Bucking The Deeply Concerning Salesbot

A UK ‘consumer champion’ survey [sub’n req’d] uncovered the misjudged rise of the retail ‘chatbot’.

Store chains mistakenly thinking such auto-tech is the new ‘customer service’.

Yet buyer perceptions do not point to such satisfaction.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, when it comes to seeking redress, customers value forms of synchronous personal interaction higher than when you type into delayed cyberspace or some enforced AI window. Even the last-century letter of snail-mail seems no longer any good.

The Sales tickler served up by this, is how might this translate into our B2B realm?

Clients will be faced with a similar array of contact options.

Can you substitute out ‘complaint’ for types of enquiry in general? Even ones we instigate?

Immediately prior widespread internet adoption we had landline phones, printed letters and fax machines. Any excuse to have an actual person-to-person discussion seemed always taken. No matter it might mean travelling half-a-day to another office.

Such effort as the latter there clearly unsustainable in our technology-racing, post-corona future.

It’s also interesting to note that even with the ‘best’ option, in one-third of cases complaints may have gone unresolved.

Does this mean that the customer is not in actual fact always right?

Or did custom subsequently go elsewhere?

Then there’s the specific transaction label; “effective”.

Surely we must use the most appropriate channel for the type of conversation that yields prospect or customer delight.

The point is very much that not every contact with a (potential) buyer should use the same media.

A succession of video-only calls would likely be as ultimately fruitless as a constant stream of emails alone.

Which means we need a spread of communication devices. And to mix them up nicely too.

There’s a longer list of choices than you may first realise.

Phone call, video call, yes.

Also voice message, voice explanation (like a mini podcast), video explanation (like you might see a longform youtube or shorterform tiktok or instagram video uploader do).

Then all manner of emailed ‘content’, not only typed musings, but any and more like pdf report, editable doc, slideshow, single graphic or post share.

There’s always the shipping avenue to explore too. How many people receive a workplace package sent by post these days? Can you do something to conjure the #unboxing joy for prospects? Which tellingly, your competition does not…

And finally, there’s the different messengers to consider for your message. For you don’t have to deliver or uncover every key nugget wisdom yourself, do you?