Tag Archive for: customer service

How to Save Customer Relationships in COVID-19 and Beyond

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced businesses to maintain and build relationships with consumers from a distance. With “the new normal”, businesses are now facing a challenge of generating sales during a period of extreme economic hardship while keeping the threats to life and livelihood that have altered consumer priorities and preferences in mind.

Businesses that cannot supply the demand of their stakeholders are struggling, some might even be closing their doors, while some are learning how to adapt and pushing past this crisis. The rapidly spreading of businesses shutting down has proven the advantage of digital technology and readiness also shown how software platforms enable work to be done remotely. Whether for telecommuting, product fulfillment, or service delivery, modern technology systems have helped optimized operations in the face of limited person-to-person contact to comply with social distancing.

Here are four ways to manage your customer relationships during and post a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic:

  1. Help Your Customers by Guiding Them Through the Changes: Stay ahead of the information curve. Set up robust media monitoring systems to stay educated on the outbreak. Offer your customers online learning opportunities. To keep your customer relationships strong during COVID-19, provide your customers with intelligence, guidance, and direction that makes your value delivery a seamless interaction. Stay on top of and ahead of all shifts, and provide regular updates on closings, delays, product changes, and promotions to keep your clientele informed and appeased. Learn what your audience needs and help them discover how your service will best help in these trying times.
  • Run webinars
  • Use media monitoring software
  1. Empathize and Communicate Like a Human: Provide employees with messaging to share with customers and partners. Be truthful about what you don’t know and avoid statements that may prove to be false in the coming weeks, whatever you say to your customers right now has to come from an honest place while still respecting their boundaries. Be mindful of how your service affects your clients, and how COVID-19 is affecting their lives and their own business.
  • Create a landing page dedicated to your clients during these trying times with FAQ’s, You can easily take a news plugin for this function.
  • I recommend enabling external comment functionality for improved feedback from customers.
  • Allow your customer service and sales teams to offer reduced prices or increased services during this time to customers.
  1. Keep What Works But Adapt Quickly: Some companies may have advanced their digitalization capabilities in the past few years. These companies are likely experiencing, only a moderate impact due to the global coronavirus pandemic. Shifting your operations to remote work via online conferencing and communication tools like Zoom and Slack, most projects can continue. 

During the disruption, operational challenges need solutions, cash management and liquidity need to be adjusted for the changes in demand. Communications and leadership must also be expanded into the digital space. If your company was not online before, it’s likely online now. In a fast-paced marketplace, shopping for new technology solutions may help some companies. Most companies’ issues resulting from the disruption due to worldwide efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 will need quick fixes and solutions, but for some, it might be the beginning of new problems.

  1. Leverage Technology to Generate Value for Your Customers:  In collaboration with marketing automation tools, you need to ensure they are integrated with channels where data can be pulled from. Once you have your data, it needs to be analyzed and segmented to an individual level and then utilized for personalized customer communication via marketing automation. Every part of this process should be talking to all the other parts for maximum efficiency, information, and results. Depending on your business your data collection channels can be CRM, Website, Email marketing platform, Mobile app, Event management tool, Social media, Online Store, or an ERP system.

Conclusion

During the pandemic having accurate data is key, it helps in making decisions based on your business’s day to day operations. Your goal as a business leader during this time should be to increase customer engagement and position yourself as a reliable, value-add partner who goes above and beyond during difficult times.

With an app like Commercient SYNCyou can grow your business from anywhere in the world using cloud software, automate sales, and become a fully digital business. Commercient’s SYNC’s application makes it possible to see your ERP data in your CRM and vice-versa since it can be used on any device. In addition to this, you will need a way to ensure that you have access to accurate, complete, and up to date data in your ERP and CRM.

Talk to us now to get on the digital business train!

