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Enhance Customer Retention: How to make Friends and Increase Profits

A bird in the hand, they say, is worth two in the bush. Well, there’s truth to the cliché or it would not have found its way into the compendium of useful human wisdom. It certainly holds true when it comes to customers, in that retaining the customers already on your books is worth two (or a lot more as it turns out) potential customers.

Customer retention, customer stickiness, increasing customer lifespan, building client relationships – this is the jargon you will hear bandied about the marketing desk, and it means one simple thing: “How do we keep our present customers happy, coming back for more, and sending their friends our way?”

There is a cost to getting new customers on board, and the longer they stay the greater the return on investment (ROI), a phenomenon that keeps the number crunchers at the core of your business smiling. In other words, there is a direct correlation between customer retention rates and making a profit.

Consider these figures:

● Keeping existing customers is 5X cheaper than acquiring new ones.
● Increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by between 25% and 95%.
● Eighty percent of your future profits will come from 20% of your clients (general reference here is the Pareto principle or 80/20 rule).
● Sixty five percent of business comes from existing customers, who are more likely to spend more and purchase more frequently.
● Existing customers are 60% to 70% easier to sell to 4 , compared to the 5% to 20% likelihood of selling to a brand new prospect.
● The quality of customer service plays a huge role, with almost 50% of customers switching to a competitor if they experience bad service.

Of course, how to allocate budget spend between customer acquisition and retention then becomes a debate, but for the purposes of this article, let’s focus on retention strategies, since it is apparent from the documented research that retaining customers has an indisputable positive influence on the bottom line. The figures attest to the common sense notion that looking after your customers keeps them buying and brings repeat business.

Effective customer retention strategies are called for, whether they be of the tried-and-tested variety or the experimental variety.

At Boomerang, we understand that although sales figures speak volumes, it is the quality relationships we forge with customers that keeps them coming back. Smart businesses know that the first sale is just the beginning.

And as experienced customer service professionals, we do this on the behalf of our clients. Here are some of the ways in which we keep customer retention in sharp focus:

1. Our passionate and engaged employees are skilled at relationship building When one of our agents picks up the phone, or responds to an online chat, they are trained to be ‘leaning in’ to the conversation, letting their customer feel important and acknowledged, like talking with a new friend that we’re interested in getting to know better. At Boomerang, we give our agents a reason to care. This is the human factor, and relationship building will never go out of style. Marketing expert Noah Fleming 4 makes the spot-on comment that “I don’t believe you ‘close’ a sale, you ‘open’ a relationship. The sales transaction is the start of a relationship, not the end. Effective marketing is an equilibrium – it’s the equal balance of getting customers, and keeping them.” So when we treat customers like the people they are and not ‘sales generating objects’, they respond like real people, revealing what their real needs might be. Then we’re in business, as this customer may well come back a second time.

2. Listening superpowers and openness to feedback We listen to hear, not just to respond, not only during the call but afterwards too. Surveys, after-sales calls and requests for customer feedback are intrinsic to Boomerang’s service offering, and in this way we position ourselves to really hear our customer’s needs, and make changes where required. We are not only open to feedback, but welcome it with open arms, and customers respond by reaching out to tell us what we’re doing well and what we could do better.

3. Customer satisfaction Measuring customer satisfaction (CSAT) is an indispensable way to understand how well, or not, we are doing our job. The standard way to measure CSAT is through responses on feedback requests sent after contacts. The information gathered is useful, not only for celebrating the success of getting it right and encouraging more of that behaviour, but also, and more importantly, seeing where we get it wrong. Negative feedback helps us to find and fix any weak links in our customer service chain, and at Boomerang we use this invaluable CSAT feedback in upskilling our agents.

4. We are responsive Especially when it comes to inbound queries, the quicker we are off the crease the better. There’s nothing like a prompt response to get a customer smiling, and we have positive measures in place that ensure we stay on the ball in this regard. Also, agents are trained to do whatever is on their power to resolve issues quickly, to deal with complaints promptly, courteously and efficiently. Customers remember this, and remember bad service even more readily.

