How do you communicate and coordinate with the customer service team during the sales cycle?

I agree with all the above as the foundation for great communication and clarity around roles and expectations and would add that it is critical to incorporate a regular cadence of meetings with the stakeholders. The point of this is to review progress, address blockers, reprioritize if needed, and most importantly, hold accountability across the teams. This ensures that the leadership team is in lockstep, citing the same elevator speech, and can appropriately communicate up, down, and across the organization. Overcommunicating at all levels is key because of the rate at which organizations are moving and because people retain information in different forms.

Create overlaps in sales and customer service roles to ensure that both teams understand the customer's experience at all stages of the journey. Hold regular sales and customer service team meetings, encouraging collaboration and feedback sharing to build a better customer experience. Provide customer service training to sales team members to ensure they can provide adequate support during the sales cycle.

Comunicarse entre todas las partes por más peque?a información que obtengamos cada uno desde su rol siempre será valioso! Y no está por demás cuantas veces sea necesario.

I find that the above is necessary but emphasizing how objective each ties directly to or impacts their specific position is equally important. Using real-life examples to demonstrate any monetary gain (such as year-end bonuses) creates excitement and collaborative teams that understand how to support each other toward common goals.

Implement a unified communication platform that allows for seamless communication between teams, regardless of location or department. Assign specific customer accounts to a dedicated team of sales and customer service representatives, who can work together to provide a cohesive experience. Provide consistent training on best practices for communication and customer support to ensure a cross-functional understanding of customer-facing roles.

I'm not sure if my SMB I/T sales cycle applies here, because I have always filtered all communications to my client to keep them protected from unsolicited requests. Now when it comes to partnering with field reps who work for the manufacturer, that's different. In that situation, I think it's crucial to use the tag-team dynamic to make sure the client gets the most out of that relationship. It's also crucial that you and the field rep have a regular cadence so everyone stays on point, or else your client can feel that there are "too many cooks in the kitchen."

Estar alineados, comunicados y enfocados en las mismas métricas; cada uno desde su frente jamás será un desacierto. Un cliente contento y que genere negocios es posible a través de un trabajo coordinado en trabajar por cumplir y sobrepasar sus expectativas.

Utilize customer relationship management (CRM) software to provide sales and customer service teams with real-time visibility into customer accounts and interactions. Enable customer service representatives to access sales pitch documents and product information to ensure they are fully informed about the company's offerings. Use automated chatbots or messaging tools to handle basic customer queries, freeing up sales and customer service teams to focus on more complex customer issues.

Having subscribed to the methodology that Customer Service team members are your best source of customer feedback, I often find that they are overlooked. I have had success in establishing relationships with the Customer Service teams so that they feel valued and heard. They are the first voice a customer or client often hears and they take their jobs to heart. I find that including them in the strategic and testing processes helps uncover pain points to address for helping to avoid any potential customer escalations. Hoping for the best coupled with planning for the exceptions ensures you are prepared to handle whatever a customer may throw at you. That preparation in turn creates a solid foundation of trust across teams.

While I understand I can't please everyone and some people live to complain, I also try my best to listen to the customer, understand their concerns and make sure the rest of our team hears them as well so we know if this is an isolated incident or if there is a larger issue which needs to be addressed in the business. For example, we found out through a customer that a material handling charge from our vendor was significantly higher than other vendors and the was preventing them from doing more business with us. We were able to renegotiate with that vendor to bring their prices more in-line with industry norms and we made sure the customer knew that without their feedback, we wouldn't have been aware of the issue, let alone corrected it.

Estoy completamente de acuerdo en que esto es lo ideal y en su gran mayoría no aplicado. Las reuniones de alineamiento con las diferentes partes interesadas de un negocio es vital para hacer un trabajo integral. Los prospectos, escuchar sus necesidades, expectativas y sobretodo cómo podemos mejorar su experiencia. A veces es tan simple como preguntarle al cliente: qué puedo mejorar, cómo hago tu experiencia mejor y trabajar todos los involucrados por llegar a ese punto de satisfacción. Varias cabezas (enfocadas en un mismo fin y con metodología) piensan y atienden mejor que una.??

Collect customer feedback regularly and analyze it to identify areas where coordination between the teams can be improved. Track the number of touchpoints where the sales and customer service teams interact, and measure the success rate of those interactions. Monitor customer retention and customer acquisition metrics to determine if coordination efforts lead to a positive impact on the bottom line.

See my thoughts for step three above. The same methodology applies here. Gathering information from the Customer Service team creates an opportunity to update scripts, call routing, specialty teams, and client/customer-facing FAQs and resources to help reduce call volume.

El feedback que obtiene servicio al cliente puede proporcionar a la empresa diferentes actividades, contenido, data y visibilidad de lo que que en verdad agrega valor al cliente. Considero que una cultura de compartir información y de cero celo profesional generaría un trabajo centrado en el cliente y aunque muchas veces se resta valor; la comunicación y buenas prácticas inician casa adentro.

Sobretodo lo mencionado anteriormente debe primar el trabajo integral entre las diferentes áreas y por qué no aplicar modelos de éxito en cada caso del cliente. El perfil del cliente se llena con la información y perspectiva de diferentes áreas y es ahí cuando todos en una empresa saben por qué áreas ingresar, puntos de contacto, seriedad y forma de tratar a un cliente de forma integral para generar una relación a largo plazo

I 100% agree with this perspective and have had success with it in the past. Another tactic that is incredibly helpful is to make available a real-time marketing communications calendar so the Customer Service teams can plan and staff for any fluctuation in call volume. Being short-staffed can not only impact the average speed of answer and handling time, but it also leads to unnecessary stress on the teams.

From my experience, I've found that one of the most effective ways to generate a positive customer experience is to first manage the customers expectations. I don't subscribe to the "customer is always right" school of thought. If the customer understands what is and is not able to be done for them at the onset of the sale/contracting process, it will make the customer service journey more seamless as we've worked to mitigate any potential challenges from the beginning of the cycle.

Including customer svc team members to face-face meetings, webinars, appreciation events, etc. where possible to build relationships and increase trust.