this functional segmentation results in dysfunctional customer relationships, and often creates barriers to successful sales-through-service initiatives.

From Service to Sales

To make the leap from service to sales in the call center environment, leaders must promote a culture of collaboration. For the customer, the payoff is a more satisfying relationship with the organization. For the organization, the payoff is longer term customer relationships that generate increased revenue through improved customer receptivity to additional offers.

But transitioning the traditional service center to a sales orientation requires more than just a tactical approach, as companies that achieve revenue gains do so by taking a strategic view. The following best practices provide pointers on how to break down the cultural and historical barriers to selling through service.

1. Ask the right questions to create a strategic plan.

A financial services company wanted to generate incremental revenue through customer contacts with its call center. After limited success in training call center agents to offer additional products and services, leaders realized they needed a broader plan to break down organizational and process barriers. They focused their thinking by asking the following questions:

• Which products and services can be appropriately positioned for sale through service and fulfillment?
• How do we select, train, motivate, reinforce and support service and fulfillment staff in the new direction?
• What needs to be modified to allow efficient processing of orders placed through the telephone service and fulfillment center?
• How can we ensure that the customer experience remains positive and builds loyalty, and that additional sales offers are not perceived as “hard sell”?
• What results can we realistically expect, and how do we measure them?

This more strategic view led the company to create new procedures and a workable implementation plan, which paid off as incremental call center sales rose steadily.

2. Make additional offers only to receptive customers.

One credit card company insisted that service providers offer an additional product or service at the end of each conversation with a customer. Employees were measured purely on the number of offers, rather than on the quality and relevance of the offer. As a result, they offered additional services to already unhappy customers precisely when they were least receptive, creating few sales but plenty of hostility and alienation.

Acknowledging their failure, leaders devised a new plan to train providers to be sensitive to customers’ feelings. Service providers now offer additional products and services only after doing everything possible to satisfy the original customer need. This organization discovered that when customers are satisfied, they are much more receptive to a new offer.

3. Make relevant offers to enhance the customer relationship.

Organizations able to position products and services relevant to individual customer needs are more likely to close the sale. When service providers are able to uncover a genuine customer need, they feel good about making an offer. When they cannot associate an offer with a benefit, they feel uncomfortable making the offer, and as a result close fewer sales. Further, relevant offers greatly reduce early cancellations and returns.

CRM systems can flash suggestions on the screen to help service providers identify potential solutions for an individual customer. Still, computer software cannot pick up human nuances. Software is no substitute for good judgment based on training, experience and selection of perceptive employees.

4. Make it easy for agents to sell.

The excitement when a customer says “yes” to an offer can quickly turn to frustration if order fulfillment processes have not been adjusted to make it easy to place the order. Time-consuming manual processes undermine the motivation to make the offer, especially when the service provider is measured on efficiency and productivity. These metrics need to be adjusted in order to allow increased time for the employee to make sales.

5. Help agents make the transition to sales.

With barriers removed and the proper organizational structure in place, the central task becomes preparing and motivating employees to link additional products and services to genuine customer needs. The word “sales” can trigger negative reactions, and employees initially may resist a new sales orientation. It’s important to communicate the transition well, then to provide the necessary resources and support to make it happen. Consider the following approach to ensure a smoother transition with employees:

• For executives: Get middle management on board early. Service managers or supervisors may be inclined to resist upselling and cross-selling, especially when accustomed to being measured on productivity. Any activity that increases time per customer contact might appear to be a threat to efficiency numbers. It’s up to executives to gain the support of this key layer of management, create new performance metrics, offer training in new upselling and cross-selling skills and provide the resources necessary for coaching agents in their new roles.
• Position sales as another form of service. Service managers and supervisors should make it clear to agents that the majority of the existing skills and attitudes that allow them to provide excellent service are fundamentally the same as those required to make a sale. The best customer service pro­viders already have the soft skills and motivations required to succeed at basic cross-selling and upselling. (Obviously there are different skills needed for complex, consultative selling.)

Good salespeople have a service focus, acting as business consultants and guides, listening to customers, asking the right questions and advising on solutions that are mutually beneficial.

Similarly, the goal of service providers has always been to satisfy customer needs. They are expected to serve as expert guides, offer solutions and bring the transaction to a successful conclusion. In the new sales environment, the difference lies in the expectation to make an offer and close a sale. However, service providers who already are attuned to customer needs will naturally run across opportunities to make relevant offers and encourage sales.

Provide a simple sales approach. Selling methods for traditional call center agents should involve only a few easy-to-remember, open-ended questions designed to identify and satisfy customer needs. Choose a simple behavioral approach to making offers and moving the customer forward. Implement new behaviors through a well-planned training program.

• Provide support after training. Most agents will want to try new skills and succeed in making additional offers. Provide the opportunity to practice in a safe environment with coaching. For example, after initial training and before returning to their normal work stations, employees can work together in a group with coaches available to deal with questions and/or challenging situations. Once everyone returns to their own work stations, monitor performance and provide appropriate coaching as needed.
• Link the offer to increased customer satisfaction. Agents need to be able to connect the offer of additional products and services to positive outcomes for the customer. Employees are much more likely to embrace the new program when they recognize that customers have unsolved problems and unfulfilled needs, and their own offers of solutions lead to greater customer satisfaction.
• Clarify that customer satisfaction is the primary goal. Additional offers are secondary to customer satisfaction and loyalty. Service providers must not damage a potentially long-term relationship by applying unwelcome pressure on customers when making additional offers.
• Offer recognition. Recog­nize and celebrate positive results achieved by employees who successfully offer additional products and services. Meanwhile, provide additional coaching to any who struggle with the transition.
• Revise performance metrics for agents. Just as executives must change and clarify how managers and supervisors will be measured, middle managers must in turn augment old measures of productivity and customer satisfaction for call center agents with new measures of relationship expansion. These measures might include the ratio of relevant offers to the number of calls or the total number of referrals to the main sales group.
• Adjust compensation appropriately. Even if this basic selling doesn’t require a whole new skill set, there are new expectations. Start by defining tangible, measurable results and revising performance metrics, as mentioned above. Once you identify necessary behaviors at every level of the organization and how to grade them, you can determine how to compensate your employees. It may be best to transition slowly from one compensation model to another. For example, gradually phase in sales evaluations and quotas to give employees a chance to gain confidence in their ability to generate and close sales. Keep a significant portion of their compensation based on previous measures such as customer satisfaction and meeting service standards during call monitoring.
• Consider alternatives for those who cannot make the transition. Some agents may be unable to adopt new sales behaviors. Help them find alternative roles matched to their preferences and capabilities. Keeping these employees in an unsuitable role can damage customer relationships, increase employee frustration and turnover and undermine your sales-through-service initiative.
• Include selling skills in recruitment criteria. Hiring people who already have the skills, aptitude and attitude to sell in a service role will make the new direction easier. Include selling skills in job descriptions.

The Ultimate Metric Is the Bottom Line

Despite the discouraging results in many organizations, successful sales through service can become a reality — and one that contributes significantly to the company’s growth. With proper planning and careful implementation, organizations can use the transition as an opportunity to expand customer relationships and improve the customer experience. On the human side, improving the customer’s experience just makes sense and should always be expected of any employee. On the business side, a solid plan to generate additional sales through service should produce increased revenue and profits as the new initiative becomes fully integrated throughout the organization.

Sharon Daniels is CEO of AchieveGlobal. www.achieveglobal.com