The Upside of Upselling
by Wendy Shooster, Co-CEO, Global Response -
March 25, 2013
The Upside of Upselling
By Wendy Shooster, Co-CEO of Global Response
Order-taking is an important service your outsourced contact center provides, and doing it well reinforces a positive brand image. Contact centers are ideally suited to go beyond order processing to make the transactions more profitable.
When taking an order, the best contact center agents are trained and prepared to engage the customer and discuss the opportunity for additional sales of relevant items. The math is simple – this can increase average dollar per order, average units per order, and, as a result, overall revenue. This is not an always-all-the-time-strategy, and the contact center agents know the client and know the personality. But for businesses that are comfortable with upselling, the upside is significant – and the contact center can do it.
The following concepts will prove to be helpful if you’re looking to learn more about upselling.
• Establish a baseline. Before you start an upsell program, run reports to establish your average order value, average items per order, average revenue per week, and any other key metrics you want to improve with the upsell program.
• Set realistic goals. If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know when you get there? Look at your baseline, then establish targets for key metrics so you can measure your progress in meeting them.
• Conduct training your way. It’s important to train the agents who will be doing the upselling. Some clients do the training themselves, others ask the contact center to do it, Often it’s a collaboration. However it’s handled, it’s a key to success.
• Make the upsell affordable. Adding a $9 item to a $100 order is not a stretch for a customer and is almost an impulse purchase. But adding a $9 item to a $20 order is something customers will really think about. If you stick with upsell items that increase the order value by 10 to 20 percent, you’ll get more sales.
• Provide incentives for agents. Gift cards, merchandise, and other rewards for hitting specific sales goals can motivate agents, promote friendly, positive competition within your outsourced sales team, and increase your sales.
• Test different upsell strategies. There are many proven upsell strategies: buy one, get the second one half off; buy a certain dollar amount and get free shipping; buy an item and get a complementary item at a discounted price; buy an item in one color and get another one in a different color at a discount. Creativity is the key and the possibilities are limitless. Pick a strategy that works for your product line, then vary the products and strategies often to keep customers coming back.
• Give your agents discretion. Your outsourced agents should look to upsell at every opportunity, but should have the discretion to not upsell when a customer is in a hurry, or for whatever reason doesn’t seem receptive to an upsell offer.
If you are looking to upsell, don’t be haphazard. Use a strategy with foresight and goals, and you’ll find success.
Wendy Shooster is Co-CEO of Global Response, a Florida-based outsourced contact center and brand care specialist. wendy@globalresponse.com (954) 973-7300.
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