Every business is looking for ways to increase sales, but sales training is only sometimes the answer. In many cases, the issues holding organisations back have nothing to do with sales. This is often most true in highly commoditised, heavily regulated sectors where customers expect multi-channel, synchronous and asynchronous communication as the standard.
One of the best books to read on the topic is Effortless Customer Service by Matt Dixon. In this book, Matt shares the surprising findings of the research conducted by him and his team during his time at C.E.B.
The purpose of the research was to find out what customers really want.
What they found may surprise you. The generally accepted idea is that customers want to be delighted. Dixon’s research found that delight is not only rare, it’s also costly.
What customers want is an effortless process. They want less friction and more ease.
Customers have little preference for a specific channel; they have rising expectations that your channel or channels work.
Suppose your sales process uses a live chat function; great! But then make sure someone is online to respond. If a prospect gets transferred to a seller via email, refrain from forcing them to repeat information.
Frustrating your customers with friction is costly; research shows that 96% of customers who experience high-effort service will go elsewhere!