5. We delight our customers At Boomerang, we encourage our agents to personalise their chats with customers, to identify emotional drivers and to respond to these needs. In addition, we add value and reward loyalty where we can. A pertinent example would be the 1 Call Assist product we have developed in-house that is offered to customers of our insurance clients. Thanking and appreciating a customer for choosing our service among all the competition out there goes a long way too.

6. Strong employee loyalty Of course, all good things begin at home, and when we treat our employees with respect they go the extra mile for the customers they serve. The way our leadership treats employees, drives how employees treat on another, and how they in turn treat customers. What happens inside the organisation is felt outside. So customer retention starts at the top.

7. Quality products While there are many soft skills that keep customers coming back, we keep a keen eye on the fact that the product or service offered must be up to scratch. And if there are quality problems, to give this feedback to our client so they can be sorted out. So, although optimisation or getting new customers on board may be seen as the sexier aspect of marketing, the bread-and-butter that maintains any business is certainly the way in which it approaches customer retention. The first purchase is just the beginning, the real business value lies ahead.

References
1. Alan E. Webber, "B2B Customer Experience Priorities In An Economic Downturn: Key Customer Usability Initiatives In A Soft Economy," Forrester Research, February 19, 2008.
2. According to research done by Fred Reichheld at Bain & Company.
3. Paul Farris in Marketing Metrics.
4. Noah Fleming is a Marketing Expert, Consultant and Author of “Evergreen: Cultivate the Enduring Customer Loyalty that Keeps Your Business Thriving“. Quoted on ngdata.com.

Robert Joubert

Boomerang SA

www.boomerangsa.com

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Outsource vs in-house

The burning question: do you outsource your contact centre and back office process functions, be it B2B or B2C telemarketing, inbound customer services or outbound call centre services, or do you build your own in-house teams?

Growing companies are learning what their multi-national and larger counterparts already know – outsourcing contact centre and back office services can improve efficiencies, reduce costs and done right improve customer satisfaction.

Here’s the usual scenario. Businesses have at its core staff who know its products or services inside out. So when it comes to customers calling in wanting a fix to a problem, or seeking information, employees are brilliantly positioned to help them.

Thing is, there are more and more customer calls, emails and information requests coming in. That’s a great thing because it means you are attracting more customers, but a not-so-good thing in that it is pulling your people away from their primary responsibilities, which is to focus on the core business of making the product or delivering the service.

So, there’s a decision to be made, as telemarketing and customer service now need their very own department (again, a good thing, because it means business is growing). There’s a choice to be made, do you gear up and manage this function in-house or, like other products you may source and buy in, do you outsource the contact centre function. Like most choices, there are the pros and cons but in balance, business process outsourcing (BPO) comes up on top.

Here’s why. First off, at a BPO centre like Boomerang SA, in the words of CEO Rob Joubert: “Contact centre, telemarketing and customer services – that’s our core business and it’s what we do really well. We know all the ins and outs, so when it comes to these services, we can be more effective than companies who do not have these functions as core business. We have spent years learning the art of delivering professional contact centre services and we have invested in the people, process and technologies required to deliver great customer experience”.

Like other specialist services you might outsource, pay point management for example, contact centre management and staff have honed the service to a fine point. There is the capital investment in appropriate technologies and the associated maintenance costs of running a contact centre that has already been footed by the outsource partner, and there is little reason for your business to reinvent the wheel as it were. In the choice to outsource, your business has immediate access to trained staff and dedicated specialist management resources and your staff can focus on increasing productivity in your core business.

Rob adds: “Not only do we match or exceed the quality of in-house off-shore contact centres, but we are able to do this regularly at a better price point.”

But what about the concern: “My staff know my business best and call centre agents are just not going to have that same passion?” After all, brand loyalty is seen as being strongest in the founding company itself.

Quality outsource services providers will be cognisant of this bias and take active steps to counter it by creating dedicated teams of people who are immersed in the client company culture, people that embody its values and receive ongoing training to keep them up to date with products and services offered. Employees dedicated to a client strongly associate with the client brand.

As a growing business, ever aware of mounting costs in a changeable environment, there emerges a need for flexibility. As business volumes change, you will need to ramp up or scale down the number of call centre or telemarketing agents to meet this change. Here’s where outsourcing really comes into its own, as this risk is passed directly to your BPO partner, and there is no call to suddenly find a budget to meet increased costs.

