ZDNet UberMobile blogger Eric Lai wrote recently about how iPads helped home security giant ADT double its sales. The company’s in the process of giving every one of its 4,000 salespeople second-generation iPads (not the “new” ones). We’ve seen some other big companies, such as Sears, boost revenues after outfitting sales and service workers with iPads.
Lai lays out the ways that iPads help ADT boost sales and help productivity. For starters, salespeople with an iPad can access a Salesforce CRM app to track customers’ sales and repair histories. They can collaborate instantly with colleagues on Chatter, scout potential security installation locations, and snap pictures and generally consolidate all that information on a single device, instead of schlepping around stacks of paper filled with charts, graphs, and other sales material.
But the benefits go beyond productivity and efficiency. Salespeople toting iPads can demo new products, like ADT’s Pulse application, which allows homeowners to monitor their home security systems and also control heating, lighting and other home settings.
So it makes sense that businesses would be eager to outfit their sales teams with the latest and greatest technology, as sales are the lifeblood of any business. But the iPad’s benefits don’t stop with sales teams, especially since increasingly, service departments are on revenue quotas, as well.
Expanding Businesses, Expanding Role of Service
Employees in most industries are being called upon to step outside the traditional barriers of their job descriptions, and service is no different. It’s no longer enough to fix the customer problem with a smile (though that’s still important, of course). As the only people with face-to-face interaction with customers after the sale, technicians are being asked — even expected — to help the company sell its products and services.
In a Q-and-A earlier this year, customer service consultant Ron Kaufman explained why technicians are crucial in creating new sales and revenue opportunities for businesses.
“Any investment you make in improving the service you provide is going to lead to greater sales,” Kaufman said, explaining that technicians are in the perfect position to sell to customers because customers are more receptive and trusting of the people who show up on time, act courteously and fix their problems the first time.
By providing great service, technicians also create plenty of goodwill and trust with customers. And new tools such as iPads and smartphones are making it even easier for technicians to provide great service, and to match sales team’s abilities to, well, sell.
Click here to download a free whitepaper, “Five Steps to Make Field Service Profitable.”
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