Customer Experience is Taking Center Stage in 2017 and for Good Reason

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Customer experience is taking center stage in 2017 and for good reason. People expect a good customer experience whether buying online or offline. More and more statistics from all industries reflect CX (or Customer Experience) is becoming center stage of business and customer loyalty. In their article titled “75 Customer Service Facts”, HelpScout shares some eye-opening realities of customer service and total customer experience.
As we know, great CX goes beyond customer support, it includes everything from the time people see your ad for the first time online, to your website, to interaction with your sales team, to contract signing, customer onboarding and ongoing support throughout the lifecycle.
No one realizes this reality more than the retail industry which over the last few years has seen retailers acknowledge that good customer experience is the path to higher profit. Smart retailers are investing heavily in optimizing customer experience as online shopping is no longer enough; customers want to check store inventory online, order online and pick up at the nearest store. Customers want the mobile experience to match that in the store, they want a single cohesive experience, and retailers are just starting to deliver with omni-channel projects. Forrester released a report last year that demonstrates that CX leaders grow revenue as much as 25% than CX laggards in their category, this again shows the proven importance of customer experience.
Convenience is king and so is speed, from same day to delivery to drone-based delivery, retailers are pushing the edge to make sure customers get the wow factor every time they experience their brand. On the run, no problem, Amazon Go allows you to get your grocery without talking to anyone, load up your basket and walk out, you card is signed, sealed and delivered automatically.
This week is #NRF17 where world of retail converges on the Javits center in New York to talk about the future of retail, and again the customer experience is center stage. Wearable technology, Smart Technology, Artificial Intelligence are prominent themes this year.
There is a lot we can learn from retail, but the core lesson is that customers want an easy and frictionless experience, all the time.

Here are 5 simple ways other industries can improve their customer experience:

  1. Test every customer touch point to make sure it works and that is inline with your brand promise. Tools like UserTesting and 5SecondTest are great for getting quality feedback from people in your target audience.
  2. Automate. Right now there is an explosion of online tools to help you service customers and reduce errors. Make it easy for them, implement things like Intercom on your website for better communication, Slack channels or even venture into smart chat bots.
  3. If you are billing online, make sure it’s done right and easy. I recommend trying FreshBooks.
  4. Make sure you make the most out of your CRM. We at Signority use and love Pipedrive. Use your CRM well along with other tools and plugins to empower you to know what to say and when to say it. These tools not only help save you time and be more productive, it also ensures a better CX in the sales process.
  5. Use smart signatures. Businesses sometimes do not think of contract signing as being part of the CX, although in our humble opinion it is still a big part of it. Think about it, after all the hard work by marketing and sales is done, and a prospect is in the last stages of closing the deal. You want to make sure you have a process in place that makes it easy and convenient for them (while also secure). Offering a paperless contract signing experience is what we do best and I encourage you to read some of our other posts on this blog to learn more.

Must-Know: 20+ Tools and Hacks to Reduce Sales Admin Work & Improve Sales Productivity

20 tools for reducing sales admin work and increasing productivity

While reviewing our own sales tech stack here at Signority to find more opportunities for automation and workflow simplification, we chatted with our new friends at SalesWings to pick their brain. That turned into a very comprehensive list they were kind enough to share with us, and you below. So, read on and start making your sales team a lot more productive this new year!
The working day of a sales professional is always too short, and sometimes it can feel like there’s not enough time to, well, sell! Indeed, a 2015 study by Cirrus Insight showed that sales professionals spend less than half of their time selling. This statistic was also confirmed by Alice Heiman, founder and Chief Sales Officer of sales consulting and coaching firm Alice Heiman LLC.
It’s an egg-and-chicken situation: sales professionals need to sell more, but they have too many other tasks that prevent them devoting more time to selling. So, the first step to boosting sales professionals’ productivity is to automate basic admin tasks. This will give sales professionals more time to actually sell.  
Below are some tips and tools to help sales professionals spend less time on admin and more time selling.

Schedule time you want to dedicate to administration

First of all, sales professionals should schedule administrative blocks outside of calling hours, in the same way they schedule all other tasks such as meetings with clients. Nevertheless, David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, says that if a task requires less than 2 minutes of your attention, then you should do it. Getting quick and easy tasks out of the way immediately can benefit your productivity measurably.

