Discovering Sales Success: Pre-Sale Assistance’s Power

In the entire purchase journey, customers have multiple questions related to the product, in terms of size, return policy, product satisfaction, and so on and so forth!

Proactively responding to these inquiries and assisting customers in making more informed purchasing selections is how pre-sales assistance expands your company. 40–50% of new customers are converted by businesses with effective pre-sales methods, according to Harvard Business Review.

It is clear that a customer needs a lot of information to establish confidence before sharing any sensitive information.

Examples of this information include details about production materials, shipping prices, and other related topics. Customers may switch to other suppliers where these details are easily accessible if they are unable to obtain them.

Continue reading to find out how you create a pre-sales strategy that works, increases customer satisfaction, and maintains a positive sales cycle.

Pre-sales support: What It Is and Why It Matters

Pre-sales assistance is a range of services and resources provided to potential customers prior to their finalization of a transaction. This involves informing consumers about goods, responding to their questions, and offering advice to enable them to make informed selections.

Customers have additional doubts and new queries, such as “Is expedited shipping available?” and “Does this product really show the accurate color of the product?” especially as the buying experience shifts online. The conversion rate of your online store is significantly influenced by your capacity to respond to pre-sale inquiries. 

Important Pre-Sale Questions Affecting Consumer Choices

Unanswered pre-sale queries can lead to lost sales opportunities, which is often the source of customer displeasure. The particular pre-sales questions your company will need to ask will depend on your products and sector, but the following outline covers the principles of e-commerce. It is important for your support team to properly respond to these frequently asked questions:

Product Specifics

• What are the product’s fundamental features?
• Who is this product’s intended market?
• How can I make the most of this product?

When making judgments about what to buy, customers usually look for information on features like size, color, durability, warranty, simplicity of use, safety, and competitive comparisons

Details of the Inventory

• When will there be a restock of this item?
• Exist any substitute items on the market?
• Are there other colors available for this?

Customers frequently ask about availability, alternatives, and fluctuations in inventory, in addition to particular product questions.

Details of Shipping

• How much time do shipping and processing take?
• Do you deliver to my address?
• What are the delivery schedules and the cost of shipping?

Order tracking solutions that are easily available and provide clear shipment information can allay customer worries and enhance the shopping experience.

Technical Assistance

• Can this product be placed in my room?
• How should I install this product when it gets here?
• Are these compatible with the devices I already have?

Giving thorough answers to technical questions decreases post-purchase problems and gives clients more confidence in their purchases. Businesses may maximize conversion rates, reduce abandoned carts, and improve customer satisfaction by proactively responding to these pre-sale inquiries.

6 strategies to increase income using pre-sales assistance

Pre-sales assistance helps you overcome objections that can affect the outcome of a sale by keeping customers from leaving your website to look for product information elsewhere. According to the Harvard Business Review, 80–90% of repeat clients are converted via pre-sales processes that are improved. In order to resolve concerns, overcome skepticism, and assist customers in making confident purchasing decisions, your support staff serves as sales agents.

1. Make your website user-friendly and instructive.

A website that is confusing to visitors or that lacks important information might deter them from completing a purchase. Improving the browsing experience on your website is essential to answering pre-sale inquiries and increasing revenue. The following are important areas for development:

• During checkout, provide an estimated time of arrival.
• For important announcements (such as updates on deliveries or promotions), use banners.
• Make sure that shipping and return policies are simple to find on every page.
• Add information about production, compatibility, use cases, sizing, and other topics to improve product descriptions.
• Provide interactive questionnaires or comprehensive sizing guides.
• Make use of product quizzes to direct clients toward appropriate purchases.
• On every product page, include a variety of images, videos, or 360-degree views.

Additionally, think about data analysis to discover areas that need optimization and carry out market research to determine best practices for navigation. Make your good shipping and return policies more visible, for example, if they are not being used enough to boost exposure and engagement.

    2. Improve the Options for Self-Service.

In addition to the material that is distributed throughout your website, gather responses to pre-sale questions into a self-service hub such as a Help Center or FAQ page.

It can be difficult to send inquiries from clients directly to email. When abandoning a cart poses a risk, it’s essential to create an effortless way to get these answers—and subsequent purchases—without requiring consumers to leave your website or shopping app. Your customers will rapidly turn to an organized resource as their first choice for answering queries and addressing issues before calling assistance.

Make sure your website has a clear link to your Help Center or FAQ page once you’ve created one. Make sure that clients can quickly locate material by providing a search bar, clear categories, titles, and headers.

    3. Use Interactive FAQs to Boost Customer Support Efficiency in Your Live Chat Widget.

Customers frequently use your live chat widget to receive help when they are unable to discover what they need on your website or in your help center. Fortunately, pre-loaded FAQs that are directly in your chat interface can help you improve support.

To expedite the procedure, make use of tools like eServeCloud Solutions’ Quick Response Flows. These include interactive buttons in your chat widget that let users ask questions and get prompt responses without having to leave your website or wait for a representative to get back to them. For pre-sales inquiries, Quick Response Flows are perfect since they guarantee that consumers may quickly obtain the information they require. Crucially, they enhance human agents rather than take their place. Customers can simply escalate to speak with a customer service agent if they need more assistance.

