For any inbound call center, the number one goal should be customer satisfaction. But while there are metrics you can aim for and goals you can set, customer satisfaction can be difficult to quantify completely, which can leave your agents feeling a little unfocused and disengaged as a result. Enter the ABC mentality, which offers agents more quantifiable goals to work towards, plus takes advantage of existing opportunities to drive sales. Here, we’re breaking down how adopting an ABC mentality can go far toward boosting revenue for your business.

First off, what does ABC stand for? In this context, ABC stands for “always be closing”, or always be looking for ways to make a sale and be persistent in pursuing those avenues. The first step to implementing an ABC mentality with your agents is to stress that it should be held alongside your goal of improving customer satisfaction; while every opportunity to make a sale should be utilized, said sales should not come at the expense of the customer’s trust or experience. As long as agents don’t lose sight of one goal in their quest to achieve the other, you’re well on your way to increased sales.

Now, the idea behind the ABC mentality is that the agents in your call center are already interacting with customers regularly, so you should use these interactions to boost sales. Not only can this approach increase your bottom line, but, as we mentioned earlier, it also gives agents more focus and purpose as well as stokes some healthy competition amongst colleagues. In addition, the ABC mentality will prompt agents to improve their knowledge of the entire swath of products and services that you offer so that they can effectively sell them.

How do you implement an ABC approach in your call center? Start with these steps.

  • Problem-solve first. We can’t stress this enough: Resolution of the customer’s inquiry should always come first. That said, the ABC mentality may encourage agents to be a bit more efficient and proactive in their approach to resolving customer inquiries so that they can then broach the topic of sales—and as long as that satisfactory solution is reached, this is never a bad thing.
  • Encourage upselling and cross-selling. If your agents are trying to bring a sales angle into a customer service call, upselling and cross-selling are going to be the fastest avenues through which to do so. A lot of the time, existing customers think they have all the tools or services they need, but through the agent’s expertise they can reveal adjacent or complimentary products that can ultimately improve the customer’s experience and satisfaction with the company (while also making you some extra money).
  • Take advantage of follow-up opportunities. A key aspect of the ABC approach is recognizing when an ongoing call is not going to result in a sale. In these cases, the approach does not need to be discarded entirely. Instead, the call can be used for agents to gather data on a customer’s needs and then they can reach out via call or email after the fact with some upsell or cross-sell opportunities that might be of interest to the customer.

Another helpful step in implementing an ABC mentality is providing agents a call center platform through which they can easily jump from handling customer inquiries to processing sales. CallShaper is one such platform—to learn more, request a demo today.