Use a sales-oriented CRM

There is no doubt that CRM systems can help sales professional stay organized and focused. However, a common complaint sales professionals have is: “CRM is time consuming and reduces selling time”. It has to be said that CRMs are becoming more advanced and intuitive, thus meaning that a greater number of tasks can be automated to save time. For example, Salesforce can automatically update the activity on the contact or lead’s record, meaning there is no need for manual updates.
Three kinds of tools can help to boost your CRM:

  1. Tools that allow to you synchronize your email (Outlook or Gmail) with a CRM.

    Salesforce: Salesforce is probably the most well-known CRM. It has a huge eco-system of partner apps for all possible aspects like contact “hygiene” (check RingLead), email marketing (try Sendloop), a handy lead scoring system (Saleswings add-on) and even Gamification (Ambition). For instance, all you have to do is go to the AppExchange to find 1,000s of tools that allow sync between email and Salesforce. One of our favorites is ZynBit, which also delivers excellent customer analytics.
    Pipedrive: a CRM and pipeline management tool which focuses on key features for sales and a visible pipeline view. Pipedrive syncs perfectly with Gmail and Outlook, so that your team never need enter a contact twice. Pipedrive as Salesforce also integrates with several tools such as Saleswings lead scoring add-on for Pipedrive.
    Nimble: Nimble is a social CRM that updates your entire contact database thanks to great integrations with all social channels. “No data entry”! At Saleswings, we are also fans of their mobile app which offers great usability and provides “social insights” for each contact you’re planning to meet. Nimble uses third-party integration: PieSync. PieSync allows you to integrate Gmail & Outlook contacts within Nimble. That means that all your email contacts can be synchronized with Nimble contacts.

  2. Tools to synchronize your CRM and business cards

    A great tool that works with all the most popular CRM is FullContact. FullContact works with Zapier to import business cards into various CRM tools, and can automatically capture contacts from email signatures. All sales professionals have to do is keep sending emails and contact data entry gets automated. This is a huge time saver. FullContact is more than just a business card synchronizer. It is an address book hub that allows you to synchronize your contacts across multiple social media accounts. It keeps contacts up to date (picture, company, email address) and most importantly removes duplicates. Another good and popular alternative is MagneticOne Business Card Reader. As with FullContact, you can Snap a photo of the business card and it will import all the data directly into the CRM. 

  3. Tools to remove duplicate data in your CRMs

    Duplicate data is a pain in the neck for all CRM users. The consequences range from multiple spacing from inaccurate reports to taking the wrong decision due to inaccurate metrics. Unfortunately, there is no miracle! Duplicates are part of sales life; leads submit forms and sales teams input manual entries. The solution is to use tools that detect and eliminate duplicates automatically. For instance, RingLead and Data Cleanser detect and eliminate duplicates within Salesforce.

Avoid falling into the email trap

Email is the most important means of communication for most sales people (apart from their phones). However, salespeople shouldn’t be sucked into email administration.
Five kinds of tools can support a sales professional’s email productivity:

  1. Email tracking and lead scoring

    Saleswings is a fully automated add-on for advanced Lead Activity Scoring. Sales professionals send an email (Outlook or Gmail) with a link to the website and Saleswings identifies the most sales-ready leads based on their website activity as well as scoring their level of engagement/interest. The Saleswings lead scoring add-on also works with campaign tools such as MailChimp, forms and CRM such as Salesforce and Pipedrive. It automatically notifies the sales team about a lead’s interest, acting as an opportunity radar. This allows the sales team to focus their resources and time on the hottest leads.

  2. Email templates

    Here at Saleswings, we use Gorgias. Gorgias allows you to insert templates with shortcuts. and includes variables like the recipient’s name or the subject.

  3. Email personalization tools

    To personalize emails and avoid spending too much time looking for information about the prospect, I would advise salespeople to use Crystal, Charlie and Datanyze.
    Crystal: Crystal can tell you what to write in an email or how to create a message that engages the person in a way they’d expect from you.
    Charlie: Charlie synchronizes with Google Calendar and sends you a one-page resume on everyone you’re going to meet with, before you see them.
    Datanyze: Datanize has many incredible features, but one of the most unique is knowing which technologies your prospects are using. It is important to know if your prospect is using your competitor’s software or software that integrates with your own.

  4. Tools to keep track of time spent on emails and online in general

    There are a variety of time tracking tools available today, from those targeting time spent on a particular project to those tracking time spent on a particular activity online, such as emailing, blogging, micro-blogging, browsing, or just plain social networking. Two good tools are RescueTime and TwentyFive.
    RescueTime: RescueTime not only informs you about your daily activities but also allows you to set the number of hours you want to spend in a day on a particular site. RescueTime will alert you if you run out of time.
    TwentyFive: the main idea behind TwentyFive is to record your time using the Pomodoro Technique.

