Enriching the customer experience is an invaluable tactic for organizations who are looking to not only have higher retention rates for their current customers, but also become more attractive to any potential prospects that can come your way. It all starts with the sales team. Repertoire Magazine recently spoke to customer experience expert and author Dan Gingiss about the customer-focused tactics that sales reps can use in 2024.
You are the beginning of the experience
As the sales rep, you are often the first touchpoint for the customer experience. This also means that the first impression that the customer is going to have will be based on their interaction with you. Gingiss said, “I like to say that you are the experience before the customer experience. Because they aren’t customers yet, they are prospects – but rest assured, the experience has begun.”
It’s critical to get that first interaction right. If you strike the wrong chord at this beginning stage, it can make it more difficult to make that transition from prospect to customer. As the first step of the customer experience, make sure that you are asking the right questions and giving the right answers in return.
Once the sale is over, it’s not really over
After the sale is finalized, many might think that this is where your journey with the customer ends. While that might technically be the case, it’s important to ensure that your customers know that they can always come to you if they need help with anything.
“We need to make sure that the buyer knows that the salesperson has their back,” Gingiss said. “A conversation might look like this, ‘If anything that I promised you in the sales process doesn’t come true, I want you to call me because that something is wrong and I’m going to make sure it gets fixed.’”
When they know they can contact you if there are any issues along the way, this establishes a sense of trust with you that
Become a customer of your own organization
Understanding what sort of experience your organization has to offer your customers is critical to your success as a sales rep. Basing our entire knowledge of how the company is set up on the script and training you’ve received gives you a limited view of what the customer experience process looks like.
Gingiss said, “If we don’t become a customer of our own company as a sales rep, we’re never going to be that good at selling our product because we’re basing it off a script or something else that doesn’t capture the authenticity.”