    4. Adaptively Respond to Frequently Asked Pre-Sale Questions.

Automation gives you the opportunity to reply to customer questions quickly. Make use of a flexible help desk that facilitates omnichannel communication, including SMS, live chat, email, and more.

With the use of pre-configured templates, eServeCloud Solutions allows for the automatic identification of common customer inquiries, resulting in prompt responses. Without the need for human engagement, our intent detection technology identifies unique customer requirements and provides prompt, appropriate assistance. Once customer service is streamlined by automated responses, it frees up agents for more difficult jobs and increases workflow effectiveness.

With the automation technologies from eServeCloud Solutions, you can improve customer support and save time while concentrating on customized encounters that call for human engagement.

    5. Engage with active customers in real-time by utilizing chat marketing.

Chat campaigns imitate a salesman at a store approaching a customer to offer assistance and tell them about the newest products and discounts. They are automated outreach using the chat widget on your website.

These advertisements can offer updates, publicize new product releases or partnerships, and encourage customers to express any queries they may have.

For instance, you can set up prompts for users who have been on the site for some time using eServeCloud Solutions services. Chat campaigns can be customized for certain goals, like:

• Providing tailored assistance on pages for premium products
• advising clients that they qualify for free shipping on shipping pages
• Giving customers discounts on checkout screens to entice them to finish their transactions
• With your help desk, create customized pre-sales views.

Set up rules in your help-desk system to categorize and rank pre-sales questions for support agents.

You can design unique views in eServeCloud Solutions with tags and rules to let agents work only on pre-sales inquiries. Make sure agents are aware of the standards for understanding pre-sales questions, which are queries customers need to know the answers to in order to make well-informed selections about what to buy.

    6. Look out for pre-sale inquiries on social media (and answer them openly).

Give potential buyers the ability to learn more about your items directly from the social media sites that they like. It’s important not to overwhelm your marketing team with this work, given the number and diversity of messages and comments on social media. Give customer service representatives the information they need to properly handle questions from customers on social media. These exchanges often remove the barriers customers encounter when considering a purchase.

How to evaluate pre-sale assistance

In terms of lead generation or sales, most brands don’t believe customer support teams can provide much. The following is completely untrue: It’s simply an issue of demonstrating how much pre-sales customer support staff can help with sales.

Here are three methods for calculating revenue generated by providing support.  

1. Make use of a support dashboard’s revenue – Make or keep an eye on a dashboard that displays all of the income your support staff brings in. This is shown in your account’s Revenue Statistics section if you use eServeCloud Solutions. 
2. Monitor incoming traffic to your support center – Another excellent way to determine whether pre-sales inquiries are being addressed and how much money support generates is by looking at the volume of traffic that your help center receives.

Customers who visit your help center prior to completing a purchase, particularly those who read an article with pre-sales inquiries, are probably interested in your brand, have inquiries, and want to learn more. Watch this space for traffic to demonstrate your influence and to learn how to better structure and connect your information base for greater discoverability. 

• Monitor the pre-sale automation rate. With Rapid Reaction Channels, you may track their traffic if you employ eServeCloud Solutions’ Quick Response Flows, which are automated chat solutions for frequently asked queries.

For instance, you can tell that pre-sales assistance is driving traffic to product pages if you notice that 200% more individuals are clicking the “Do you have new products” response. After that, if you observe an increase in sales, consider that a success. The Revenue Statistics Dashboard in eServeCloud Solutions is where you can find these statistics. 

After-sale assistance

After-sale assistance is a useful strategy for maintaining existing customers, promoting exchanges rather than refunds, and fostering repeat business. 

The difference between help provided before and after a sale

Pre-sales support includes guiding customers through the sales process and completing transactions, in addition to responding to inquiries they have before making a purchase. To help a customer transition from being a prospect to a happy customer, support staff become sales reps. The post-purchase assistance provided by members of your customer service staff affects your brand’s financial results. When you make a positive initial impression and meet their needs with top-rate after-sales support, you’ll enhance customer retention and lifetime value and increase your chances of becoming their repeat customer. 

Use proactive post-sale tactics to increase client satisfaction and encourage recurring business:

• Send out thorough order confirmations: Reduce the number of WISMO requests by sending detailed order confirmation emails that include a link to the customer’s order site for status updates.
• Write a thank-you note to consumers to convey your gratitude and to emphasize their importance to your business.
• Ask for client opinions: Ask for feedback to enhance after-sale procedures and show that you value client feedback.
• Provide customized product recommendations: Retain clients by making product recommendations based on their past searches and preferences.
• Provide accurate shipment updates on time: Provide regular updates on the status of shipments, along with customized notifications about sales and forthcoming events.
• Make use of marketing communications: To promote recurring business, send out email newsletters and nurture programs to your consumers.
• Offer prompt customer service: Use live chat to improve after-sale support and satisfy customers by responding to their requests more quickly.
• Adopt an omnichannel strategy: Assist clients via many platforms, such as Facebook Messenger and SMS, to guarantee smooth communication tailored to their preferences.

Enhance your pre-sales efforts by utilizing eServeCloud Solutions.

As your customers and support agents begin their pre-sales journey, eServeCloud Solutions can assist them. eServeCloud Solutions concentrates on producing more qualified leads and raising online shop conversion rates, whereas the majority of customer care teams and tools concentrate on fixing problems.

Schedule a demo to experience the e-commerce help-desk that generates the most income.