Online chat has been proven an effective customer service channel. Now the challenge presented to companies employing a real-time, chat technology is how to leverage chat into an effective sale vehicle that adds to the bottom line. To meet this goal, companies must first recognize that the online chat offers a unique opportunity to meet customer needs and create loyalty while compelling the sale. ORION Marketing Group, Inc. as developed a best-in-class approach that has had proven success with one of the largest banks in the United States. By employing this process, ORION has effectively increased online application volume while providing invaluable visibility into the customer relationship.
Before the deployment of the online chat, many online applications were dropped mid-process with many a click never being converted at all. While the web site offered a rich amount of relevant information, nothing compelled the customer to complete an application. Furthermore, many of the applications which customers started ended only in incomplete applications confined to an expanding database of lost opportunity.
Defining A Sale In A Customer Service Environment
What started as an idea to provide customers with general support for application problems began and continues to this day to evolve into a highly targeted sales channel. From the start, Orion’s existing sales culture provided the project with a clear direction and the tools to get the job done.
After project launch, however, it became readily evident that the definition of what constituted an online chat sale would be increasingly difficult to define. Complicating this matter was that fact that the chat platform was unable to accurately report sales. While the chat platform provided a high level of visibility into the customer service experience, very little sales feedback could be accurately obtained.
ORION met this challenge by combing software development with a comprehensive quality control process. The quality control guidelines were developed to only factor in “compelled” sales. Each sale transcript was reviewed against these guidelines to assure the accuracy of the conversion rate and fairness of the agent compensation plan.
Sales Focused Chat Strategies
Orion Marketing Group, Inc. successfully developed best-in-class chat strategies that resulted in higher sales volume by effectively leveraging our 10 years of experience in the outbound sales market. ORION built on this foundation by surveying companies employing chat technology both inside and outside the financial industry. This strategy created a shorter learning curve and redefined many of the preconceived notions of what previously constituted a good chat.
By adapting a standard customer interaction model, ORION’s successful chat sales strategy started by having agents clearly identify the customer personality that was being displayed. Unlike a traditional sales channel where the customer is solely focused on your business, the chat channel is inherently more competitive. Often times, customers would be chatting with an ORION agent while researching our client’s competitors. Obviously, chat becomes a natural outlet for the “Commander In Chief” personalities. Given this reality ORION had to provide value quickly. The innovative Customer Assistance Tool software developed by ORION allowed chat agents to provide complete loan information. Furthermore, the tool allowed for payment, term and other information that only enhanced agent credibility though out the chat. This credibility remains a key ingredient to any successful sales strategy. With the customer assistance tool, agents rate quotes transformed vague chats into targeted and information rich responses that allowed our agents to regain control and compel the sale. The result of this sales process is a 15% conversion rate. It is important to note that this conversion number only includes customers who completed the application during the specific chat session. The overall conversion rate over a 7-day period was an astonishing 50%. In other words, the 50% conversion includes customers who had initiated a chat and then applied during the 7-day period. This is in recognition that many of the buying decisions that were compelled by chat are made after the chat occurs.
By creating a valuable experience for the customer, ORION chat agents built strong relationships with customers. This created a positive environment where the customer became increasingly accepting of a prompted phone call where the chat agent could continue the sales process. Conversion rates of customers who were converted to a phone call are consistently at or above 75%. Clearly, the strategy of leveraging an effective chat to a personal phone call is a proven sales winner. Furthermore, the successful integration of the outbound phone call into the chat environment allowed for customer call backs. Customer’s who required more time to make the buying decision could be set-up in the chat call back system and a time and number that was most convenient to the customer. The successful implementation of the chat call back system assured that every sales opportunity was met. The conversion rate of chat call backs remains high and provides the customer with a responsive and quality experience.
The greatest sale hurdle facing online chat is the deeply rooted customer service mindset that fails to compel the sale. After an extensive survey of the chat industry across many industries it became increasingly evident that sale opportunities were missed because agents simple refused to ask for the sale.
Setting Individual and Team Goals
With the chat sales strategy in place, ORION began to develop training modules and agent level reporting to assure that agents were always informed of their performance ranking. The reporting provided agents with a clear understanding of their chat conversion, phone acceptance rate and phone conversion among many other statistics. These statistics were generated using ORION customer system tool and were validated by 100% sale transcript quality reviews. To support the individual and team goals the compensation plan was closely linked to performance. The clear goals setting created a significant 20% sales lift as the overall sales conversion grew.