How IoT is Transforming CRM for Manufacturing

Technology is revolutionizing the way manufacturers run businesses day-to-day in the digital era. CRM systems can leverage the Internet of Things (IoT; a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines that have the ability to transfer data over a network with no human interaction)  to enhance end-to-end processes by connecting products, devices and equipment. IoT has the ability to drive insights throughout sales, customer service, and marketing departments. The intelligent coupling of IoT and CRM has the ability to help manufacturers elevate customer experiences by enhancing efficiency and heightening visibility.

Let’s look at the impact of IoT and CRM on manufacturing companies. 

Optimized Customer Experiences

Customers always want to save time. Providing efficient services is key to business success. Research has shown that many customers will move to another brand due to a lack of efficiency and unique experience; IoT and CRM can make it possible to enhance customer experiences in various ways. Manufacturing firms can identify errors and fix them before customers even notice – when issues are solved promptly and accurately, both sales representatives and customers can benefit from this seamless experience. Once the issue is identified, it can be resolved and prevented from happening again. Having all customers’ order history and account information in your CRM system can enhance customer service by speeding up processes. These are some of the improvements manufacturers are already seeing when they connect IoT devices with their CRM systems. 

IoT and Manufacturing Machinery

Smart devices are used to collect data on where and when your product is used by specific customers, which helps manufacturing firms deliver personalized interactions. Having scattered or unstructured data can be challenging for manufacturers. Even smart organizations struggle to make better operational decisions if data is siloed within separate ERP and CRM systems; organized data leads to better decision-making. Experts have developed a solution app called Commercient SYNC, which takes data that is spread on-premise and in siloed data systems, synthesizing it into a system that can help organizations discover, manage and integrate data over its entire lifecycle.

data analytics and manufacturing machinery

Increased Sales

Customers value unique and efficient experiences more than anything else when engaging with brands. The enhanced capabilities of CRM systems, when connected with IoT, can lead to increased sales. IoT can detect customer dissatisfaction, assisting sales reps to put together a tailor-made strategy for each customer. It can also provide predictive analytics on when to reach out and which channel to use when offering discounts or vouchers to retain their loyalty. Marketers can also leverage these insights to deliver content to the specific target audience at the right time.

While a majority of ERP systems in the process of adapting to new technologies such as mobility, wearable tech, and the cloud, the Internet of Things is expected to be the next big movement in technology. IoT brings a lot of potential to ERP, CRM, and the industry of manufacturing. Harnessing the power of data by integrating your ERP and CRM system can put your company ahead of the competition. 

As mentioned earlier customers value unique and efficient experiences, by combining your organization’s ERP and CRM data your sales team can deliver fast-paced customer service by accessing data from one centralized system. Utilizing data integration, IoT and CRM enables manufacturing firms to become more connected enterprises and enables a business to discover innovative ways to engage and connect with customers.

Commercient provides CRM and ERP software integration solutions. We integrate +85 ERPs with Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Sugar CRM, Zoho CRM, and HubSpot CRM. Click this link to find out how Commercient SYNC works.

Commercient’s out-of-the-box “SYNC app”  is so easy to install. There’s no coding, no mapping, and no servers to manage on your end. Just download and go with easy access to sales and customer data when and where you need it.

Contact us today our team of experts will guide you through the digital transformation journey.

How Chatbots Are Reinventing Lead Generation & Customer Service

The fast pace of digital transformation is changing the business landscape, and is showing no signs of slowing down. Customers’ needs and expectations are increasing, and they now demand instant online service. As a result, our methods of communicating and interacting with them are evolving to meet those demands. A technology that is quickly becoming an effective solution to meet these demands is chatbots.

The interaction between artificial intelligence and humans was once science fiction, but this fantasy has now become a reality. Due to recent advancements in AI, machine learning and natural language processing technologies, chatbots have become a technology of major focus and excitement.

What’s a Chatbot?

A chatbot is a computer programmed bot, or AI software designed to simulate spoken or written human speech for the purpose of interacting conversationally with human users. It uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to interact and exchange information with users. Plus, it will analyze, answer, and predict queries faster and more accurately than a human can.

