HIGH-TOUCH INDUSTRIES AT A DISADVANTAGE IN ECOMMERCE

High-touch industries such as B2B software, real estate, and telecommunications, that require the engagement of an virtual agent to sell and/ or service their products and services have been largely left behind by ecommerce technology, while low-touch industries such as books, apparel, electronics, and others thrive with continually evolving technologies.

Do-it-yourself website companies such as Shopify and Weebly are rife with shopping carts, inventory management, and similar solutions that assist users in building low-touch ecommerce sites quickly and efficiently. But when it comes to high-touch industries, these websites are largely relegated to informational portals that are constructed to lead customers to off-line communications such as email, calls, and store visits.  

INCREASING DEMAND FROM CUSTOMERS FOR ONLINE ENGAGEMENT

Customers today are increasingly demanding that their commercial needs be met online as they look for faster and easier ways to shop for products and services. Global retail ecommerce grew at an astonishing rate of 24.6% in 2021 and took up 11.7% of the total retail market^[i]. Every day we find more examples of companies such as Amazon and EBay displacing traditional or brick-and-mortar counterparts as these counterparts are forced to retrench or restructure.

Similarly, customers are demanding online engagement with conversational marketing from high-touch service industries, and these industries are responding with omnichannel solutions such as integrated virtual assistants, apps, live chat software, digital marketing tools and self-guided support. However, regardless of these advancements, these industries continue to rely on in-person visits and call centers to close deals and provide support.

INCREASING DEMAND FROM BUSINESSES FOR ONLINE ENGAGEMENT

Businesses also are looking into increasing their online presence and evolve their technologies in order to (i) meet the increasing demand of their customers for online engagement, and (ii) to save money and increase productivity through cloud technologies.

Moving processes to the cloud saves businesses time and money as information becomes more available and synchronized; as customers engage the company’s support representatives less as they rely more on self-help technologies; and as customers become better informed with more timely and in-depth information. 

WEBTOQ’s PLATFORM ENABLES HIGH-TOUCH SALES AND SERVICE

WebToq is the solution that will enable businesses to move more of their customer-facing processes online, while improving productivity and meeting demand for online engagement at the same time. WebToq provides rich, on-demand, structured, and bidirectional communications between web user and agent that enable the sale and service of products and services online. 

• Rich communications: With WebToq agents can engage a customer in a video call and share multimedia communications such as documents, images, videos, questionnaires, VOIP calls, whiteboarding, and more, in the pursuit of a sale or support.
• On-demand: Agents are able to engage their customers directly through their website, rather than having to off-load the visit to a phone call or web conference. Contact is seamless and begins through the natural progression of a customer’s visit, whether when requesting specific information, an agent, live chat software, or initiating a sale.

• Structured: Unlike a web-conference where an agent has to put together information on the fly, WebToq’s agent platform is structured to follow a script, with all pertinent information pre-loaded and the steps pre-arranged. This allows for consistent quality in agent communications as the right information is available at the right time, with minimal searching and waiting.
• Bidirectional: Unlike co-browsing where an agent is merely assisting a customer through the navigation of a website and providing information to him, WebToq’s communications are bidirectional as the agent can receive questionnaire answers, files, voice and text, choice selections, and much more, that enable the closing of a sale or support case.

ONLINE ENGAGEMENT WILL REPRESENT A PRODUCTIVITY BOOST FOR HIGH-TOUCH COMPANIES

High-touch companies will see their productivity increase as they engage their customers online.

• These companies will now be able to handle multiple customer sessions at a time, rather than one-at-a-time as demanded with a call
• Off-load customer education and training to manuals and videos
• Handle a transaction all at once, rather than having to go back-and-forth between visits, calls, faxes, and emails
• Hire remote, stationary virtual agents only requiring writing fluency, rather than having to have local or traveling agents, or agents with perfect pronunciation and accents.

And, since WebToq is structured and pre-loaded, customer training will be quicker and easier, and customer sessions will be more consistent and effective.

HOW WEBTOQ WORKS

The term ‘sales productivity’ refers to the phenomenon of maximizing the company`s sales result while minimizing the resources expended. Here, the term ‘resources’ include anything involved in the process of sales generation such as cost, efforts, time, number of employees and technology.

The speed at which a company reaches its monthly and yearly profit goals is all what matters to survive in the commercial market. Whereas, for the overall growth of a company, it is mandatory to create an equilibrium between ROI, competency, technology advancement and sales productivity.

In short, you cannot expand your business and become a viable name in the commercial sector without increasing sales productivity. Here are a few effective and practical tips to increase sales productivity of your company.

Calculate the Productivity of Every Individual in Your Team

Company can measure the sales productivity of individuals by evaluation of the rate at which a respective sales assistant or salesperson surges the revenue graph of the company. In simple words, how efficient a salesperson is in finding out ways to increase the earning of a company through the process of sales.

In a team, few participants play a significant role in increasing sales whereas other salespersons either work to achieve the mentioned goal or rely on the cumulative progress of the team. Such employs impact negatively on the key players by bringing their enthusiasm down with their work attitude. That’s why the individual graph of sales productivity of every salesperson is vital for management. It helps them to appreciate the key players for their performance and boost the motivation of rest of the team. 

Design a Sales Process That Suits Your Company`s Work Environment

According to research by Vantage Point Performance, almost 66% of B2B sales teams around the world don’t even have any pre-defined sales process. The absence of sales process affects the productivity cycle because every salesperson starts following his/her way to process a lead.

In contrast, when every lead moves through the same steps, surveillance becomes easy for management and every salesperson what exactly he/she has to do in a particular situation. According to professional sales manager at a multinational company; “Proficiency goes up to 31% when a sales team has a defined sales process.”

Primary stages of the sales process include prospecting, qualifying, presenting, handling an objection, closing and nurturing stages. You can precisely mention the amount of time a person should utilize over each step.

Buy Effectual and Suitable Customer Help Desk Software

Technology advancement always supports the way of working and help every employee to improve their proficiency. Customer Help Desk Softwarecan support sales agents to attend clients through the cloud system. They also help in generating customized quotes for every client and allow the sales agent to keep a record of every critical detail. On the other hand, these software minimize the time required to process a lead and also help companies to establish a positive impact through quick responses for every query of their clients.

Follow the tricks mentioned above to improve the sales productivity of your team to increase the growth rate of your company. Don’t forget to give us your reviews related to the ideas presented in the blog.

High-touch industries such as B2B software, real estate, and telecommunications, that require the engagement of an agent to sell and/ or service their products and services have been largely left behind by ecommerce technology, while low-touch industries such as books, apparel, electronics, and others thrive with continually evolving technologies.

Yet customers today are increasingly demanding that their commercial needs be met online as they look for faster and easier ways to shop for products and services. Global retail ecommerce grew at an astonishing rate of 24.6% in 2016 and took up 8.7% of the total retail market. Every day we find more examples of companies such as Amazon and EBay displacing traditional or brick-and-mortar counterparts as these counterparts are forced to retrench or restructure.

This White Paper explains how High-Touch companies can use PointerTop to engage their leads and customers online to meet that growing demand for online service. Contact us today to get your free copy over e-mail.