  5. Electronic signature solution to simplify & automate contract signing

    The advantages of an e-signature are evident for anyone who has ever had to deal with a paper-based signature. The latter involved a lot of paper waste and back-and-forth between the person that needed to sign and the company. Hugely time consuming!
    Thanks to electronic signatures, deals are closed faster and there is less administration involved. Signority is a great example of an electronic signature tool which offers the ability among many other things to let your sales team send a contract out and set automatic follow-up email reminders as well as notifications when your client has opened, viewed and signed the contract. This is incredibly important as following up during these key events can help lose or close many deals.

Optimize your route when visiting clients

Clients are often located in different parts of the city or country, so salespeople need to spend time organizing their day and scheduling visits. One hell of a job! However, there are tools such as Badger Maps that make field sales reps’ lives easier. Badger Map puts the user’s territory on a map on their device, showing them where their customers are and offering new leads that they didn’t know about. Basically, what it does is connect into the CRM and give reps access to the data in the CRM on a map, when they are out in the field.

In conclusion, reducing administrative work is essential to allow sales professionals to do their job – selling. Using just some of the apps above will allow you to cut your admin time. The real secret is to go digital, and to use a more digital approach.

About the author

The author Sara is a digital marketing specialist at Saleswings, a website tracking and lead scoring add-on. The software identifies your most sales-ready leads based on their website activity. It analyzes your leads’ past and future visits and scores their level of engagement/interest.

5 Habits of Highly Effective Insurance Brokers

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Do you use electronic signatures (eSignatures) for insurance?
Do you have the right contacts?
Are you on the right way to be the best insurance broker in the business?
As with any other profession, there are habits and best practices an insurance broker has to acquire in order to be on the top. I developed mine while working in the Canadian insurance industry for over 7 years, and I’d like to share them with you.
We all know that highly effective brokers use certain tactics to inspire confidence in their prospective clients to convince them on their choice. Which of them do you need to make a habit? Let us see!

1. Get yourself a good backup system

Whether it be the company you work for, your assistants or mentors, make sure that you have solid help to fall back on in challenging situations.
If you’re pressed for time, your eSigning service and means of communications should be ready for you. When what you need most is advice, your mentors should be there, and in cases where the key to getting a good deal is contacts and acquaintances then you should know where to go to get it.

2. Stay organized

Albert Einstein once said, “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”
To me a cluttered desk means an organized mind. While this may be true only for a few people, what is most important is that you get a system working for you.
Take your Post-It’s out, get some cheerfully colored highlighters, use bookmarks, red threads and pins, whatever works. Make sure you feel comfortable navigating this system and you’re set. What worked for me was getting all unnecessary items out of the way. I got my office paperless, automated my assistants and did most money transactions online. The time-saving was considerable and infinitely helpful.  

3. Stay up-to-date

If you want to crush the competition, the key is to know it well. Go to trade organizations, keep up with the latest news, know what you’re doing inside and out. Attending industry events will not only give you valuable insights, but also make you friends in the right places, and that is also highly beneficial for business.
Don’t forget to keep notes on what standard practices everyone around you is following. While some of them may end up not being right for you, you can learn from them. If electronic signatures for insurance or TeamViewer is a popular choice, then there might be a reason for this. Conducting meetings over Skype is saving your competitor money? Try it out!

4. Cross-sell

One of the best qualities an insurance agent should have is the ability to cross sell products to customers. Remember that just about everyone needs more than one policy; combining homeowner’s or renter’s insurance with car or life insurance. Getting clients to buy additional products or services is key to maximizing profits and offering your customers a good deal.
Don’t skip on offering a bundle of products instead of just one policy. If they agree on a deal like this then good for you, if they don’t, then you’ve just done some publicity for another of your products.

5. Follow-up

Follow-up.
Your clients will notice, potential buyers and colleagues will appreciate it.
According to Follow Up Success, even though, 80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact, nearly 48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect.
Don’t hesitate on the follow-up. Send your customer or potential a personalized thank you note. Even if you didn’t land the deal at first, keep the interests of your prospective client at heart and drop them a line in case you can fix something up for them, it can become a successful arrangement in the future. Establishing good relationships with clients and colleagues alike can become a good foundation for growing your business.
Looking to take your business paperless? Sign-up now and get a 14-day free trial to a Signority eSignature Plan.

