Keeping your customers comfortable and happy is an ongoing balancing act, but the good news is, you’ve got a diverse toolbox. With Zoey, we understand that every user experience is unique, which is why we believe choosing between a self-service portal and salesperson support shouldn’t be a choice at all. Together, our self-service portal and salesperson support help you cover all of your bases and elevate the experience for both you and your buyers.
The Basics: Self-Service and Salesperson Support
To better understand how self-service and salesperson support work together, it’s key to understand the identity of each.
A customer self-service portal is a part of an Ecommerce website where users can access resources on products, place orders without working with a salesperson and track orders. On the other hand, salesperson support offers direct assistance to your buyers with a guiding hand and a personal touch that can happen over the phone, in person or even electronically.
Why Customer Self-Service?
The role of a self-service portal is to allow buyers to place orders on their own, track shipments and access order history to make reordering easy. Zoey users get access to additional self-service features like a faceted site search with a dynamic product catalog view, ordering tools and robust tracking features, too.
A customer self-service portal emphasizes ease of use and efficiency, both in terms of time and cost. Processes that are streamlined for the buyer translate to less time from your staff, saving you money, while still capturing those all-important sales. Customer self-service portals remain available at all times and on virtually every device, an increasingly important feature for younger generations that prefer to make purchases digitally, and on their schedule, rather than through a salesperson.
What About Salesperson Support?
Salesperson support aims to help customers make purchases as opposed to ordering on their own. Likewise, buyers can benefit from streamlined sales quotes, order placements, personalized communication via order comments and more.
Zoey also offers an array of tools to empower Ecommerce salespeople to drive growth, from order attribution, customer analytics, linking orders to customers, working online or offline through a mobile app and draft orders for approval based on customer preferences.
How They Harmonize
According to reporting from Gartner in 2019, about 70% of people prefer to use self-service channels. As positive as that data is, that still leaves plenty of people who prefer a helping hand. Some customers also prefer to interact one-on-one rather than engage with automation. It’s about agility – like Forbes says, what’s great about the “specialization, automation and self-service trifecta […] is how these elements can work together and evolve as your business grows and changes.”
Benefits of Customer Self-Service and Salesperson Support
The multi-pronged approach isn’t just either-or, it enhances problem-solving in the wider view and benefits both buyers and sellers in many ways.
1. Purchase Freedom
Combining customer self-service with salesperson support essentially helps buyers regardless of their purchasing preference; buyers can make purchases on their own, or via a salesperson. Providing both ensures that buyers feel comfortable no matter how they shop.
2. Increased Selling Power
By equipping your buyers with more knowledge and different avenues to order, salespeople are able to sell to more customers without increasing staffing. Similarly, sales teams can focus on customer acquisition instead of devoting time and other resources to solely support existing customers.
3. Integrated Experience
Likewise, Zoey’s proprietary salesperson support tools integrate into the experience. Via our desktop, mobile, tablet and laptop-friendly options, you have instant access to customer order drafts, straightforward links to commissionable events, order comments and customer analytics. In contrast to a one-sided customer experience, that access helps foster a collaborative, informed, and problem-solving environment.
4. Instant Access to Customer Orders
Because you and your sales team have instant access to customer order drafts, customer self-service and sales support can work in tandem. Instant access to the buyer’s order draft not only streamlines the sales process, it also removes any uncertainty on the salesperson’s end. When customers and salespeople are — quite literally — on the same page, they’re able to synergize.
5. Analyze Order Patterns and Customer History
Both self-service options and salesperson support provides Ecommerce companies with a detailed look at buyer order patterns and other crucial analytics. These essential tools help in many ways, including knowing when to contact a customer prior to an upcoming order, drafting orders based on user preferences and establishing customer groups and segmentation.
6. Customer Loyalty
Both customer self-service and salesperson support are key parts of the buyer’s journey. When you give the buyer tools to process orders on their own, you’re also encouraging them to engage with your website’s other features, and in turn, engage with your brand. Customers feel empowered when they’re able to take action on their own and satisfied when they find the support they need. Both roads have the same destination: increased customer loyalty.
Zoey Self-Service and Salesperson Support
Zoey’s self-service ordering portal is so streamlined and straightforward, emphasizing features like skimmable lists and bulk-add to cart, your buyers won’t have to interact with a salesperson if they are comfortable buying solo. It’s all about choice. And at the end of the day, that not only enhances the experience for you, it empowers – and ultimately energizes – your buyers.
See Zoey’s self-service and salesperson solutions for yourself with a free customized demo of the Zoey B2B Ecommerce suite:
Dan is a small business owner and freelance writer based in Dallas, TX. In over a decade of experience, he’s been fortunate to write and collaborate with business-facing brands including The Motley Fool, Chron, Office Depot, Fortune and more.
