It’s no longer enough to provide customers an adequate product or service. Competition is high, and people now consider their entire journey with a company — from the point of consideration to the point of purchase — when deciding who they want to do business with. Recent research shows that interactions with frontline employees have a strong impact on brand perception, so much so that 64% of customers have avoided brands after having a bad experience. Yet despite the fact that customer expectations are higher than ever, the overall quality of the customer experience companies are delivering has remained stagnant.
Is Your Sales Team Aligned with Your Brand?
Few businesses teach new sales recruits what they actually need to know. Researchers found that while tactics like product training and email are some of the most widely used to educate workers, they often fail to drive message consistency. Instead of telling their sales teams what to say, then, companies need to teach their employees what experience they are trying to deliver to customers and coach them on how to think through the lens of that experience. Training tactics that teach workers how to do this will help generate confident employees who are capable of — and confident in — creating better customer outcomes. Here are a few tactics companies looking to align their brand message should consider: 1) Ask questions to help you fully understand knowledge gaps; 2) Customize the training experience based on team feedback; 3) Focus on building confidence (confidence in telling a brand story determines how successful conversations on the front lines will be).