Set Your Service Team Up For Success

Are you setting your service team up for success? In many Financial Services offices, the service team is there to take care of the client first and foremost, but they are also expected to take detailed-oriented tasks such as completing a quote off the to-do list of the sales team.

This frees up the sales team to see more people. In addition, while not always true, salespeople tend to be less detail oriented than their service team members. By having the service team handle the detailed tasks, the sales team is freed up to work on tasks that are more suited to their skillset. And often the service team can complete these tasks much quicker than the sales team.

In an ideal agency, these two teams understand that both roles are vital to the success of the business. Both roles are needed to succeed. However, in some cases, the service team is under appreciated. It’s not always done consciously but think about what is celebrated in this industry: the bonuses, the awards, and the recognition are often geared toward sales.

This sometimes creates the impression that sales, and what the sales team needs, is more important. Most understand that this isn’t true and that a balance is needed. However, it’s easy for the two teams to be out of sync and often that means the sales team isn’t setting the service team up for success.

Today is a great time to consider if your sales team is working against your service team, or if they are setting your service team up for success. Evaluate if your sales team:

• Provides your service team with all the information needed for a quote or does the service team have to chase down information?
• Takes great notes so that a service team can complete their work without asking additional questions.
• Gives realistic timeframes to get work done or consistently asks for last minute work to be pushed through “as an emergency.”
• Makes promises that the service team can’t deliver.
• Respects the service team’s time and doesn’t constantly interrupt their work.

It’s important to note that service teams should set a sales team up for success as well. This isn’t a one-way street. It is always a balance of the agency’s needs. This Insight isn’t meant to pick on the sales team, many of the items on the list above might not be done on purpose. Often, they occur because that’s the way it’s always been, there is a lack of systems, or because someone is in a hurry.

Just because some of these things may happen, it doesn’t mean that the sales team is not appreciative of the service team. It doesn’t mean that things are “wrong” it simply means that there is room for improvement. By focusing on synchronizing the activities of your sales and service team your business will be more efficient and your team will be more successful.