Improve Customer Relations by Using Sales Rep Software

143179018_50f76efa0c_mYou probably pride yourself on excellent customer service. However, it's tough to manage your customer service when you utilize multi-line sales reps. Often, the sales rep becomes the face of your company to the customer. For all the benefits that can be gained with multi-line reps, you run the risk that the rep may make mistakes that undermine your customer service standards.

You can help your sales reps better serve your customers with sales rep software. A system that allows for online access and visibility into your inventory, customer account information, and product information will help your reps avoid mistakes that may sour the customer experience.

As an added bonus, the rep software could also make life easier for the sales reps. It could make them more inclined to promote your line of products over their other lines. If you make their work easier, you could become their vendor of choice.

Here are three specific ways in which sales rep software helps your reps better serve your customers: 

1) It helps them provide accurate product information. How often do your reps order products that are out of stock? Or in colors that you don't carry? Or at the incorrect price? Do they ever order products that you don't even offer?

This happens with multi-line reps. They're juggling multiple vendors and numerous customers and mistakes happen. It's especially common when they're working from a catalog or a paper order form.

Online sales rep software solution gives the rep access to all of the details of your product lineup. This means they can provide accurate product information on the spot by just clicking on a few links on their online dashboard. They can also see the most up-to-date pricing and get your current inventory levels.

2) It helps improve order accuracy. How many orders does your customer service team get every day in which the rep's handwriting just isn't legible? Maybe he or she was in a hurry. Maybe they just have bad handwriting. There’s a delay while you contact the rep to find out what they really meant to write, and your on-time delivery metric might suffer.

Here's another problem: your rep  faxes, phones, or emails an order, but  then somebody in your office (who has probably been entering orders all day) makes a key-stroke error. We’re human, we all make data entry mistakes.

Either way you have a problem. You've either entered the order with errors or you've had to delay the order while you track down the correct information. Your customer won’t be happy if they get the wrong stuff or if their shipment is delayed.

A sales rep software solution can fix this because the rep can enter the order online while he or she is talking to the customer and then the order will be imported to QuickBooks without additional data entry.   And there's no confusion over bad handwriting because the reps are using an online order form that eliminates any need to type or write. Your accuracy on fulfillment goes up and your customers are happier.

3) It helps them quickly access unique customer information. Do you have a customer that gets a special break on pricing? Maybe another who has special payment terms? Does one customer place the same exact order every quarter, or order for multiple stores?

When your sales rep doesn't know this kind of information, it makes him or her look like she's out of the loop. Even worse, it could make them look like they’re just not in-tune with your customer.

A sales rep software solution could help them access this information 24/7 from anywhere they can get online. A customer wants to place the same order that they did last July? Easy. The sales rep quickly pulls it up on a laptop or tablet, confirms the information, and places the order. Now, instead of looking like he's lost, your sales rep looks like a rock star.

Sales reps can help grow your revenue and quickly scale your business. However, they're most effective when you give them the tools they need to succeed. Order entry software for sales reps does just that.

Do you have a funny story about a sales rep and a customer? We would love to hear about it in our comments section below. Just give us a brief synopsis of the story and how you dealt with the situation. We also encourage you to take a look at our sales rep order entry software to see if it would be a good fit! Just click on the box below to request a free demo.

 order management system

Photo Credit: hobvias sudoneighm via flickr