Benefits of Frequent ‘Confirmations’

Monday, June 3, 2013

Business transactions succeed when all parties navigate to an agreeable resolution. This applies to all types of to caller-agent interactions: sales, service, support, and retention. The most successful and profitable transactions follow smooth, streamlined trajectories.

Transactional Essentials: Confirmations

Confirmations are an essential element of all types of caller-agent transactions. Confirmations are the structural binding ingredient of efficient call interactions. Frequent confirmations during calls insure that all parties share a common understanding, agree to proposed solutions and post-call action-items. They establish that agents are actively listening, understanding, and giving careful consideration the caller's needs.

Confirmations help keep agents on track, giving the interactions forward momentum. They help agents guide callers from general needs to specific solutions. They also serve to underscore agreement, a powerful sales and problem resolution technique.

At Call Intelligence we segment transactions into Three Phases; Trajectory, Sell/Solve, and Summarize. There are points in each phase when Confirmations should be used.

Chart 1 shows the 'Effects of Confirming Status and Purpose'. These occur in a call's the Trajectory Phase (shortly after agents greet callers.)

Chart 1 - Effects of Confirming Status and Purpose Confirmations

Sales Transactions - Status & Purpose Confirmations

(1.) New Customers - There is a 25% increase in sales conversions, and 7% increase in revenue/sale when Agents use BOTH Status and Purpose Confirmations, compared to Agents that used NEITHER.

(2.) Upgrades - There is a 9% increase in sales conversions, and 13% increase in revenue/sale when Agents use BOTH Status and Purpose Confirmations, compared to Agents that used NEITHER
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Transactional Analytics is the study of the structure, content, and outcomes of interactions between callers and the systems/personnel that handle their requests.

Call Intelligence Inc specializes in transactional analytics and intelligence. We have over 23 years of experience working on projects for the public and private sectors. We study voice interactions to determine which transactional structures, techniques, and tactics work best.

We use proprietary tools to uncover the current effectors of sales, churn, customer experience, and corporate reputation. We help our clients answer questions that directly impact the cost, efficiency, and outcomes of their interactions with prospects and customers.