How to Reduce Sales Sabotage by Improving Your Customer’s Journey

 

Wondering how to reduce sales sabotage by improving your customer’s journey?

Regardless of the type of business you own (or are thinking of creating), there are several things that can sabotage these efforts. We all have had the experience (similar to fishing) where we think we have a sale in the bag and then somewhere along the line, we lose the customer.

What gets in the way? Friction.

The other day, I was trying to purchase some plane tickets and the website was not working correctly.  I struggled for over an hour and then decided to try customer service. I had to wade (fruitlessly) through several web pages, looking for a way to engage in a chat, which was non-existent. Then I looked for a way to call, but all the numbers were international and I did not have this service on my phone. Finally, I found a way to call someone in the US, and the line was garbled, the person had a very thick accent and spoke quickly. I couldn’t understand a word they said. I got off the phone with no more help than I started and in the end I gave up. That was an $1900 lost sale to that company (three international tickets). It was just TOO MUCH FRICTION.

The fewer hurdles your customer experiences along their journey, the more likely they are to purchase from you, stick with you, and refer others to you. Here are several things you can do to reduce sales sabotage by improving your customer’s journey.

Related: check out this article which also expands on ways to avoid sabotage in the creation of your business.

Remove Confusion by Creating a Service-Level Agreement

This is a document that tells you how you will engage with the customer (like product will ship in 24 hours. Or we will respond within the business day. How about no hassle refunds?

It is interesting how many businesses (at least initially) will not have standard procedures for how they will conduct business.  It follows then that this lack of “systems” will tax all those working in the business, because things will have to be decided over and over. Of course, these procedures can be iterated, of course, but they do have to be established and then utilized if you want to help your customer have a smooth journey.

It also helps to have these procedures in place for the non-customer-facing parts of the business.  For example, if the emails come out on a specific date, then people both in and outside of the business know what to expect.

You can use some software like zendesk to track these sorts of interactions, to make sure that you are keeping your agreement. 

Creating a service level agreement will help reduce sales sabotage by improving your customer’s journey.

Create FAQs for the common questions customers ask. 

Add some of this info to your web copy, so that the customer knows this information even before they buy. Make this section easy to find (and possibly have it in a couple of places.  What you are trying to do is reduce the frustration a customer has.

Sometimes the FAQ section helps reduce the friction between the customer’s internal roadblocks to purchasing the product and the actual purchase.

To sum things up—if you want to reduce sales sabotage by improving your customer’s journey, have an FAQ section, make it easy to find. Enough said.

 

 

 

 

Empower your Customer Service Team

If your people have to check in with their supervisor for every concession, you will lose sales and revenue. Think about the last time you were on some sort of call with some “help” person, asking a question or for an exception. When you hear the dreaded words, “let me go ask my supervisor” how likely are you to hang up? Or at least to want to hang up? I know I get supremely irritated at these delays (and I actually am a fairly patient person!)

Empower your team to upsell products to further solve customer’s problems.  Or to add bonuses to customers to prevent refunds or to enable a renewal of a subscription. Make it easy for your team to solve your customer’s problems without involving you. It goes without saying that everyone will be more grateful in the end.

If you want to reduce sales sabotage by improving your customer’s journey, empower your team to do so.

 

Streamline Your Payments

How many people bounce off a site or change their mind if the payment taking process is cumbersome?  Many.  Lots.  A ton.  I, myself, am extremely guilty of this.  If it is hard, if I have to wait, I leave the site. However, if you make it easy and painless to take payments, impulsive people are already through the process before they can change their mind. And those who are more thoughtful about purchasing internally comment on how easy and seamless the process is.  Consumers value a great customer journey.

 

Have a dedicated place to capture customer feedback

Where is that place where you team can see what customer like and complain about? Do they know where it is and are they checking it regularly? Does your team know what the customers are confused about? Is there a sense of the new products customers are expressing a desire for?

You have to have a dedicated way to capture these sentiments (email, twitter, DM from IG, etc). And then you have to have a dedicated space to keep them. Lastly, you have to discuss these at weekly, monthly or quarterly meetings for overall quality management and improvement.

Capturing and then responding to these bits of information from purchasers is a sure way to reduce sales sabotage by improving your customer’s journey.

 

In summary

 

• Create a service-level agreement
• Create FAQs for the common questions customers ask. 
• Empower your Customer Service Team
• Streamline your payments.
• Have a dedicated place to capture customer feedback.

 

reduce sales sabotage by improving your customer’s journey and reap the benefits!