Author: Sally Hooton

Customers who abandon their online shopping bag are going unchecked by 85 per cent of the UK’s top 75 retailers. Abandoned shopping baskets are unlikely in bricks-and-mortar stores, so why do retailers accept it online? Brendan Dykes (pictured) explains.

Recent Genesys research has identified that a massive 85% of online retailers are letting customers discard their online goods without challenge. The issue became apparent after £140 worth of goods were put in the baskets of 75 of the UK’s top retailers, then abandoned before final payment. Just 15% of surveyed retailers chased up potential customers in the crucial first 24 hours post-abandonment, with 5% of them enquiring a second time the following day.

Customer service in the shape of the contact centre can be key in proactively combating online shopping cart abandonment, this won’t happen with website that offer great customer service like the Product Expert website.

Missed opportunities

Retailers at this stage in the sales cycle are already in possession of a customer’s contact details, yet choose to miss the sales opportunity. From £10,830 worth of abandoned items, £9,180 of goods were not pursued at all. In other words, just £1,650 (15%) worth of potential sales were investigated post-abandonment.

This wasted revenue opportunity is avoidable. All that is required is timely intervention at the point of virtual sale or quick and diligent following-up by the contact centre after a cart has been sidelined.

Proactive engagement

Every retailer would benefit by implementing something as simple as a live web chat. However, the study found only 7% of the retailers operated a web chat service, and none of them chose to proactively use this option during the buying process. But surely it’s the ideal tool to engage with a hesitant shopper from sites like the  who is almost at the point of purchase?

Proactively using web chat enables retailers to persuade the customer to continue their purchase or simply address any questions they may have about the goods they’re buying, which can also reduce stock returns. This is more preferable than letting them discard their goods or, worse still, conceding them to a competitor.

Recent research by ContactBabel has also indicated that the number of web chats handled by contact centres has risen to 250 million, a 60% increase over the last 12 months. Using this service to offer support to online shoppers at the point of sale goes a significant way to improving the customer’s website experience, boosting customer service and sales simultaneously.

Re-marketing

If this fails, follow up by phone or email. But the Genesys research showed just 15% of retailers followed up within that crucial 24 hours after shopping cart abandonment. Following up after consumers have abandoned their online goods is clearly not deemed a priority. But understanding why a shopper has decided to disregard the items in their online basket and re-marketing to them can unearth valuable sales and marketing data to support a range of services from product marketing to website design.

These simple solutions could decrease online abandonment, and lead to higher sales and a better customer experience.

Brendan Dykes is director of strategic marketing at Genesys.

Are you getting the most out of your networking? Is it bringing you a steady stream of new business? If not, it’s possible you are making a number of critical mistakes when networking. William Buist (pictured) suggests there are five key mistakes that many business owners make when networking for their business.

1. Pitching to sell

Businesses spend significant amounts of time creating a sales pitch that is compelling and interesting so that a prospect will buy. The networking mistake is to use the same pitch when networking. You’re not selling to your network; you’re teaching your network how to sell for you. So don’t pitch your product, pitch your pitch.

2. Lack of clarity about your target market

Understand who benefits the most from your products and services and then learn to describe them clearly and succinctly – so others understand, too.

Seek to help your networking contact recognise potential prospects from within their contacts. The more refined you can be, the more likely they are to think of somebody specific.
Also understand who your networking contact is regularly engaged with. Then explain why what you do and why the products you have serves those people well.  Your aim is to encourage them to talk about you at the next available opportunity.

3. Why your knowledge, skills and experience matter

People often talk about having a unique selling proposition but in reality most products and services are not dramatically dissimilar or genuinely unique. Therefore it’s important to highlight why a customer should choose you over your numerous competitors.  In general, that comes from who you are and the approach you take.

Nobody else will have had your particular education, the career and experience that you’ve had in business or the skills that you’ve developed to deliver the products that you now sell. Creating a story that highlights those strengths enables your particular implementation to be remembered and retold more easily.