Going Digital: Modernize Your Business for Under $1000 Per Month

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Do you hear about “go digital or go home” initiatives and instinctively tighten your purse strings? Many entrepreneurs feel completely spent, and it’s understandable considering all the money they already shelled out to get their businesses off the ground. Let’s not mention all the money they may still owe the bank, friends, relatives, and crowdfunding sources that all contributed to the humble beginnings of their start-up.
And just when they think they are standing on fairly solid ground, someone tells them that the next trend is to go green by shifting to digital business practices. But here’s where they’re misinformed; going digital isn’t a trend nor should it be referred to as the “next big thing.” There is an undeniable progression towards digital operational processes and it has been gaining speed based on historical evidence. It was something that we explored in-depth and shared with you in our piece on The Paperless Journey: The Evolution and Future of Document Signing
First of all, digital business practices aren’t just about living the childhood dream of growing up in a world straight out of the cartoon “The Jetsons.” Going digital has become far more than just the ease of having everything automated or disappear into the virtual cloud and plucked out by voice control. Well, yes, it can be all those things but more importantly, digital business practices has become a social responsibility.
A digital transformation would mean a significant decrease in human error, having multiple devices access all your content, and information would be shared throughout your company easier and faster. You’d be cutting costs by reducing the need for printing, binding, and distributing documents which can all be done via email or digital system. Your people would be communicating more efficiently and getting their work done faster. Furthermore, you are contributing to the bigger picture by lessening your carbon footprint and changing your environmental impact.
Perhaps the issue here isn’t winning the argument on whether a digital transformation for your business is something you should desire but rather if it is possible given the costs it would require to make the shift. Do words like “investment” and “consider the returns” not sweeten the deal nor make you sound like Scrooge any less?

Paperless practices within your reach

But what if there was a way to go digital for less than $1,000 a month?
We’re not talking about cheap alternatives or knock-offs here. Many don’t realize that with the digital “trend” on the rise, more and more options are also riding the wave and developing services to help organizations go green. If you were one of those people who still think that technology costs more than a pretty a penny, then you will be surprised to know just accessible and affordable it now is.
You may think that modernizing your outdated business model will take thousands of dollars. But we said go digital or go home, not go big or go home; meaning you don’t need to make drastic changes immediately. Greener, more digitally driven organizations really start with individuals willing to make the shift.
Not only will going digital and paperless cost you less than $1,000/month, but it will actually save you money in the long run. Your digital beginnings can include signing up for paper-free billing for all your business correspondence with your vendors, suppliers, and utility bills. And your next step would be exploring all the options to modernizing your business.
We’ve done the legwork for you by finding inexpensive ways for your organization to begin its evolution to the modern, eco-friendly business model that so many other companies have already adapted to.
Whether your needs are email marketing or accounting, a cloud service will meet your needs taking into account your technological thresholds and more importantly, your budget. An excellent cloud service will guide you through everything from project management (PM) to customer relationship management (CRM) and even backing up all your precious data. And yes, all these suggestions for each department of your organization costs less than $1,000/month:

Administration

Good CRM software should go beyond tracking and maintaining client information and viewed as just a sales tool. If your company is still passing along information through a shared spreadsheet or long email threads, then it’s likely that you’re missing something or forgetting it entirely. CRM software keeps all your information in one place and organizes it efficiently.
CRM services like Zoho CRM, Insightly, Apptivo, and Pipeline Deals all offer free trials. CRMs can cost as little as $12/month to as much as $300/month. Find one whose services, apps, and add-ons apply to your business.
With business plans that are only $50 per month, Signority is trusted by over 150,000 businesses and individuals for their document signing needs. As a business owner, you deal with multiple forms and contracts that all need to be signed. Signority ensures your recipients can view and sign documents from anywhere and on any device.
You would spend less time managing the details because all your documents would be stored in Signority’s centralized location and easily managed with an intuitive dashboard. Our business plan offers unlimited documents, unlimited templates, bulk sending, bulk signing and electronic & digital signature. For those of you wondering how digital signatures work or the differences between electronic and digital signature solutions, this should help: “The Breakdown: Electronic Vs. Digital Signature”.

Information Technology

Yes, building an IT infrastructure for your business can become a mammoth task, that can take months to set up. You’ll be constrained by your limited resources, lack of expertise, time, and inability to understand the tech jargon. Lucky for you, software companies have taken into account non-teck folk — like me — by building tools that don’t require a master’s degree in computer sciences.
Virtual infrastructures and cloud-based data centers are expensive and probably not something you want to undertake at this point. If your only concern is making sure your data is secure, then a service like Dropbox guarantees that your data if protected against human error, hardware failures and any other reason under the sun.
Costing only $8.25/month or $99/year, Dropbox Pro gives you the option to subscribe monthly or annually and the subscription includes 1TB of space. Dropbox Business, on the other hand, is meant for organization and groups and depends on the size of your team and billing country. Dropbox Business for teams cost $12.50 per user and comes with unlimited space to work with.