How Do Chatbots Work?

Natural Language Processing (NLP) is the technology behind chatbots. Chatbots process text presented to them by a user through means of a series of algorithms that interpret and identify a user’s intent. Chatbots then provide the most appropriate response based on this information.

Examples of Chatbots

Chatbots come in the form of virtual assistants like Google’s Assistant, Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Microsoft’s Cortana. Others are accessed via messaging apps like Facebook, or via business apps and websites.

How Chatbots Can Be Used in Business

  • In restaurants, to take orders from customers.
  • In marketing campaigns, to ask customers questions.
  • Simplify the online shopping experience for customers.
  • Assist customers with eCommerce purchases.
  • Provide round the clock customer service support.
  • Increase employee productivity by automating simple tasks.
  • On websites to interact with prospects and customers.

Benefits of Using Chatbots in Your Business

  • Increased sales.
  • Better customer engagement and satisfaction.
  • Improved customer service.
  • Enhanced customer experience.
  • Reduced cost of customer service.
  • Automate repetitive tasks.
  • Increased lead generation.
  • Gain in-depth knowledge and understanding of customers.
  • Provide 24/7 customer support.
  • Give instant online responses and resolve queries quickly.

How Commercient Uses Chatbots to Enhance the Customer Experience

Commercient’s Innovation Team is deploying various chatbot applications to create highly engaging user experiences for our customers and partners. We are using AWS Lex Bot to provide conversational interfaces for registration and support systems using voice and text.

Amazon Lex provides the advanced deep learning functionalities of automatic speech recognition (ASR) for converting speech to text. In addition, natural language understanding (NLU) recognizes the intent of the text, to deliver effective conversational interactions.

Commercient, whose SYNC is the #1 ERP and CRM data integration platform for sales, is also using Drift Chatbot to give our clients a personal assistant. It allows us to provide live chat customer service support on our website 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This ensures that customers and website users get instant responses to their questions every time.

Customers can perform tasks such as requesting support contact information or scheduling an appointment, without needing to speak to an agent. They can get technical support answers from our knowledge base delivered via intelligent chat.

Pinkesh Patel of Commercient, who holds a Master Of Computer Application, and is currently pursuing his Ph. D., says, “We find the following features very useful easy to use: High-quality speech recognition and natural language understanding, multi-turn conversations, and powerful lifecycle management capabilities.”

Patel and his team at Commercient are changing the speed and accuracy of communication, making the customer experience greatly enhanced.

Revolutionize Your Sales and Customer Service with Chatbots

Many businesses know the importance of good customer service, and how bad customer service can affect their bottom-line.

These are some of the ways that chatbots help businesses improve customer service and increase sales.

Chatbots can:

  • Gather customer insight.
  • Personalize your marketing.
  • Increase engagement.
  • Provide quick responses to users and reduce query response time.
  • Allow businesses to provide 24/7 customer service support.
  • Reduce human error.
  • Helps make customer service more personal with product recommendations.

The Future Of Chatbots

Chatbots are going to get a lot smarter. One day, they may be so advanced that you wouldn’t know whether you’re conversing with a human or a chatbot.

Gartner predicts that by 2020, the average person will have more conversations with bots than with their spouse.

In the years to follow, the workplace will increasingly comprise of machines and humans collaborating to transform business processes. With future technological breakthroughs, the conversational capabilities of chatbots will significantly improve, and they’ll become a standard in the customer service industry.

Chatbots have already proven their value and deserve your attention if you want your business to keep up. In the fast-paced world of technology, businesses need to identify and leverage the opportunities exposed by technological advances such as chatbots.

Those who adopt a digital approach to business will leave their competitors in the dust. Complacency is guaranteed to put your business at a disadvantage against your competitors.

If you’d like to learn more about how ERP and CRM data integration from Commercient SYNC, please contact us today.