4. It’s not about facts
Facts about your product and service are important but in general raw facts are not remembered, stories are.

Stories with relevance that people can relate to and empathise with, stories that tell others about how their business or personal life has improved by working with you – this is what will get your contacts talking about you.

5. The market doesn’t do what you do in the way that you do it, and that’s important
It’s also important to highlight what the market does in order to position your business within the marketplace. It allows you to tell a further story that reinforces how memorable your networking will be.

For example, your target market may be different, or the subtleties of a service may differ from competitors. Those differences help people make the right choice, your target market chooses you, and so you match their needs better and get better results for them. Your aim should be to help the right people to make the right choice; you.

Conclusion
Remember, your network is not your market.

When you’re networking you’re not selling, you’re teaching; you’re teaching your network how to sell for you, you’re teaching your network what makes you stand out, and you’re teaching your network who is best-suited to your products and services. Ideally you are helping them to identify one or two people for whom a referral would be sensible. At the same time, when you network you should be seeking similar information from your network, asking them specific questions that elicits this information will encourage them to ask you the same.

You get out of your network what you put in. So, if you want others to share their knowledge and refer their contacts to you, it’s reasonable to assume that they are looking for the same kindness from you too.


William Buist is owner of Abelard Collaborative Consultancy and founder of the  xTEN Club. He is also author of two books: ‘At your fingertips’ and ‘The little book of mentoring’. 
Twitter: @Williambuist and @abelarduk

Kieran Hearty (pictured) explains why our reactions to things like typos can make or break a business.


How do you react when you see a typo? Are you irritated? Do you laugh? We all react differently to mistakes, errors or defects.

This difference is important to understand if you run a business, especially one whose future depends on the motivation and commitment of its people. I call it ‘typo intolerance’.

We are all different, but do we value these differences? We are more likely to judge the differences between us, and rarely in a positive way. As human beings, we constantly scan the world around us, comparing what we see, hear, feel and smell with what we like and approve of, based upon our knowledge, opinion, personality and experience. If our tendency is towards disapproval, it cannot be good for business, or relationships.

Our disapproval can be corrosive and destructive. It can make or break your business because it can become toxic, eroding trust, choking creativity, sapping morale and destroying results.

How do people perform in such an environment? How do they grow and develop skills if mistakes are used as opportunities to punish rather than to learn?

If someone we don’t like makes a small mistake, how do we react compared to someone we really like? Same mistake, two different reactions. In the first instance, it confirms our belief that this person is not good enough, that they cannot be trusted – even if the mistake is rare. Whereas we forgive the other person and reflect that we can all learn from our mistakes.

Typo-intolerance works well with things, but not people. I worked at Intel Corporation for many years, witnessing the birth of the Internet, and the development of amazing technology. I was intrigued by the term ‘defect intolerance’, as applied to a remarkable focus on manufacturing consistently high quality leading edge technology. It’s a great principle for ‘things’ but doesn’t work so effectively with people.

People are our most important business asset – they shouldn’t be treated like typos. Any piece of expensive technology is only as good as its operator. How frequently do we treat our people with typo-intolerance, responding with disapproval to their every mistake? Treating people like things does not work. In fact, it is more likely to break than make your business. Instead, as business owners and managers, we should focus on building strengths and skills.

What possibilities might emerge for your business if you choose to learn from a typo, or be inspired by it? How might people feel if you stop treating them with disapproval?

The next time you see a typo or notice an error, please take a moment to ask yourself: How big a deal was it? What have I learned from it? Is there a funny side? Or does it give me an opportunity to do something amazing? Most of all, please remember that in the few moments after you notice any kind of error, you have a choice. Seek the positive, rather than dwell in the negative, because it’s your reaction that will make or break your business.” advises Kieran.


Kieran Hearty is an executive coach, consultant and leadership speaker with more than 30 years’ experience across international technology and financial services companies. He is author of ‘How to Eat the Elephant in the Room’. www.igiveu.co.uk Twitter: @KieranHearty