Idea Factor Blog
by Naomi Clarke

Good Business Karma Raises Your Business Reputation

 

Good-Business-Karma

A positive Karma in your business relationships can be easily achieved and maintained by employing a few very simple practices. This can mean the difference between seeing and buying into what is directly in front of you and establishing a long-term strategic objective that has more to do with ethically motivated practices than profitability.

 

We are conditioned by decades of business practice that dictates that the customer is always right and to engage in whatever way they want to meet their end goal.  I DISAGREE.  If your customer is committed to an action or path that you believe will cause them irreparable harm, it is your responsibility as a partner or vendor to at the very least lay out in detail the potential dangers and outcomes, bring it to their attention in a distinct and thoughtful manner, or extricate yourself altogether, even if it means walking away from a lucrative contract.

WHY? Aside from being the right thing to do, when things do fail, and you were the only partner/vendor that voiced concerns or shared the potential danger, not only will your reputation with that client increase, they will turn to you for thought leadership and pro-active process, even going so far as to recommend you to others. Trust is earned, and respect is gained.

It is not easy to say no to a strategic partner or customer; but laying out a descriptive list of the reasons for your concerns, offering a suggestion for alternative process that can work to meet their end goals, and walking them through your thought process can help clarify and sometimes even win them over to your school of thought with appreciation and thanks. This should be an essential component of the overall long-term success of your business.

Good Karma all around upholds our mission statement to offer an exceptional customer service experience every time bar NONE!

 

Idea Factor provides a full suite of marketing services including B2B lead generation (gathering qualified sales leads), surveys, data mapping, event tele-boosting, trade show follow up, in-bound and out-bound omni-channel call center services, data cleansing, list cleaning, customer retention and loyalty programs.

Our commitment to excellence in customer service has awarded us repeat business for more than 25 years, from both our global and community clients. To find out more go to www.idea-factor.com

by Cheryl Cappellano

WHY AI & Chatbots Make Me CRAZY!

chatter-teeth

My recent experiences with artificial intelligence-powered chatbots, especially those used for CUSTOMER SERVICE, have left me feeling irritated rather than amazed — and I don’t think I’m alone.

 

How do I hate AI? Let me count the ways:

 

THEY Want to Talk Your Ear Off!

If I chat with a human being, I can express complex issues and speak in long, content-rich paragraphs. The person is able to decode and parse what I say, even when there is more than one thought involved. This makes my interaction more efficient.

Chatbots, on the other hand, aren’t able to consume a firehose of human language. They keep coming back and asking question after question. It’s like a chatty neighbor who keeps talking and talking when you have work to get back to. With chatbots, there is a lot of repeating and “did you mean this?” chatter. They have to be walked through a problem while a person can hear the whole problem and break it down themselves.

I ran into this with Visa Card support. I needed to ask what seemed like a simple question about my account. It was the type of question a human could (and did) answer in less than a minute. The VISA chatbot, however, couldn’t understand my question and kept responding with more and more irrelevant questions of its own in a vain attempt to understand what I wanted. I finally had to ask for a human.

 

Chatbots Take More Time Than a Human

Since chatbots are so inefficient in their “speech” they take a lot longer to find a solution outside the most common ones. That would be only mildly annoying if they offered a single interaction such as “What can I help you with?” followed by a “Is this what you are looking for?” answer and then a pivot to a human agent if it didn’t resolve your issue. I also find the voice extremely condescending in it’s over-zealous desire to sound like a human.

Unfortunately, that’s not how they work. Instead, they continue to ask questions until you give up. Sometimes, they don’t give up even when you demand a human. I recently went to the Verizon Wireless customer service chat expecting a human. It was obvious I was speaking to a chatbot — it kept making really silly suggestions — and I demanded an agent. The chatbot persisted until I asked for an agent THREE TIMES and then it sent me into the chat queue. The question was more complex than the chatbot could handle but it wouldn’t give up. The chatbot wasted my time before finally getting me to an agent that could help … two minutes later.