SYNC Demo integrate CRM ERP

The Psychology Of Customer Service

Quality customer service is one of the key factors that distinguishes a company from its competitors. A business that provides poor customer service is at risk of losing revenue, and even going out of business. Providing great customer service will give you an edge over your competitors, help create a positive impression of your company, and go a long way in retaining current customers.

People are complicated. Every business that provides customer service knows this. Customers come in all sorts – moody, grumpy, happy, mad, and sad. But many customers are an absolute delight to serve.

You can make these interactions less difficult by understanding how people think and act on a basic level. If you find a way to understand the underlying needs and wants of your customer, half the battle is won, and you can deliver outstanding service almost every time.

Psychological tips and tricks to improve customer service

  1. Be available
    Always be available to the customer, whether by telephone, email, social media, a service desk, or all of the above. If you completely ignore your customer’s needs or wants, they will feel neglected, and they might be less likely to do business with you in the future.
  2. Integrate your ERP and CRM systems with Commercient SYNC
    Another way to offer great customer service is by connecting your ERP and CRM systems, such as Sage and Salesforce. Commercient SYNC, the #1 integration platform for sales, gives your team a full view of customers, sales and the business, all in one place. With SYNC, your customer service team can access recent sales, customer information (such as ship to and mail to addresses), serial numbers, inventory, and more. This allows your Team to offer help to customers quickly and efficiently, with up-to-date information.
  3. Use positive language
    Language is an extremely powerful tool. Whether you communicate over the phone or in written form, such as chat or email, the way you express yourself will affect whether your message is received positively or negatively. Using positive language tends to reduce conflict, improve communication, reduce defensiveness in others, and helps portray the speaker as credible and respectable.
  4. Address a customer by name
    Addressing customers by name is part of any strategy that values customer experience. Personalization matters. Using a person’s name makes them feel important and validated.
  5. Use customer satisfaction surveys
    Using customer satisfaction surveys to solicit and utilize customer feedback is a crucial part of any customer retention strategy. This is the best way to find out how your customers feel about your products or services.
  6. Leverage the power of the Halo Effect
    The Halo Effect is a classic psychological phenomenon that has been used by marketers for decades. It’s the reason we’re shocked when we hear of an attractive person convicted of a terrible crime, or when a person dressed in scruffy rags turns out to be a millionaire. The Halo Effect is a form of cognitive bias in which the brain allows specific positive traits to positively influence the overall evaluation of a person, brand or company. Create a positive experience for your customer, and that will cast a positive impression of your entire company.

More tips:

Make your customers feel valuable and irreplaceable. Give a genuine compliment. Send a small gift, such as promo codes and discounts. Say thank you as often as you can.

Putting in a little bit of effort to caress your customer’s ego can go a long way in regards to how they feel about your company.

In addition, make sure you read our blog on ways to deal with a difficult customer.

If you’d like to learn more about Commercient SYNC, IoT Pulse or our eCommerce solutions, please contact us today.

About the Author

Anna Kinnear is a Sage Financials Consultant at Edgeware, and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting Science from the University of South Africa. She has always had a passion for reading and writing.

7 Ways To Deal With Difficult Customers

A critical part of running a successful business is managing customers. Even the most reputable business will, at some point, encounter a difficult customer. How you deal with this challenge could mean the difference between a client who is satisfied with a proposed resolution, and one who will never do business with you again.

Below are 7 tips on how to deal with difficult customers and still protect your company’s reputation. Plus we offer a bonus tip on how our data integration app, Commercient SYNC, can help your customer service team.

