Why are you answering the phone?

Welcome to the secret shopping blog, our window on the world of mystery shopping and secrets shopping.

I just reviewed some secret shop data for one of our clients. They are a national wireless phone company. We have a meeting with them next week, so I was making some charts and putting together some stats.

We shopped 10 of their local stores 40 times last month. Some of the tendencies we saw were that only 25% of the associates tried to suggest the best minute plan for the customer’s needs. And 32% invited the caller to come into the store. These two areas should be the most important when making your presentation over the phone.

It is important for any associate to demonstrate or explain their product. The more you educate your customer, the more comfortable they will feel with the product. They will also feel committed to your company. It is especially important to feel comfortable using your wireless phone because options vary so much in this industry. Although an associate may not be able to get into great detail over the phone about the buttons on your cell phone, they should be able to make you feel that you will get the best rate plan with them. The associate can finish the sale in the store.

It should be natural for any phone call to lead to an invitation to come into the store. By extending an invitation you let the caller know that you want to help. But more importantly, you get commitment from them, and stop them from shopping around.

These stats ring true for many other businesses. Are your associates determining the needs of the callers? Or are they just answering the phone to say hello? Do they try to get commitment from customers shopping around?

Ta ta for now…
Sarah

Tweet This Post 

Disclamer: This entry is intended to promote our partner StorageMart and some or all participants received compensation.

View Sarah's Profile      Subscribe via RSS