It’s no secret that companies running competitions to boost sales performance are seeing increased revenue. When it’s done right, tapping into salespeople’s natural competitive nature and desire for recognition is just known to work. Plain and simple. So if this motivation strategy is proving beneficial, why stop at sales?
Strong Customer Service Isn’t an Option
Top-notch customer service is more important today than it ever was. Forbes reports that 87% of customers will tell their friends and colleagues about a bad experience, and nearly half will drop that product or service entirely. Then there’s the whole explosion of social media activity. In a nutshell, the customer experience has become as important as the product or service itself and is certainly more impactful than the price of your offering.
Drive Behaviors That = Happy and Successful Customers
Alright, now let’s discuss the kinds of actions and behaviors that strengthen that business-consumer relationship. Similar to sales, customer service teams have specific behaviors — oftentimes what their KPIs measure — that facilitate better interactions, which then lead to happier customers. Remember those sales contests we talked about? Those can be leveraged for each of these KPI’s. [Read more about this in “Your Motivation is Important to Us: Use Gamification to Amp Up Your Customer Reps.”]
For example, most customer service teams are encouraged to build better relationships with their clients by speaking with them on the phone instead of just relying on a transactional email exchange. Try running a competition for your customer service team, motivating them to get on the phone by awarding points for all logged calls. Your customers will appreciate the personal touch, while your team members will find motivation in the performance recognition that comes with this. Win, win!
Another key behavior for the success of any customer service team is response time. We live in an age where customers expect instant results and an immediate response — from a person, not a machine. What better way to create happy customers and boost your brand’s reputation than by encouraging your reps to provide responses to incoming questions or requests as quickly as possible (while maintaining quality, of course)? Create a competition around these response times, or case close time, and award reps points based on what makes sense in your environment. Your customers will appreciate the urgency and attentiveness, while your team members will feel rewarded for their hustle and performance.
Don’t forget: Satisfied customers will refer their friends and families to companies that provide excellent customer service. Build a positive reputation and create growth by leveraging competitions to motivate and reward your customer service teams for their direct contribution to this growth.
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