I've found myself reflecting on how removals companies can improve their lead generation and also create competitive advantage.
Last year Yomdel Sales & Marketing Director Simon Taylor and I had the great fortune to attend the annual conference hosted by our friends at the British Association of Removers (BAR). We headed to Shakespeare country in the heart of historic Stratford-upon-Avon.
It's a well attended event with senior directors of removal businesses coming from across the UK and elsewhere in the world. Having a chance to speak with existing Yomdel clients, as well as with contacts and making great new friends the event was a huge success. Learning about their successes and challenges was fascinating.
Like so many sectors these days, the traditional Removals industry is faced with challenging times and how they adapt their business models to be fit for the new digital age.
Richard Dolan, MD at Greens Removals gave us a wonderful testimonial on how our 24/7 managed live chat service is not only generating more leads for his business but hope those leads also convert at much higher levels than his other sources.
Greens Removals says Yomdel impact is significant from Yomdel on Vimeo.
Yomdel has been working with BAR since early 2018, and aside from supporting BAR member companies we also provide the live chat service on the BAR website. Having spoken with numerous removals businesses I thought I'd offer six reasons why every removals firm should consider using our fully managed 24/7 live chat service:
- Don't just rely on 3rd party lead aggregators. It's a fact of life for removals businesses that many of them have not fully invested in their digital assets, be this their website, their social channels or their own pay per click (PPC) advertising. Too many rely on aggregators to send them leads captured online. This means they pay for non-exclusive and often poorly performing leads. If they instead looked to drive traffic and engagement via digital channels they would be able to utilise their own EXCLUSIVE leads.
- Don't think people will call on the telephone. These days only around 70% of people say they use their [smart]phone as a telephone. Instead they are focussed on communicating via other channels, be this text based such as Messenger, WhatsApp or live, or via email and SMS. Yomdel has looked at comparative data and found that in the early evening people are 10 times more likely to use intelligently executed live chat than to pick up the phone.
- People are online always. We are all always connected, and we will do the things we want to do at the time, place and via the device of our choosing. As consumers we are not interested in things being convenient for the company, only for ourselves. Furthermore we want answers and resolutions NOW, not in 30 minutes, nor tomorrow. Removals is an international business and people are also living in different time zones, so be open online ALWAYS. We've found that 50% of all enquiries will be captured outside standard business hours. That gives you a great advantage compared to your competitors.
- Use live chat. Using a skilled partner, managed live chat enables you to be always open and to offer an exceptional digital customer experience. We're not talking bots here, we're talking real people with real emotional intelligence and who are capable of empathy offering online support just at the moment someone needs it. Do not cut corners and try to do live chat yourself, you will fail and your team will quickly become frustrated at the instant demands (responses within 15 seconds) and the fact that some people are complete time wasters. Instead trust the professionals who can effectively represent your business to generate a steady stream of the highest quality exclusive leads you can capture. Your team will love those. Oh yes, the average increase in conversion is normally well above 50%, just imagine that!
- Follow up leads immediately. Some 90% of businesses fail to follow up leads within 5 minutes, and many of those take considerably longer. Understand where your highest quality leads are, and jump on those immediately. This is especially true of leads Yomdel captures in live chat. These are often the result of a 12-14 minute engagement, the customer is ready to rock, and all you need to do is pick up that phone immediately. Research shows that customers are a massive 78% more likely to choose you if you are the first to respond.
- Think like your customer. Your customer does not want to be bamboozled with how many awards you've won, or what size packing crate options there are. They simply want the best help they can get to solve the stress associated with moving house. If you're a member of BAR, that will carry some weight, but at the end of the day, they need help doing something. You can do that for them, but make it as easy as possible. Don't insist on asking how many square feet or square metres their house is, instead understand the reason for the move and in gentle conversation let them know what the best solution is. You need to have them searching for reasons NOT to use you, instead of looking for reasons TO use you. It is a subtle but importantly difference, but if you establish rapport and trust that will help massively.
Staying one or two steps ahead of the competition is not so difficult. By challenging the orthodoxies and implementing brave new steps you can flourish and win the competitive battle. If I can help through offering advice or guidance, please just get in touch.
andy.soloman@yomdel.com