  1. Listen to the customer
    • An angry customer wants to vent, so start off by only listening.
    • Allow the client to talk and don’t interrupt or argue with them.
  2. Remain calm
    • If a customer is being rude or starts shouting, remain calm and keep your emotions under control.
    • Never get angry or upset.
    • De-escalate the situation by keeping your voice low.
  3. Don’t take it personally
    • Keep in mind that the customer is not angry with you. They are upset about the service provided or the performance of your product (or lack thereof).
    • Adopt a positive mental attitude and remain professional at all times.
  4. Mind your language
    • Be mindful of the words you use.
    • Avoid rambling in response to a customer’s distress. This just further aggravates the situation.
    • What you say (or don’t say) can affect the outcome of your interaction with the customer.
    • Refrain from using words that could incite defensive reactions from the customer.
    • Use phrases of courtesy. This shows the client that you respect them.
  5. Apologize
    • Apologize with sincerity and empathy, even if the client is being unreasonable. This helps to diffuse the situation.
    • Acknowledge any shortcomings from your side or that of your company.
    • Express sympathy for the customer’s unpleasant experience.
  6. Propose a solution
    • Communicate what you can and can’t do about the situation.
    • Offer an acceptable resolution to the customer.
    • Resolving the issue promptly also prevents the situation from escalating any further.
    • If you don’t have an immediate resolution, be transparent and clear about this.
    • Compensate the customer for any inconvenience caused if the fault or error is on your side.
  7. Prepare for uncomfortable situations
    • Set up training sessions so that team members can practice dealing with difficult customers.
    • Develop problem-solving policies and implement strategies to avoid conflict when dealing with difficult customers.

Bonus tip: Using Commercient SYNC, the #1 data integration platform for sales, can be of great help to your customer service team. With SYNC, customer service will have access to integrated data from both your accounting and sales systems. They’ll be able to monitor order information, plus check on bill to and ship to addresses, inventory supplies, serial numbers and more.

An upset client can hurt your bottom line. If you are unable to resolve a difficult customer’s issue efficiently, there is a chance you will ruin your relationship, and this could potentially lead to the loss of that customer.

Addressing a client’s concerns promptly could turn a negative experience into a positive one. If you prepare yourself, you can be better equipped to handle difficult customers tactfully and still maintain your company’s high standards.

To learn more about how Commercient SYNC can help not only your customer service team, but also your sales, please contact us today!

About the Author

Anna Kinnear is a Sage Financials Consultant at Edgeware, and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting Science from the University of South Africa. She has always had a passion for reading and writing.

SYNC ERP and CRM

Cómo incrementar las ventas en tu sitio web con un chat en vivo

Un chat en vivo es una herramienta muy útil para cualquier empresa que la use correctamente. Antes, los clientes no tenían otra opción que llamar por teléfono o mandar un email con sus preguntas, lo cual muchas veces ha resultado problemático: dudas no resueltas, se requiere más tiempo por parte del cliente para hacer gestiones, etc. Ahora, con chats en vivo, los clientes pueden hacer preguntas rápidas y obtener respuestas, lo cual ayuda a incrementar la satisfacción del cliente.

Responde preguntas pre-venta más rápido

El propósito primario de un chat en vivo o live chat es asistir a tus clientes cuando necesiten ayuda. Una investigación de Forrester Research encontró que “muchos clientes quieren ayuda de una persona real aunque usen medios en línea para comunicarse con la empresa; de hecho, 44% de los clientes en línea dicen que obtener respuestas a sus preguntas durante el proceso de compra es una de las características más importantes que un sitio web puede tener”.

Los clientes se sienten más confiados de trabajar con empresas cuya atención al cliente es inmediata y sin complicaciones, y esto no siempre se logra con atención vía telefónica. En la era digital, cada vez más personas prefieren este medio de comunicación.

Si para la atención al cliente además integras aplicaciones clave como tu CRM, ERP o sistema contable, software para gestión de proyectos, automatización de marketing, entre muchos otros, la ventaja de tu equipo para ofrecer atención al cliente de calidad es grande.

Aplicaciones de integración de datos basadas en la nube como SYNC y IoT Pulse permiten conectar varias de esas aplicaciones, de modo que cualquier cambio hecho en alguno de los sistemas automáticamente y en tiempo real se refleja en el otro.

Es otra alternativa de comunicación

No a todos los clientes les gusta comunicarse por teléfono o completar un formulario. La idea de pasar de un agente a otro explicando su duda, o pensar que la empresa nunca responderá al formulario de contacto no les parece. Comunicación en tiempo real es la manera más rápida de resolver problemas y tratar dudas más complejas sobre el producto o servicio.  

