Myth 1: All the information I need to understand and improve our sales rates is available from the order system.
Truth:
The order system is great for structured data such as whether a product was purchased, which agent made the sale, which product the customer purchased, etc. But how many times did top performing agents present offers to eligible customers? What objections were presented and how did agents overcome them? Which offers worked the best for which customer types? These are the questions that using interaction analytics to study the behavioral events that take place during customer interactions can answer, and solving these is what truly improves sales rates.
Myth 2: All I need to do to improve agent performance is identify the top performers, and have others mimic their behavior.
Truth:
This is true to a degree. However, without interaction analytics, how do you know what comprises the behavior of a top performer? Listening to sample calls or observing some of their behavior only tells you how they handle some scenarios. You need to be able to quantify how many times they make specific offer types, how many times objections are given to them and when and how often they use different deflection techniques, etc. And, without a way to measure whether the other agents use the best practices you coach them towards, you can’t maintain effectiveness.
Myth 3: My service agents should be able to sell add-ons.
Truth:
It’s not uncommon for a company to want a service agent who just resolved a customer issue to attempt an upsell. However, service agents often aren’t equipped with sales skills, and prefer to be the “hero” who resolves an issue versus the one who hears “no.” Interaction analytics can quantify the interactions where an upsell would be appropriate and allow supervisors to coach these agents using the best calls that are also tailored for this skill set.
Myth 4: Real-time reminders will solve the upselling problems I have.
Truth:
Real-time alerts can be a powerful tool, but they have to be coupled with post call analytics to know what should be included in the alert and when they’re most appropriate, and cannot replace solid agent coaching. In addition, without a way to measure whether the events described by the alerts were actually taken by the agents, their usefulness is quite limited.
Myth 5: Sales effectiveness is all about the agent.
Truth:
Agents play a big role in closing the sale, but they’re only as good as the information with which they’re armed. Interaction analytics gives marketing a way to refine their offers by studying their effectiveness against different customer types, quantifying the number of times specific campaigns or competitors are mentioned and understanding the events that shaped the customers’ experience. And all more quickly and effectively than could be accomplished with focus groups or surveys.