Rob gives a real time example: “At Boomerang we are geared for short notice scalability. We serve a retailer, for example, in the UK that has demand variations impacted by Covid, where they provide essential services. We doubled up our agents in a month to provide uninterrupted services to them.”

Robert Joubert

Boomerang SA

www.boomerangsa.com

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Cold Calling Guide: How to Close More Sales and Get Hung Up less

Cold calling continues to earn a seat at the strategy table, because it works. But, like good advice, cold calling is only effective if applied correctly. Let’s show you how.

What is cold calling?
When cold calling, a salesperson calls a prospective customer to introduce them to and sell a product or service that the prospect may or may not have heard about before. It can be used to target businesses (B2B0 or consumers (B2C). Cold calling is an intrinsic part of the B2B sales process in that decision makers can be identified, buyer needs uncovered and a foot in the door secured for an account manager or closer sales agent to see the deal through to fruition. Cold calling has traditionally been a cornerstone of new customer acquisition for many insurance, telecoms, utility companies, banks, and financial services providers for decades. A skilled agent can introduce an offering, qualify the prospect, and obtain a buying decision, as well collect payment details from the new customer – all in one call! Managing to connect with the prospective customer on an empathetic level during the call is imperative to build trust and lays the foundation for an engaging interaction and future business relationship.

Does Cold Calling Still Work?
Whether cold calling works or not is a contentious issue, with opinions (and results achieved) varying greatly. There are many who argue that cold calling is intrusive, interruption marketing, that it is overused and doesn’t work. Then there are others, who continue to achieve profitable and high growth sales results. Kenan-Flager Business School records a 2.5% success rate for cold calling and self-development author Brian Tracy (a respected expert on the topic of sales) strongly endorses it. We believe there is enough evidence to show that, done right, cold calling can deliver great bottom line results, but only a few are getting it right. There is a formula for achieving cold calling sales success: A sale occurs when a quality sales presentation is made to the right person and the right product is offered at the right price at the right time. So, cold calling is still very relevant, but it comes with various provisos for success.

How To Make A Good Cold Call – 5 Top Cold Calling Tips

Preparation, preparation, preparation
Particularly in B2B cold calling, various executives and decision makers have complained that their caller was ill-equipped to answer vital questions pertaining to the product / service at hand. Preparation for a call supersedes merely knowing about the history, milestones, and accolades of the individual or company. The caller needs to have an intrinsic knowledge of the prospective customer’s needs and how they can best be met. The sales process, for B2B, complex sales transactions or for sales with high compliance requirements (i.e. insurance sales) may include a fronter-closer method. Fronter-closer method is where a lead warmer (fronter) will warm up, qualify the lead and transfer to a sales specialist (closer) who will close the sale. Shift the focus – it’s all about the customer.

It’s not just business, it’s actually very personal.
How we make people feel is truly what will be remembered – whether making a critical cold call, or simply going about our lives. The prospective customer can instantly sense if the contact centre agent is interested in getting to know what they need, rather than just closing a sale. There’s an inspiring example in the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, where Judi Dench plays the role of an older traveller who lands up in a mentoring role for millennials in a contact centre in India. She cites how she had been spoken to “without a trace of humanity”, when she’d revealed to a contact centre agent that her husband had recently died. In her role, Dench humorously guides a young agent to adapt to the nuances of a conversation, rather than “sounding like a robot”. In the movie, the contact centre agent quickly applied these tips and, sensing that Dench’s character wanted to chat, proceeded to ask her about the TV programme that she mentioned she was watching. So, instinctively, the agent shifted her focus from pushing the sale to the real-time need.