El chat en vivo le brinda a los clientes un acceso inmediato a la ayuda que necesitan. Según Econsultancy, el 73% de los clientes se mostraron más satisfechos con el chat en vivo que con otras formas de comunicación, como el email o el teléfono.

Incrementa las conversiones

La American Marketing Association encontró que las compañías B2B que usan chats en vivo ven, en promedio, un incremento del 20% en las conversiones. Esto reduce la tasa de rebote de un sitio web (bounce rate) y ayuda a completar la venta.

Una de las principales razones por las que la gente usa el chat en vivo es para evitar el tiempo perdido en esperas al hacer una llamada telefónica, explicando lo mismo a diferentes personas; y tampoco quieren esperar varias horas o incluso días por una respuesta por email, si reciben una. Los prospectos y clientes quieren respuestas inmediatas, y recibirlas ayudará a que decidan comprarte y no a tu competencia.

Construye la lealtad del cliente

El chat en vivo es por mucho la manera más fácil y rápida de hacer una conexión con el cliente. Facilita una interacción más personalizada con tus clientes, y alienta conversaciones reales. Con una comunicación más transparente, el agente al otro lado de la línea puede brindar una mejor atención al usuario y representar a tu empresa de una forma positiva.

En Commercient, usamos mucho los live chat dado que la satisfacción de los clientes es nuestra prioridad. Si tienes dudas sobre nuestros productos y cómo podemos ayudar a tu empresa, contáctanos ahora.

Tips On How To Revive Business Growth

If you feel like your business growth has stalled, don’t worry. Through a few tried and proven techniques, you can revive your dream. Here are a few things you can do to keep your business from sinking in the sand, and boost your company’s growth.

Update Your Software

To stay afloat in this digital age, one important thing is to keep up with the latest technology, or else you’ll risk missing the opportunities to decrease costs, improve productivity, and stay competitive. Nowadays, there is great technology available that can help you become more customer-centric, which can help you take your business to the next level.

If your business is running ERP and CRM systems, for example, you don’t have to operate your company with these systems being disconnected, which can give you a cluttered view of your business processes and operations. Instead you can integrate them with the Commercient SYNC Integration Platform, and stay up-to-date with the changes made to your ERP and CRM simultaneously. Your sales and customer service teams will be on the same page. With a SYNC data integration, you’ll be able to give your customers excellent service, and help increase efficiency so you can focus on growing your business.

You can review our all products, including SYNC and IoT Pulse, as a first step toward upgrading your software, and helping your business.

Engage Online

If you haven’t been regularly engaging with your customers online, now is a good time to start. It’s a great way to help your business stay afloat in this digital age. For instance, at Commercient, we can engage with our customers regularly through our website, blog, and social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn. This can help you interact with your customers easily, and can also help you reach new audiences you may not have had the chance to target before. It’ll also aid in showing that you are personable and approachable to your clients and customers.

Put Customers At The Heart Of Your Business

One of the best ways to keep your company from sinking is to put your customers at the heart of your business. When you put your customers first and focus on building long lasting relationships, you’ll have more loyal customers. Once a client has made a purchase, be sure to keep in touch (e.g., regularly send out email newsletters and updates) with your customers, which helps build loyalty. They will be instrumental in helping you spread the word, and can even become your brand ambassadors.

Research conducted by the Gartner Group shows that 20% of your existing customers – the loyal ones – generate 80% of your profits. Therefore, when you truly understand your customers and deliver what they want, they’ll keep coming back, and you’ll be able to keep your business from sinking. At Commercient, we always put our customers first. See what our customers have to say about us on our homepage.

If you need more advice and help with growing your business, contact us here at Commercient today.

Datos de servicio al cliente que te sorprenderán

Estamos viviendo la era del consumidor, y en este artículo hablaremos de algunos datos de servicio al cliente que quizá no conocías, y te sorprenderán.