Sales and Marketing

Depending on your industry, you may still need to take customer satisfaction surveys regularly. When was the last time you were handed a printed out paper survey? With so many people preferring to type or click buttons, we doubt that any of your clients will be happy to hand-write anything for you.
Zoho Survey is a survey management software that costs just $19 per month. You can create online surveys in a matter of minutes and reach your audience across all devices.
And at just $25/month, MailChimp will automate your emails for 1,501 – 2,000 subscribers for your email marketing campaigns. You can pay as you go as your email list grows. With Mailchimp, you create, send, and track your email marketing campaigns while also managing your contacts and segmenting your customers list. Furthermore, you can automate your emails to send on schedule without having to login and doing it manually.

Finance and Human Resources

With service rates that start at only $39.95 per payroll run, SurePayroll is not only affordable, but it takes about 10 to 15 minutes to complete enrollment and set up within five business days. It boasts that it the only full-service online payroll solution in the market by making all the calculations, paying and filing all federal, state and local payroll taxes while even working with IRS, if needed.
For your business, this means saying goodbye to writing multiple checks every month just to pay your people. SurePayroll is your digital option to paying all your employees including independent contractors and even hourly workers, including employees that are working in other states. Furthermore, SurePayroll offers the free option for clients to go mobile with their payroll through their apps for both IOS and Android devices giving you complete control wherever you are.
All in all, modernizing your business can be hassle-free and affordable — whether you are a small or large business.
Know of an app that’s has helped transform your business? Let us know, we’d love to add it to our list!
Looking to take your business paperless? Sign-up now and get a 14-day free trial to a Signority eSignature Plan.

The Future of Electronic Signatures and What You Should Expect

The future of Electronic signatures and general trends to look for

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE OF ELECTRONIC SIGNATURES LOOK LIKE?

When machines do the work of humans, “signing on the dotted line” will be a thing of the past. Until then, we may still need to pay attention to signing and getting documents signed — whether through paper or electronic signature. So let’s dive into it: what is the future of electronic signature?
It’s true that we’ve come a long way from Egyptian manuscripts, that served as contracts, to where today’s electronic signature gurus and futurists believe we’re heading towards — let’s just say it has a lot to do with biometrics and chips (secured under your skin) used to authenticate transactions.  
All in all, the future looks golden. But for now, let’s discuss why we think the market is set to grow.  According to a report from MarketsandMarkets, one of the largest market research firms in the world, the eSignature market is expected to grow to $2 billion by 2020. In another three years, the market will quadruple in size.
So, what’s driving this incredible growth?
There are three primary factors driving the growth and future of  electronic signatures and its market:

1. ONLINE Business continues to Explode 

More online business is good for the eSignature market. As more and more business moves online, more legally-binding documents are required to govern such business. eSignatures are a necessary part of online business, which is said to continue double-digit growth through 2020, when sales will top $4 trillion, according to a recent article by eMarketer. As one grows, so does the other.

2. ELECTRONIC security is more important than ever 

While the internet has made it easy for us to shop, socialize, learn and even work, it has also made us more vulnerable to fraud. It should be relatively easy to see the relationships forming here. As more business moves online, there’s more reason to protect that business.
Electronic signatures make it incredibly easy for business owners to protect their most important documents. eSignatures use a combination of public and private keys to encrypt and secure your important documents, further reducing the risk of online fraud. Most electronic signature platforms, similar to Signority, are built to protect you and your client’s information. Ensuring that you and your customer’s data is secure.

3. Businesses will always be in the business of making money: 

And eSignatures can drastically reduce operational costs, thereby increasing profit margins. For example, it costs U.S. businesses nearly $8 billion each year to manage their paper documents.
Going paperless can be quick, easy and affordable — in case you’re not aware, we recently did a how to go paperless post: “A paperless business and 5 ways you can achieve it now”. A paperless business brings drastic (and nearly instantaneous) cost benefits. In the end, money talks.
Even still, electronic signatures simply make sense for nearly all businesses, regardless of size or industry. It simply makes business easier while saving companies time, money, and unnecessary headaches. When it’s all said and done, it wouldn’t be the least bit surprising to see the global electronic signature market outperform its three-year projections.
Looking to take your business paperless? Sign-up now and get a 14-day free trial to a Signority eSignature Plan.