The Marketing Benefits of Conversational Commerce in CRM
If you are not yet familiar with the term “Conversational Commerce“, then allow me to explain its meaning.
Conversational Commerce is a concept which is meant to help a company or organization improves their sales by using the power of conversation. This is done by using emails, instant messaging, and phone calls as the primary tools for communication. Let us take a brief look at how such a system can work in your organization and provide your sales team with some useful solutions.
What Does Conversational Commerce in CRM Means?
Conversational Commerce in CRM means that sales representatives are allowed to engage in actual conversations with their customers. This is unlike traditional sales methods which require them to make cold calls to potential clients. By having regular conversations with a potential client on the phone or online, a sales representative is better able to build a relationship with a customer. They are also able to determine more about the needs of their customer and put together a customized solution for them.
Impact on Sales Meetings
Sales meetings are becoming less frequent thanks to this new form of communications. These meetings allow representatives to go one-on-one with their customers in order to better understand their needs and concerns. By having these conversations, sales representatives learn more about the needs and wants of their customers and can create an effective marketing campaign that addresses these needs. By opening up these communications, a company can build a strong customer base and reap the benefits of customer loyalty. However, it is important for a company to realize that this form of communications should not replace meetings between a sales representative and a customer.
Customer Satisfaction
Conversations in CRM allow agents to put forth their best efforts to ensure a customer’s satisfaction. It does so by allowing the customer to communicate with agents directly through a dialogue. The key to having an effective conversation is maintaining the clarity of the conversations while allowing them to move forward at a rapid pace.
Communication with Customers
For many companies, the process of communicating with customers has been reduced to a couple minutes of a face-to-face meeting. While this is understandable in smaller businesses, larger businesses have taken it to the extreme by creating call centers where phone conversations are simply background noise. While a business that specializes in sales may feel that the only way to keep their agents updated is through face-to-face contact, most sales representatives will agree that increased communication is beneficial to both parties. Through conversations in CRM, sales representatives can more easily identify a customer’s needs and interests. They can also more easily predict what actions might motivate a customer to make a purchase or give information about how to provide for a specific need. Having conversations on a continuous basis allows a sales representative to adjust their sales tactics based on what is working for their client.
Constant Contact with Agents
By maintaining constant contact with their agents, sales companies avoid the risks of “cold calling” which can be detrimental to a company’s image. Cold calling creates doubt in the minds of potential clients and can cause them to turn down a product or hire another agent to handle the sales process. Additionally, when agents speak with individuals by name, the prospect tends to feel more comfortable with them. Conversational Commerce in CRM allows agents to talk to both “new” and “old” clients and this makes the interaction far more comfortable for both parties.
Using CRM to provide businesses with the tools to manage their customer base requires agents to speak with both new and returning clients to make sure that they are targeting the right people with their messages. Many businesses with CRM have come up with special ways of targeting potential clients based on their location or other criteria. Businesses large and small are able to fine tune their campaigns to better reach their desired demographics. Furthermore, sales representatives can easily see which communications are working for their client base and which aren’t because the data has been cross-checked.
Success of CRM
The success of CRM in the realm of marketing can be directly linked to the amount of time spent talking to clients. In fact, it is estimated that businesses large and small spend an average of 90 minutes per call with a CRM agent. This is well worth the investment, as businesses large and small find that these conversations lead to more business and more referrals. Sales representatives find that they have greater success when they are able to communicate easily with the clients. Conversational Commerce in CRM allows agents to discuss both their products and services in a way that is natural for each customer.