 

It’s Not About Service — It’s About Costs

Chatbots leave one with the impression that chatbots are not intended to front-end a human interaction or gather information to make that interaction more meaningful. Instead, it is pretty obvious that chatbots exist to keep you from speaking to a human. They are just like interactive voice responses (IVR), which also exist to save costs by keeping you from a human, only they require more effort.

It’s much easier to say a simple command or press “1” on your telephone keypad (although, in all fairness, I do find myself yelling “Agent!” at the IVR voice recognition a lot. So I guess I hate IVRs as much as chatbots.)

What makes the cost shift obvious is the implementation of most customer service chatbots. They don’t ask for some basic information (account number or product model) which could then be used by a human agent. Instead, they try to solve the problem and keep doing that even when it’s out of its league. This is just an IVR jail, only with more typing.

In the end, when I am answered by this level of technology, I’m left with a very firm impression that this company does not want my business.

Ahhh – how great it is to have OPTIONS!

 

Idea Factor provides a full suite of marketing services including B2B lead generation (gathering qualified sales leads), surveys, data mapping, event tele-boosting, trade show follow up, in-bound and out-bound omni-channel call center services, data cleansing, list cleaning, customer retention and loyalty programs.

Our commitment to excellence in customer service has awarded us repeat business for more than 25 years, from both our global and community clients. To find out more go to www.idea-factor.com

 

 

by Cheryl Cappellano

A Healthy Sales Pipeline

Sales-person-busy

 

Healthy Sales Pipelines Eliminate the Peaks and Valleys of Sales Goals

Achieving your monthly sales goal can be stressful…

 

 

Maintaining a healthy Sales Pipeline is the key to a consistent and predictable sales performance. It is the best indicator of your sales team’s health. Having a bigger Pipeline is not necessary, it is important to have the RIGHT KIND OF OPPORTUNITIES in the funnel. Your Sales Pipeline is your key for evaluating, managing and improving your sales process and sales team, hence the importance of making sure that it is constantly filled with new opportunities.

 

Problem is that most Sales People are really good at the ‘sales part’… creating relationships, answering objections, preparing quotes and closing deals, but not so great at the opening the door part.

 

And for good reason. The skill set of the Sales Rep and the Business Development Person are completely different.

 

If you want to bring new life to your Field Sales Team, give them the kind of leads that make them bounce out of bed in the morning.

 

How?

Use your Business Development Team to:

  • Source a list within the verticals that you have experience in
  • Identify 2 to 3 key decision maker titles
  • Obtain the names of the people under those titles
  • Send them interesting direct mail
  • Follow up with a phone call to create interest and awareness around your service and product offerings, source for pain points and book a Face to Face meeting for your Field Reps (This usually takes more than 10 phone calls, hence not a good use of the Field Rep’s time)
  • Send the Field Rep the date and time of the meeting, the insights gathered during the conversation, as much information as possible about the Key Decision Maker they will be meeting with, and any other Key Influencers identified along the way.

It’s a Sales Opportunity — all tied up in a bow!
If your sales rep is NOT FIRED UP by that kind of Qualified Opportunity… we can re-direct you to a site to help find the Perfect Field Rep … wink wink.

Wishing you a healthy pipeline and terrific sales.

 

Idea Factor provides a full suite of marketing services including B2B lead generation (gathering qualified sales leads), surveys, data mapping, event tele-boosting, trade show follow up, in-bound and out-bound omni-channel call center services, data cleansing, list cleaning, customer retention and loyalty programs.

Our commitment to excellence in customer service has awarded us repeat business for more than 25 years, from both our global and community clients. To find out more go to www.idea-factor.com

 

 

by Naomi Clarke

The DNA Structure of Great Lead Generation

DNA

 

 

 

Great Leads can be broken down into several components.  Each, when combined in the proper sequence and process — will become a proven and predictive methodology keeping your sales funnel full with high quality leads. Read More