Ian Landsman is Starting From Scratch, February 14, 2007:
10 Ways to Convert Customer Service into Sales
If you're in the market for a powerful and user friendly Help Desk solution, please take a look at my company's flagship product HelpSpot.
A key factor in the success of HelpSpot has been the ability to turn customer requests into sales. As a small software company there’s simply no budget for a sales force, nor am I that interested in having one. I’d much rather work in a consultative manner with my customers and through that process drive sales. Here are a few items which have worked for me in turning my customer service requests into sales.
1. Respond Fast
There’s no better way in my opinion to convert customer service requests into sales than responding fast. A fast response to a customers inquiry isn’t just a nicety, it directly leads to sales. In fact, I’d say it’s probably responsible for more HelpSpot sales than anything on this list or any advertising I’ve done.
Fast responses show you’re serious about customer support. It’s also very likely that a fast response will help set you apart from the crowd with potential customers since your competition is most likely not responding as fast as you. Finally, a fast response will simply leave a good impression in the customers mind.
2. Cross sell products
Whenever you are responding to a customer service request you should always be looking to cross sell. Nothing heavy handed, but if you have a product or service that it sounds like the customer could use be sure to mention it in your response to their request.
3. Cross sell cool features
Yes, you must cross sell features. This is critical. Every product has a few key features which are unique. In HelpSpot’s case one I like to cross sell is Live Lookup. It’s an API that allows customers to do real time data retrieval from CRM systems into HelpSpot so staff can access customer data from within HelpSpot.
It’s a great feature, but since no other help desk software has it (that I know of) customers are not looking for it. I’ll often mention it to potential and existing customers during the back and forth of a customer service request. More often than not they were not aware of the feature and find it to be very powerful once they try it out. Live Lookup has made more than a few sales for me, sales which may not have been made if I hadn’t mentioned it.
It’s hard when you have a stack of requests waiting for responses to take the extra time to write a few cross sell sentences, but it’s time well spent.
4. Always be the last response
Never let the customer be the last response on an email correspondence. I know this sounds silly, but if they write a final email saying “Hey, thanks for the help”. Write back and say no problem, anytime, let me know if you need anything else. Yes, we’re trying to go over the top here. Again, we want to leave a lasting impression. Optimizing the humanity out of your support email process is not the way to go. It only takes a few seconds to respond back.
5. Avoid overly prepared responses
I know I’m treading on delicate ground here since I make a product that makes it very easy to have loads of prepared response! Never the less try and avoid fully canned responses except for the most common of questions. It’s almost always possible to tell that a response is canned and it can leave a bad taste in the customers mouth. Instead, I use lots of partial responses. So I’ll have a paragraph of this and a paragraph of that. This way I can write the intro and end, but insert the body from a prepared response.
6. Know who you’re dealing with and respond accordingly
As much as possible try and know who you’re dealing with during a request. Is this the person who downloaded the trial? Is it the president of the company? Is it a blogger? Is it someone you’ve heard of before? If you can add a personal touch to the email it can be a great way to extend the conversation. It also affects how you may cross sell other products and features.
7. Customer care discounts
Great customer service is knowing when to admit you’re wrong. Sometimes you screw up. Sometimes things just go the wrong way or you hit some flat out bad luck. No matter the cause, when this happens you need to make amends to your customer. Giving out a discount or offering something for free can be a great way to do this.
For instance, I’ve given out 10% off coupons on several occasions where a potential customer had a very hard time with the installation of a trial. In some cases these coupons cost me hundreds of dollars, but it was the right thing to do. In addition, almost every person I’ve offered that coupon to has ended up purchasing. It’s better to have 90% of the revenue than 0.
8. Staff product knowledge and training
For most MicroISV’s and small ISV’s this isn’t an issue, but as the company grows making sure your support staff is well trained in your products is key. Not just in how to fix common problems, but in understanding how they’re used day in and day out. There’s no chance of them cross selling without having a strong understanding of how the products work.
9. Personalize everything
Stand behind your product. When you send out general notification type emails to your customers and trial users they should come from you. Of course these messages are automated, but they should have your name and contact information included. Making your organization seem more personal and approachable is a huge advantage for your company. It separates your company form the faceless organization of your competitors into one where customers actually know the name and email of the company president and feel much more comfortable approaching you with comments and questions.
10. Data Mining
Your customer request history is a treasure trove of valuable information on how to improve your product to increase sales. Making sure you use a help desk product that can report on this information is critical (product pitch: HelpSpot’s reporting tags feature makes this easy). Over the long term eliminating error prone operations, installation issues, and adding key features are important ways to drive sales. The most effective way to find these is to track and data mine your customer request history to identify these issues.
Discussion
Ian
A few comments ..
#4 - One I have done for years, and swear by it. Great tip!
#8 - Grow slow and steady, and you can do this. Grow too fast, and it will spell trouble.
Created by OneNerd on 02.14.2007 2:12 pm
Excellent list. I'm a particular fan of #4 (Always have the last response), particularly when you employ it as "Always end a conversation with the words 'Thank you' and an invitation to talk again later, regardless of the whether the conversation was positive in tone or not". Its markedly less helpful when some people interpret it as "Always get the last word in" (You will NEVER win an argument with a customer if you view "winning" in the long view).
#5 (Avoid overly prepared responses) is also a good hint. It helps you stand out among a universe of call-center drones. (I don't have anything against call center drones, having been one myself for years. GOOD call center drones manage to make every customer feel like they have been doing business with that drone personally for years.)
#6 (Know who you’re dealing with and respond accordingly) This is true both as regards speaking a language the other person will understand (the head of IT needs a different answer than the CEO) and with regards to the personal touch. I get a lot of people buying my product around birthdays, weddings, etc. If they say someone is getting married or grandma is celebrating her 80th birthday, I wish them congratulations.
Created by Patrick McKenzie on 02.14.2007 8:39 pm
Nice points guys. Agreed OneNerd, but if you're growth is zooming that fast you don't need this list 
Yes a good call center drone can be a huge plus for a company, but they really are few and far between.
Created by Ian on 02.14.2007 8:58 pm
Brilliant points.
When I worked for a micro ISV myself we conducted customer service according to these rules and the success was tremendous. Customer support was really our sales force #1.
We did #1-6, #9 and #10.
I think #1 and #4 are the most important for a mISV.
Created by Serge Markovich on 02.15.2007 11:06 am
Ian,
Great post as always. I'm tagging this one to come back to for reminders of how to win customers. I especially like your approach to "work in a consultative manner with my customers".
Created by Scott Meade on 02.15.2007 8:42 pm
Hi,
Great post! A similar one is a recent entry in JoS (joelonsoftware.com). As a starting mISV, I really try to have the last word and always offer the user/client the opportunity to send me/contact me anytime if they need help.
Created by Phillip Flores on 02.23.2007 9:11 am
Your list closely mirrors ours. I love line item 1: Respond fast. I would word it to "hope" the customer sees that you are a fast responder. We have non-customers simply not get 'it'.
Oh well
Created by Mark Brown on 02.26.2007 5:17 pm
I have noticed that some people ask a simple question to tech support, and when they receive a reply, they buy almost immediately.
I think that they delay the buying decision until they check if there is a live human being who can help them if they have problems.
So.. it's always a good idea to reply quickly to your customers.
Created by The author of DriverMax on 02.27.2007 9:32 am