What is one of the biggest reasons for losing leads or failing to clinch a sale?
Obstacles and delays
Every time your customer has to work a bit harder to progress through the sales funnel, you increase the chance that they walk away. Have you considered how easy your customer journey is from enquiry through to instruction at every time of day?
Initial enquiry
Let’s say I get to your website in the day. I call you, your lines are busy. Or I get to your website out of office hours. How easy is it for me to make my initial enquiry and how long do I have to wait to hear back?
Making it easy to enquire is an important factor in increasing the number of initial enquiries that you receive. Different customers have different preferences on contacting a company. Do you offer:
- Contact form
- Phone number
- Live chat
- Instant quote
Each customer has a different preference over how they prefer to make contact. The more options you can provide, the more people you will encourage to make that enquiry.
Instructing you
How easy is it for your customer to sign terms? Do they have to download a pdf, print it, sign and scan back in. Or can they sign electronically? The more difficult this is, the more it gets put off and the greater amount of time a competitor has to discuss their service and how easy it is to go ahead. Remember the customer isn’t yours until the terms and signed and payment is made so don’t add unnecessary delays.Â
This is the same for payment – do customers have to make a BACS payment? Yes it is slightly cheaper to process and, of course, some customers prefer this method. But it offers less safety and peace of mind to your consumer and is much harder to complete via a phone. Switching between an email with bank details and the mobile banking app can be frustrating. Then comes the security check on the card reader.
Or customers can go to an online payment link, enter saved card details in a click and payment is done.
When you go to a supermarket, you expect to pay by card. Not to have to go to a cash machine or make a bank transfer. Making it easier to pay (and instruct) removes obstacles and helps to speed up the booking process, reduces the need to chase and reduces the amount of time another surveyor has the opportunity to persuade a customer to book with them.
The online card processing cost (fees range from 0.75% to 2.9%) can be offset by the time otherwise wasted checking a payment has come in and updating accounts. Online card payments provide an instant alert and payments can be fed along with customer data into accounting software automatically creating the invoice for you without lifting a finger. The question becomes how much do you value all of the time spent on checking payments, creating invoices and sending emails when you could be doing other things.
View card payment costs as an investment in encouraging more bookings and not just as a cost that doesn’t exist with BACS.
There are other factors in the full customer journey to consider that affect your final review. But considerations around how easy it is for a customer to enquire (and how quickly you then respond) and how easy it is for a customer to instruct (sign terms and make payment) will affect your overall conversion rate.
Summary
Investing in some simple technology can make a big difference to your conversion rates and provide you more sales and better reviews. Focus on what reduces obstacles in your booking process and how that investment can save you time to focus on customer conversations and surveys.