Step into the customer’s shoes
The contact centre industry needs to make empathy sexy. Detachment or indifference can be sniffed out at a distance.
Empathy and authenticity are mutually inclusive, and vital when engaging in a cold call. The contact centre representative must approach the call from a genuine place of humanity, to create a personal resonance with the prospective customer from the start. This is a crucial test that many contact centre representatives fail or are not even aware of. In this regard, it is best to avoid overly prescriptive sales scripts where possible. The telemarketer should certainly not be reading word for word to the prospective customer. When using sales scripting the telemarketing agent should pay careful attention to use the script to structure the call only, to ensure any compliance or communication person-to-person with the prospective client. And, regardless of how the call ends, if the recipient of the call experiences empathy on the other end of the line and an engaging sales experience then the company will gain from brand awareness created and may win this customer at a future date. Be a great listener.

Great cold callers use open-ended questions to uncover the needs and interests of the prospective customer. An open-ended question is any question that cannot be answered with a simple “yes” or “no”. Such questions get the prospect talking and deepen the quality of information provided.
Many believe that great telemarketing and telesales persons are great speakers, but to be an excellent cold caller you need to be a great listener first. Active listening is the art to be mastered here, one that is challenging when having to deal with sales targets and deal with constant rejection. And this applies to both B2B and B2C cold calls. But with concentration and intentional engagement, it is certainly achievable. Active listening shifts the focus from sales to value – a refreshing change for a prospective customer. Prospects often provide clues or buying signals to the telemarketer during the call and sales agents are well advised to listen attentively to expressions of interests from the prospect – including sounds of acknowledgement during the call. For instance, a question from the customer is indicative of interest and savvy agents will leverage on this interest to focus on benefits of the product or service that will be of most interest to the prospect. Sell on benefits, not features.

To the untrained ear a feature sounds much like a benefit, but knowing the difference has a huge influence on sales success. Top salespeople will always sell on benefits of the product, not the product features. So, what exactly is the difference between a feature and a benefit? Remember the “sell me this pen” interview question? It is a question often posed in interviews and is designed to gauge whether the sales agent has mastered the skill of selling on benefits as opposed to product features. A feature is “what it is”. In this case, a writing implement. A benefit is what the feature does for the customer. A pen reframed as a benefit then, is that it is a tool for social connection as the buyer writes a well-worded letter to a loved one. Another example of a feature is, “the battery on this device will last 18 hours with regular use”. Phrased as a benefit this may sound something like “the battery on this device will last 18 hours between charges which means that you can enjoy using your device throughout the day without interruptions or recharging required”. Customers seldom buy a product for its features. They will buy because the product solves a need. Therefore, it’s vital for the caller to frame the product features in a way that it solves a relevant need for the customer.

How To Build A Cold Calling Prospect List
Before you even start, you need to be clear about your product offering and value proposition, the landscape you’re operating in, who your competitors are, and what your buyer profile looks like. Then you’re able to compile your prospective customer criteria, considering important aspects like their pain points, compatibility with your established buyer persona, and their affordability.

Here are some tactics to use to nail that cold calling prospect list:
• For B2B targeting, consider aspects like location, industry, size, and purchase information
• For B2C targeting, considerations should include geographic and demographic information
• Study online reviews on competitors
• Identify your competitor’s prospects through online mentions
• Use LinkedIn to identify and review prospects
• Use your network to match prospects to your buyer profile
• Don’t underestimate the power of producing quality, relevant content
• Review past customers, and establish their updated information

From tracking unique website visitors to creating more pipeline or tracking interaction, there are myriad online tools to use for prospecting. These include Pardot, Leadlander, and Hubspot. Be mindful of data privacy and direct marketing regulations in the territories you operate in. Ensure you comply with the legal requirements to operate outbound cold calling campaigns. Be aware that data privacy legislation is in force in countries globally. For example, the EU has General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR), The United Kingdom has the Data Protection Act and Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), and California introduced the California Consumer Privacy Act. In South Africa, the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) will be in full force from July 2021.

Measure The Right Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)
It is important to watch the right numbers not only to ensure your campaign performs optimally, but also to make any improvements that enhance this performance, or remedy obstacles hampering performance.
If your campaign isn’t achieving the desired results, then review your KPI’s.

