You probably often hear customer questions like these:
“Do you recommend A or B? Or is C better?
Where do I find D?
When do you get E back in stock?”
Since your store has an endless number of products, it’s not easy for your employees - especially not your non-desk workers - to have deep product knowledge from A to Z. Therefore, they often have to check the stock or ask a colleague… leaving the customer with a tapping foot and frequent clock checks.
If the customer doesn’t think that the waiting is worth it, you can end up with a lost sale and even a bad rating or review on Google or Trustpilot.
Ouch.
It’s time to turn pain into gain. Therefore, we share our three best tips to ensure a solid knowledge base, sales improvement, and 5-star rated customer service.
TIP #1: MAKE INFORMATION EASILY ACCESSIBLE
We know that products come and go on the market like the sun and the rain in Scandinavia. Some go out of production, some are changed or improved, and some just lose their relevance.
No wonder why your employees struggle to remember all product information and stay updated.
A digital product catalogue is a simple, but effective tool to overcome this challenge. At least if the product catalogue is accessible within a pocket’s reach – e.g., on a mobile device – for your non-desk workers. When your employees have access to a, let’s call it, product dictionary, they are always able to answer the customers’ questions and offer them the guidance they need, here and now. And that’s a win-win.
Personalized and present customer service is the key to maintaining the customer’s buying momentum. Therefore, he or she is also more likely to ‘reward’ your company with purchase and your employee with a thankful smile.
Furthermore, finding information within a few seconds rhymes with time optimization.
Altogether, these advantages will make your ROI rock in the long run.
Insights: Want some inspiration from the ‘real’ world? Tiger of Sweden took their customer service and sales to the next level thanks to their communication platform.
TIP #2: BREAK DOWN COMMUNICATION BARRIERS TO ENCOURAGE KNOWLEDGE SHARING
Knowledge sharing is just as important for your company’s growth and success as oxygen is for humans. Well, literally. In a competitive market like yours, knowledge is the asset that keeps you unique and therefore alive in the long term.
Your staff is ‘knowledge carriers, and if they learn from each other, they can all together ad a value to your business looks like this:
2 + 2 = 5.
To encourage knowledge sharing, it is worth integrating a digital communication platform since it creates a social space where employees can share ideas and success stories, inspire, and give each other eye-openers and sales tips.
For instance, one of your employees could post a picture with the following text:
“Calling all colleagues! We recently made the setup of our new [product] more presentable and visible… and that increased sales by 30 %!”
Even though the tip is super simple, it leads to a super sale.
TIP #3: INCLUDE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT IN YOUR TRAINING
Living is learning – also when it comes to your employees. Therefore, it is worth focusing on a steep learning curve for your non-desk workers even if their onboarding is officially complete. And let us tell you a little secret: When employees are more engaged and have fun in their learning process, they tend to remember what they have learned even better.
And why is that?
When something pampers the walnut-shaped computer in our heads with happy hormones, it awakens our ability and willingness to learn. And it even wants us to go back for more. The brain is brilliant, isn’t it?
The ideal tool for engaging your employees in education is gamified training since it makes product knowledge interactive, visual, and down-to-earth. In other words: It is the opposite of (old) school.
There’s no doubt that product knowledge is your company’s building block to improve sales. To keep up with the market and stay your customers’ number 1, it is important that product knowledge and training are built on an ongoing basis. However, many companies underestimate this aspect since it is difficult to send your non-desk off for training and keep your business fully staffed at the same time.
Good news: We’ve found the time for you.
With the Relesys Platform, your employees can complete their training and certificates in small bites and therefore spread it out over multiple hours, days, weeks, or whenever it fits their schedule.
