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There’s a new breed of customer in town, and they’re hyperconnected, mobile, and more empowered and informed than ever before. As a result, the bar has been raised. Connected customers increasingly want a sales and service function that’s instant, always-on and personalised. One that demonstrates that the organisation knows them, and knows what they want and need – even before they do. No matter who the customer talks to within the organisation, they’re expected to have the right background information about that individual customer.
This means that for businesses of any size to succeed today, leadership must be laser-focused on transforming the customer experience for the better. The only way organisations can do this is through cross-departmental collaboration, with sales and service teams united on one platform, with the customer at the centre.
The good news is that there are big wins possible from adopting a collaborative and connected approach to selling and service:
This is a critical time in the evolution of the customer service department, as leaders transition and elevate the function from cost centre to strategic growth engine. It’s a shift that’s gaining momentum, with 70% of service teams saying their strategic vision over the past 12–18 months has become more focused on creating deeper customer relationships. Collaboration is key achieving this.
Those agents that are empowered with the right tools and technology, and connected with sales, are seeing significant results. They’re not only boosting customer satisfaction by resolving issues faster, they’re also unleashing rich sales opportunities (through cross-selling and up-selling), and improving the brand experience in the process.
Customer experience is now the top KPI used by sales leaders to measure success. Yet, those sales teams without a single customer view or collaboration tools continue to run into problems, slowing down the sales process. This is why 68% of sales professionals say it is ‘absolutely critical’ or ‘very important’ to have a single view of the customer across departments and roles.
More and more sales teams are taking collaboration to the next level by integrating customer service into the sales process. This is helping sales reps be more productive and ensure no sales opportunity goes untapped. To this end, sales teams are being provided with insight into unresolved customer issues and service teams are getting visibility of big deals.
High-performers are showing the rest of the pack how a connected sales and service strategy is done, with 83% of the best-performing sales teams saying their company is aligned on the importance of cross-departmental collaboration (compared to 40% of underperformers).
Meanwhile, top customer service teams are 3.4x more likely than underperformers to excel at connecting and collaborating across departments to drive a cohesive customer journey.
Overall, for organisations to have any chance of meeting – and exceeding – this new standard in customer expectations, sales and service departments need to be connected. Those teams that continue to operate in silos will fall behind in the race to win on customer experience.
Discover just how easy it can be to connect your sales and service teams on one platform, and provide customers with the unified, personalised experience they’re demanding. Register now for the Intelligent Sales and Service Forum.