Dato #1: Las malas experiencias del cliente se difunden más rápido que las buenas.

Según un estudio de American Express, “las personas hablan con un promedio de 9 personas sobre una buena experiencia de cliente, pero hablan con otras 16 si la experiencia ha sido mala”. Casi el doble de personas. La buena noticia es que puedes evitarlo aprovechando recursos como las aplicaciones de integración de datos SYNC y IoT Pulse. Tu staff podrá acceder a la información de los clientes en tiempo real, por lo cual los clientes no tendrán que esperar horas o días para recibir las respuestas que necesitan.

Dato #2: Clientes leales son más rentables que los nuevos.

Marketing Metrics encontró que la probabilidad de convertir a un nuevo prospecto en cliente es de 5% a 20%, mientras que la probabilidad de venderle a clientes actuales es de un 60% a 70%. Por esta razón es tan importante interactuar de manera efectiva con esos clientes, ya que pueden ayudarte a traer más clientes gracias a la publicidad de boca en boca y referidos. Así que mientras más satisfechos estén, más motivados estarán de hablar con otros acerca de sus experiencias trabajando contigo.

Dato #3: Los clientes están dispuestos a invertir más por una mejor experiencia.

Un estudio de American Express señala que el 70% de los estadounidenses están dispuestos a invertir más en compañías que ellos consideran que proveen un excelente servicio al cliente. Cuando les demuestras que los valoras, los clientes naturalmente se sienten apreciados y tienen una conexión más fuerte con tu negocio. Como resultado, estarán dispuestos a pagar más por tus productos y servicios.

Para Commercient, la satisfacción del cliente es prioridad #1 y valoramos a todos y cada uno de nuestros clientes. Sea que necesiten información sobre SYNC, IoT Pulse, Sync2Pay o  nuestros Partnership Programs, estamos a una llamada, chat, or email de distancia.

Dato #4: Más y más clientes usan chat en vivo.

Según un estudio de Forrester, el porcentaje de clientes que han utilizado chat en vivo para contactar a servicio al cliente ha crecido de un 38% en 2009 a un 58% en 2014, y esta tendencia se mantiene al alza. Así que si aún no tienes una opción de chat en vivo en tu sitio web, deberías considerar invertir en ello. En Commercient, tratamos de que nuestros actuales y potenciales clientes utilicen la opción de chat en vivo porque es conveniente para ellos y además nos ayuda a ofrecer algo que muchos competidores aún no hacen.

Surprising Facts You May Not Know About Customer Service

We are now living in the age of the customer, and in this post we’ll uncover some surprising facts you probably didn’t know about customer service.

Fact #1: News of a bad customer experience spreads more rapidly than news of a good one.

According to a 2011 American Express Survey, “Americans tell an average of 9 people about good experiences, and tell 16 people about poor experiences.” That’s nearly double. The good news is you can avoid this when you leverage any of Commercient’s apps, including our SYNC and IoT Pulse integration apps. Your staff will be able to access customers’ info in real time and customers won’t have to wait hours or days to receive the answers they need.

Fact #2: Loyal customers are more profitable than new ones.

According to the White House Office of Consumer Affairs, as reported by Help Scout, “on average, loyal customers are worth up to 10 times as much as their first purchase.” Additionally, Marketing Metrics found that the probability of converting a new prospect is 5% to 20%, while the probability of selling to existing customers is 60% to 70%. This is why it is so important to constantly engage your existing customers, as they can help you bring in new business through word-of-mouth and referrals. So, the more your existing customers are satisfied, the more inclined they will be to tell other people about those experiences.

Fact #3: Customers are willing to spend more money for superior customer experiences.

According to the American Express Survey, 70% of Americans said they were willing to spend more with companies they believe provide excellent customer service. When you show your customers that you value them, they naturally feel appreciated and come to have a stronger emotional connection to your business. As a result, they will pay more for your products and services.

