If you had the option to direct a potential customer to any of your channels in order to make a sale, what would you choose? You would want a channel that builds relationships, focuses on benefits, creates a sense of urgency, provides social proof, and listens and responds to your audience. A banner ad view would not provide all of these. A website visit can provide information but isn’t responsive. A chatbot is more interactive but doesn’t facilitate relationships. So what is your best option?
The bottom line is the most powerful asset you can bring to the sales process is a knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and motivated staff member. A person such as this can deliver a message of benefits and urgency, can provide examples, and can respond immediately based on information provided by the customer. On top of that, they can display a contagious energy around your products and/or services that no other channel can. If a potential customer is put in contact with an energized and informed staff member, and they don’t purchase, they were never going to. No banner, or email, or chatbot would have done better.
Forrester recently released research on the employee experience, with some interesting results: “Nearly three-quarters (74%) of retailers with mature EX strategies achieve double-digit revenue growth year over year, compared to only 49% of retailers with low-maturity.” A mature EX strategy improves employee retention, promotes efficiency, and facilitates productivity. However, the most direct link from EX to revenue is a workflow that reduces frontline staff administrative burden and facilitates interaction with as many customers as possible.
When you acknowledge how powerful a connection with your staff can be, you will want to set up as many engagements for them as possible while at the same time reducing their administrative burden around scheduling and administering appointments. Critical functionality includes:
Real-time calendar updates to provide as much notice as possible when an appointment is booked.
Schedule visualization so staff can easily understand their calendar, including drag-and-drop rescheduling
Customer profiles that include past appointment outcomes and communication history to help staff personalize the customer experience
Intuitive data entry so information can easily be collected prior to and during appointments
Automated confirmation and reminder messages for both the customer and staff
Offers of appointments with sales staff across the customer journey. A ‘Book an Appointment’ button (with in-person or virtual options) can be implemented in email and web pages, with QR codes posted in-store
Not every purchase requires a human-to-human connection, and not every connection results in a sale, but when it comes to your most powerful option, nothing can match the power of people.
Discover JRNI Studio, the staff tool that empowers your staff to get the insights they need to build personalized relationships at scale:
