The internet completely changed the way customers communicate and find product information. In the past, customers might visit a store directly to browse products or call a company to ask questions about a product or a purchase they had already made. Today, more and more customers are using the internet to research products and services before purchase and contact brands with their questions. This has made the customer service agent’s role more complex, as he must sell, provide recommendations, and support the customer in purchasing the right products and services.
For these reasons, the number of website leads has increased sharply as customers spend more time online looking for the products they want. In certain industries, customers are relying heavily on web research before going to physical stores to purchase. In the car industry, for example, there has been a sharp decrease in customers visiting car dealerships to preview cars in person. Instead, many are researching cars online on their own and only visiting car dealerships to make their actual purchases. These new consumer habits make us ask: How can brands handle lead management effectively so as to offer optimal customer service?
Outbound calls have become a new tool for profitability, especially when it comes to website lead management for industries that are gravitating toward digitalization. Effective lead management requires two key things: A fast response and great service quality. Essentially, the first company that contacts a lead and offers a product or service that meets his needs has a greater chance of winning the lead’s business. For example, one lead could be a person in self-care who is looking for insurance. After providing his phone contact information on a website for insurance plan comparisons, the site gives him three insurance offers. Most likely, the insurance company that calls the lead first and offers a plan that suits his needs has the greatest chance of signing the customer.
In addition to sales, following up with website leads can also involve giving support and information. For example, in the car industry, many prospective customers request information online before going to car dealerships to purchase. In this case, the agent provides assistance and advice and thanks to his quality service, he will influence the customer’s decision to purchase. Indeed, in this industry, which has low margins, the car dealership business model no longer relies exclusively on the sale of cars. Nowadays, dealerships focus more globally on achieving both quantitative and qualitative goals such as good communication by phone with customers and strong web lead management. In the energy industry, effective web lead management is especially critical in some countries such as France, where the law currently forbids telemarketing calls. In this industry, among others, leads are only inbound.
Agents are therefore at the front lines of both service and sales. An agent who gives the best and most adapted support has the greatest chance of converting a lead, who will then likely visit a brand’s physical location for purchase with the hope of having a similar quality experience with employees in-store or convert online. Since agents play such a crucial role in handling website leads, it’s important to direct every inbound request toward the most qualified agent available to both optimize web lead transformation and guarantee customer satisfaction.
Choosing the right CRM is essential to effective lead management. Our Vocalcom customers who use web leads in their business model are all equipped with a Salesforce CRM solution to manage post-sales service. The Vocalcom solution is natively integrated in Salesforce, and it allows agents to manage all customer interactions in a single place—no matter which communication channel is used. Agents have easy access to large amounts of Salesforce data in agent scripts. This allows the agents to save time as they interact with customers and post-purchase as well. Take the case of our customer, the CETIH Renov group, for example. The native integration of the Salesforce-issued CRM data allows for a total synchronization between Salesforce and the ERP of Neovivo, part of the CETIH Renov group and a specialist in home renovation and energy retrofitting. When customers call, agents have a complete view of the customer’s history with the brand, including all purchases and service interactions.
When it comes to placing outbound calls, or callbacks for web leads, having the right dialer is very important. Vocalcom is well-known for its predictive dialer with the best algorithm on the market that allows a company to maximize its reachability rates. Calls are placed automatically to numbers taken from your CRM. The different settings available allow you to manage your dialing and avoid over-soliciting your contacts. “Since we began using the Vocalcom solution, our reachability rates are at 95 to 97%,” says Anouar Abdessadek, Director of Digital Transformation and the Customer Experience Department at Centrale Automobile Chérifienne.
Using the most appropriate features of your contact center is also key to effective leads management and great customer service :
The integration of a 100% omnichannel model is another essential feature for great lead management. Our customer, CRC Fimainfo, working at the intersection of customer service and automobile sales, has leveraged this feature of the Vocalcom Hermes360 solution to make the most of all customer service channels and manage all interactions with a targeted audience. From chat for managing information requests, to web contact forms that generate emails, to the management of inbound and outbound calls, the omnichannel functions are perfectly managed. Agents enjoy access to a unified platform that offers a 360° customer view. Since customer service is becoming increasingly omnichannel, the car industry must capitalize on all contact sources to multiply leads and maintain a connection with customers, in order to transition to more modernized processes.
Effective lead management is essential to delivering great service and converting leads into longtime customers. When skilled agents use contact center technology efficiently, every customer interaction turns into a step toward customer loyalty.
