Should sales management care what happens in their customer service teams? Absolutely.
Research shows that high-performing sales and service teams are more integrated than ever. Earlier this week, Salesforce released new data on modern customer service. The second annual State of Service report surveyed more than 2,600 customer service professionals and contains valuable insights for modern sales teams.
Sales management can download the full report here, or take a look at our top highlights below.
4 customer service insights sales management should know
1. Customer service is key to creating lifelong customers.
Four-fifths (80 percent) of executives with service oversight say customer service is the primary vehicle for improving the customer experience. And they’re right. More than 82 percent of business buyers say personalized care influences their loyalty, and 78 percent say they are extremely likely or very likely to switch brands if they receive inconsistent levels of service across departments.
2. Collecting customer data throughout the lifecycle is crucial.
More than 70 percent of teams agreed or strongly agreed that having a shared, single view of the customer empowers departments to provide consistency and continuity every time they interact with a customer. Employees interact with each other better, as well. Seventy-six percent of teams agreed or strongly agreed it empowers interdepartmental collaboration. But only 37 percent of teams say they’re above average at gathering insights across the entire cycle.
3. Collaboration between sales and service teams is a priority.
According to the report, top teams are three times more likely than under performers to excel at connecting and collaborating across departments and drive a cohesive customer journey.
Here’s the percentage of teams who agree or strongly agree with the following:
- Sales and service share common goals and metrics (68 percent).
- Service proactively provides sales with intelligence on customer issues/needs (67 percent).
- Service identifies opportunities and proactively alerts sales (67 percent).
- Service regularly contributes to sales pipeline generation through customer interactions (65 percent).
- Service has a formal process for collaborating with sales (63 percent).
4. KPIs have become more customer-facing.
Sixty-six percent of teams have implemented more customer-oriented KPIs to measure performance. Salesforce’s research anticipates high-growth for these key performance indicators:
- Customer effort score
- Case deflection
- Net promoter score
- Agent impact on net promoter score
- Social promoter score
But this isn’t the first foray into KPIs for customer service teams. Find out how today’s top CS teams use metrics in our Complete KPI Guide for Customer Success.
There’s plenty more research for sales management in the 57-page report. Don’t forget to grab a free copy here.
