Though sales and service teams each have different responsibilities, the business will always be more successful if the two are working together.
After all, collaboration is the key to success, and both of these departments, though separate from one another, ultimately share a common goal: customer satisfaction.
For sales, this means providing the customer with a product or service they do not yet have, that will help to improve their lives daily. For service teams, it means ensuring that the customer remains happy with the product or service they have already purchased.
Between the two is a grey area in which many contact centers fail to capitalize. Within this space, the business has an opportunity to deliver a much more rounded service that maximizes the customer experience and creates unique opportunities for business growth.
As well as improving customer retention rates, a collaboration between sales and service teams can create new opportunities to upsell to the customer and provide them with something that they need before they even know they need it. It’s this type of proactive approach that can help a brand stand out from other competitors in the market.
Modern Businesses Need Collaboration
For agents from separate sales and customer service teams to work interchangeably and seize every opportunity that comes their way, there needs to be a system in place that enables them to collaborate effectively.
Before a business can start thinking about how to provide a better experience for the customer, it must ensure that all of its employees are on the same page. It is only by breaking down these organizational silos can employees from different departments then share information quickly and easily.
Collaboration is rated as one of the top 4 skills required for enterprise workplaces, making it vitally important to address any collaboration issues to ensure success in the future.
Improving Sales and Service Collaboration
To bridge this gap between sales and service, many contact centers have started investing in computer telephony integration (CTI) software. By connecting a company’s phone system to its CRM platform, CTI offers a top-class solution that makes it much easier for sales agents and service technicians to share call data and customer history.
CTI for Sales Teams
When an agent connects with their lead, the likelihood of them being able to close the deal will depend heavily on how much information they can provide. Flair and personality go a long way, but without facts to back up what they’re saying, it’s difficult to win a prospect’s confidence.
With CTI features like automated call logging and call log templates, sales teams can optimize the notes that they keep while reducing the amount of time spent on after-call work.
CTI for Service Teams
On the service side, thanks to the notes and call logs the sales team has created, customer support agents don’t need to ‘catch up’ when a customer calls in. On an incoming call, screen pop will bring the customer’s record to the forefront where they’ll be able to see what has already been discussed with the sales team. If the customer needs to be transferred to another agent, using CRM screen transfer, any preexisting call notes will be transferred too.
For the customer, not only have they saved time by not needing to repeat basic details call after call, but their customer experience has also improved thanks to the shared knowledge and collaboration between the sales and customer service teams.
This collaboration also results in improved performance for each department, as they too reap the benefits of being able to share and see customer data whenever they need it. Sales and service teams both play an important part in a company, but bringing the two together with CTI creates a sum that is greater than its two parts.