Goal setting has also been linked to the ORION continued learning program designed to meet the needs of the specialized chat environment. Exercises that improve multi-tasking skills have been combined with information that assures complete product knowledge. Every week, the ORION chat team meets as a group and reviews chat best practices while exploring new sales strategies. ORION recognizes that training is often times at the individual level and management is committed to providing each agent the tools and information they need to succeed.
Overview
ORION’s successful implementation of our client’s online chat channel as resulted in significant gains in the overall application and funding rate. Our commitment to make the most out of every customer contact assures the bank that nothing is slipping through the net. With online chat directly contributing thousands of applications each month, it has been cited as a key factor to meeting the client’s volume goals. Chat has accomplished that while maintaining a very high customer satisfaction rating. Furthermore, online chat unlike other customer relationship channels, has created a valuable, front-line visibility into the customer sales experience. This direct from the customer feedback has provided insights that have been effectively leveraged to improve other lines of business. Most importantly, however, ORION helped transform a customer service expense line item into a profitable sales channel.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Rackspace Delivers Best-in-Class B2B Live Chat Implementation Within Innovative Client Team Structure
When your company’s mantra is “fanatical support” you have a lot to live up to. Rackspace Hosting succeeds in meeting this ideal by providing one of the best B2B live chat implementations regardless of vertical. Unlike most chat implementations, it is clear that Rackspace understands that chat is a sales channel and treats it as such.
The first indication that Rackspace has it right occurs soon after you hit the http://www.rackspace.com/ site. Where must companies simply include a “click to chat” link, Rackspace quickly initiates a proactive chat with the customer. Instead of a proactive pop-up that offers the chat experience, Rackspace offers a proactive agent chat immediately to the prospect. Within 5 seconds a new visitor is welcomed with an inviting message that focuses the prospect on a distinct product offering. The speed and aggressive nature of the proactive invite stands in stark contrast to many large chat implementations reviewed for this study.
The majority of chat implementations studied limited the use of proactive invites. Instead, traditional B2B chat efforts choose an approach that focuses on key elements of site visitor behavior. Specifically, most chat strategies require a prospect to spend several minutes in a static state before a proactive invite is launched. Most also require certain pre-determined triggers to be hit such as errors within online applications or point of sale transactions.
A close examination of Rackspace’s chat strategy compared to other B2B chat implementations demonstrates that it has a clear lead in developing this channel. Rackspace has developed a reputation of pushing the envelope when it comes to testing aggressive chat strategies. Currently, Rackspace is using LivePerson’s “Timpani” application, which provides significant flexibility in designing a proactive chat invite. According to Liverperson, “Rackspace is really pushing the bounds of what we thought what would be acceptable to site visitors.” Liveperson is not recommending such an aggressive chat strategy to clients but is watching the LivePerson implementation closely.
After careful analysis, it is clear the B2B context allows and demands a more aggressive chat strategy. It is based on the recognition that what really matters is sorting out the real decision makers from all the other site visitors. Rackspace has demonstrated that a prospect researching managed hosting solutions is looking at multiple vendors and is interested in getting information quickly. By proactively welcoming the prospect to the web site, Rackspace has the opportunity to take a prospect needs assessment and market to them accordingly. High value prospects are quickly brought into a multi-channel sales environment, as a follow-up conversation is scheduled with a Rackspace sales representative. In fact, most Rackspace sales representatives pre-empt the scheduled call with an introductory call where the prospect is asked if there are any specific issues where more detailed information is required before the scheduled call.
Rackspace lives and breathes the following customer service ethic: Responsiveness, Ownership, Resourcefulness, Expertise, and Transparency. The immediacy of the chat experience combined with the ease with which Rackspace shares prospect information among the project teams creates a potent sales force that has resulted in higher website sales conversion. Rackspace recognizes that potential customers are assessing each interaction with Rackspace to determine their potential as an effective partner. From the point of first customer contact Rackspace has clearly developed a best-in-class sales and support CRM effort.
Rackspace Best-In-Class Highlights:
- Project team model achieves the goals outlined in the Rackspace “fanatical” support ethic. The team model also allows Rackspace to price their product at a premium vs. other hosting solutions. Many customers interviewed expressed the benefit of having a team backing them up. A feature they were willing to pay a premium to receive. "With serious implementations you are not going to get yourself fired by using Rackspace," Rackspace client.