Key Cold Calling Indicators Include:
• Average call time – what is the duration of the average call? If calls are short, then this may point to a poorly target prospect list or to the caller not engaging the prospect enough to open up a conversation.
• RPC ratio – the Right Party Connect ratio is an important indicator of the quality of the prospect list. Are you getting hold of enough of the right prospects? Poor RPC is a clear indicator that the prospect list is not working.
• Lead to Sale Ratio – what ratio of sales leads are converting to sales? This figure is an indicator of the quality of the prospect list, as well as the effectiveness of the caller. On an individual level, when comparing person-to-person results, this ratio differentiates effective from not effective persons.
• Average sales values
• Refusals – it is also important to record and review the reasons why a prospect refused an offer as much can be learned from unsuccessful sales calls.

When monitoring KPI’s regularly, it makes it easier for the operator to hone in on the focus areas that will achieve the desired result, and how to apply remedies in the form of training, product enrichments, product pricing reviews, selection improvements, and more. For more information on telesales, KPI’s, their meaning and how to manage using KPI’s – request the free info pack from us.

Robert Joubert

Boomerang SA

www.boomerangsa.com

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Transitions In The “New Normal”​ To Maintain Employee Wellness

Supporting employee wellness as a vital aspect of company policy has come into stark relief amid the global coronavirus pandemic. Many employees find themselves working from home, and feel the absence of those support structures usually taken for granted in the office. The effects of the change are felt across the board.

Although some relaxation in the regulations came on Saturday August 15, with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement of Lockdown Level Two, the understanding is that those who can still work from home should do so.

Level Two has brought huge relief to many, yet at Boomerang SA, as with other companies, it does usher in the era of a home/office hybrid model that might become part of a new norm.

At the office, Boomerang employees thrive in an atmosphere where connecting, enthusiasm and praise for team effort are the order of the day. The daily social support previously enjoyed in the office environment is sorely missed when working from home.

Inevitably, employees’ mental and physical wellness has been compromised during this trying time. New challenges have come thick and fast, such as maintaining productivity with continual interruptions from family, creating a professional environment at home, addressing stress levels, and not falling into the trap of working overtime when one would ordinarily have called it quits at the end of the day at the office.

At Boomerang, we are committed to providing our agents with the resources they need to maintain the high morale that is key to our world-class business offering.

There are significant changes linked to the transition to working from home, and then to a home/office hybrid model. Not to mention employees having to adjust to lockdown restrictions and regulations. Therefore, our in-house life coach has stepped up to provide pointers on how to maintain wellness whilst navigating this “new normal”. These are published regularly to our Facebook page. Furthermore, we provide life-coaching services to those who require additional assistance.

Changes in the workplace are known to be a leading cause of stress, and stress has an adverse impact on health. This becomes apparent with the move to work from home.

It’s notable that a 2017 United Nations study of 15 countries found that among people who worked mostly from home, 41 percent considered themselves “highly stressed”, while this number came in at 25 percent for in-office workers.

Reducing overall stress is a priority and is best achieved by adopting a healthy lifestyle, maintaining a balance between work and personal life, setting appropriate boundaries, and not sweating the small stuff.

It’s all too easy to become sedentary at home, with a brisk walk to work and a visit to the gym no longer part of the schedule. Research has shown that doing regular aerobic exercise is a quick win when it comes to alleviating stress. Home-based workouts are the cure here, and can include anything from yoga and Pilates to skipping, or a session on the exercise bike.

For the employees who are able to return to the office, falling back into a more familiar routine can only be beneficial.

Then, when working from home, there’s the setting of boundaries and keeping work separate from restful home life is the next challenge. It’s more important to set up a dedicated work space and to resist the temptation to operate from the couch. Keep leisure spaces for relaxation, and work spaces for work.

The value of those chats around the office water cooler has also become apparent as we grapple with restrictive social distancing and a concomitant sense of isolation. Even in “normal times”, loneliness and social isolation are seen as “twice as harmful to physical and mental health as obesity,” according to a paper published in 2015 on the Association of Psychological Science research repository.

The most effective way to maintain social connection during this time is on digital platforms. At Boomerang, we’ve leveraged online tools to ensure regular check-ins with colleagues.

With COVID still a factor, it may be many more months before we see our contact centre back to full capacity. As such, we continue to provide resources and support to our staff in their home environment, as well as the office.

Robert Joubert

Boomerang SA

www.boomerangsa.com

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