Here at Commercient, customer satisfaction is our #1 priority, and we value each and every one of our customers. So, we make sure that our reps are always ready to connect you with a skilled expert to answer any question may have regarding SYNC, IoT Pulse, Sync2Pay, or any of our other services or products. We’re only a phone call, chat, or email away.

Fact #4: More and more customers like using live chat.

According to a Forrester survey, the percentage of customers who have used live chat for customer service has grown from 38% in 2009, to 58% in 2014, and it’s continuing to rise. Additionally, a study called “Making Proactive Chat Work” found that “Many online consumers want help from a live person while they are shopping online; in fact, 44% of online consumers say that having questions answered by a live person while in the middle of an online purchase is one of the most important features a website can offer.” So if you don’t have a live chat option on your website, you should consider investing in it. At Commercient, we encourage all our customers to use our live chat option, because it’s convenient for them, increases sales, and give us an edge of our competition.

How to Build Stronger Customer Relationships With Post-Sale Communication

If you want your customers to become loyal to your brand, one thing is certain: The initial sale is only the beginning of the relationship – you need to take the necessary steps to retain your customers. According to the Harvard Business Review, “acquiring a new customer is anywhere from five to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one.” So, it’s far easier to sell more products to current customers, which is why post-sale communication is a necessity. Here are some proven post-sale communication techniques that will help build stronger customer relationships.

Encourage Customer Feedback

Since customer feedback provides you with insight that you can use to improve your business, products and services, and overall customer experience, it’s important to encourage your customers to give you feedback. It offers the best way for you to measure customer satisfaction – you can understand their likes and dislikes, along with their needs and wants. With a customer feedback survey, for instance, you can listen to both your happy and unhappy customers, and use that feedback to ensure all your customers have a better experience, and continue wanting to do business with you.

Don’t underestimate the power of online reviews. Partners listings are a great resource to show prospective customers not only what you can do for them, but also what you have done for other customers before them, and their positive feedback. As a certified Salesforce Partner, Commercient is in the Salesforce AppExchange explaining how the SYNC app works, and what customers are already saying about it.

Feature Your Customers

Another great way to establish strong customer relationships is to feature your customers and their stories in your newsletter, on your website (case studies and testimonials), or on your social media channels. According to social media strategist and owner of bSocial Strategy, Brittany Serra, “By sharing a customer’s content, it serves a dual purpose.

“For starters, the customer feels loved because you featured their comment or picture,” Serra said. “Plus, studies show people prefer this kind of organic content. Customers are more apt to believe positive feedback from other customers rather than company insiders.”

Sharing your customers’ stories and supporting and introducing them to your other customers can go a long way towards building customer relationships, which will be long and mutually beneficial.

Encourage Referrals

Many of the best customers will come through word-of-mouth marketing. Don’t forget to establish referral programs that reward customers for sending you business. At Commercient, we love to encourage referrals. In fact, if you know someone who would benefit from using Commercient SYNC, IoT Pulse, or Sync2Pay, you can sign up for our Valued Referral Partner Program today.

Reward Customer Loyalty

Your customers will like you even more if you reward them for being great customers. This is simple, and easy to do – you give them a special discount, invitation to a special event, helpful insider tips, and much more. And, what’s great is it’s cost effective, and can go a long way toward establishing strong relationships. According to Entrepreneur.com, “repeat customers spend 67 percent more than new customers. So your most profitable customers are repeat customers.” Reward them.

Educate Your Customers Regularly

After your customers have purchased from you, it is also a good idea to continually educate them about the other things your business does, and how you might serve them. You have to keep delighting them and providing them with reasons to buy again. One way we like to engage our customers and educate them is through email marketing campaigns and weekly blog posts. It’s a great way to build your customers’ confidence in your expertise and retain them. The key is to make sure every method you use to educate your customers is full of helpful information that keeps them wanting more.

If you’d like to learn more about how you can build stronger relationships with your customers, become our partner today.