- Muli-channel marketing effort focused on generating leads through web advertising and Google Adwords. Search engine marketing efforts promote live chat.
Rackspace has proven live web chat improves web site sales conversion rates. The sales pipeline saw a dramatic increase in lead volume after live chat was launched. Live web chat has become a proven B2B sales channel at Rackspace.
- “Fanatical” Support has created a marketing buzz and a loyal customer base.
- Rackspace is investing in programs that will help facilitate a community of “fanatical rackers.” Hosting educational events at San Antonio headquarters allows customers to become further vested in Rackspace. Rackspace is exploring ways to extend the “fanatical” team model via virtual office. Connecting project team members with enhanced VOIP and web-based sales force automation applications. Further building customer loyalty while maintaining pricing premium.
The first indication that Rackspace has it right occurs soon after you hit the http://www.rackspace.com/ site. Where must companies simply include a “click to chat” link, Rackspace quickly initiates a proactive chat with the customer. Instead of a proactive pop-up that offers the chat experience, Rackspace offers a proactive agent chat immediately to the prospect. Within 5 seconds a new visitor is welcomed with an inviting message that focuses the prospect on a distinct product offering. The speed and aggressive nature of the proactive invite stands in stark contrast to many large chat implementations reviewed for this study.
The majority of chat implementations studied limited the use of proactive invites. Instead, traditional B2B chat efforts choose an approach that focuses on key elements of site visitor behavior. Specifically, most chat strategies require a prospect to spend several minutes in a static state before a proactive invite is launched. Most also require certain pre-determined triggers to be hit such as errors within online applications or point of sale transactions.
A close examination of Rackspace’s chat strategy compared to other B2B chat implementations demonstrates that it has a clear lead in developing this channel. Rackspace has developed a reputation of pushing the envelope when it comes to testing aggressive chat strategies. Currently, Rackspace is using LivePerson’s “Timpani” application, which provides significant flexibility in designing a proactive chat invite. According to Liverperson, “Rackspace is really pushing the bounds of what we thought what would be acceptable to site visitors.” Liveperson is not recommending such an aggressive chat strategy to clients but is watching the LivePerson implementation closely.
After careful analysis, it is clear the B2B context allows and demands a more aggressive chat strategy. It is based on the recognition that what really matters is sorting out the real decision makers from all the other site visitors. Rackspace has demonstrated that a prospect researching managed hosting solutions is looking at multiple vendors and is interested in getting information quickly. By proactively welcoming the prospect to the web site, Rackspace has the opportunity to take a prospect needs assessment and market to them accordingly. High value prospects are quickly brought into a multi-channel sales environment, as a follow-up conversation is scheduled with a Rackspace sales representative. In fact, most Rackspace sales representatives pre-empt the scheduled call with an introductory call where the prospect is asked if there are any specific issues where more detailed information is required before the scheduled call.
Rackspace lives and breathes the following customer service ethic: Responsiveness, Ownership, Resourcefulness, Expertise, and Transparency. The immediacy of the chat experience combined with the ease with which Rackspace shares prospect information among the project teams creates a potent sales force that has resulted in higher website sales conversion. Rackspace recognizes that potential customers are assessing each interaction with Rackspace to determine their potential as an effective partner. From the point of first customer contact Rackspace has clearly developed a best-in-class sales and support CRM effort.
Rackspace Best-In-Class Highlights:
- Project team model achieves the goals outlined in the Rackspace “fanatical” support ethic. The team model also allows Rackspace to price their product at a premium vs. other hosting solutions. Many customers interviewed expressed the benefit of having a team backing them up. A feature they were willing to pay a premium to receive. "With serious implementations you are not going to get yourself fired by using Rackspace," Rackspace client.
- Muli-channel marketing effort focused on generating leads through web advertising and Google Adwords. Search engine marketing efforts promote live chat.
Rackspace has proven live web chat improves web site sales conversion rates. The sales pipeline saw a dramatic increase in lead volume after live chat was launched. Live web chat has become a proven B2B sales channel at Rackspace.
- “Fanatical” Support has created a marketing buzz and a loyal customer base.
- Rackspace is investing in programs that will help facilitate a community of “fanatical rackers.” Hosting educational events at San Antonio headquarters allows customers to become further vested in Rackspace. Rackspace is exploring ways to extend the “fanatical” team model via virtual office. Connecting project team members with enhanced VOIP and web-based sales force automation applications. Further building customer loyalty while maintaining pricing premium.
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