The COVID-19 pandemic has changed many industrial operational models. Most work activities in the office have shifted to online interactions. However, is it possible for company representatives to work from home or at least on a hybrid basis?

Currently, quite a lot of employees are looking for hybrid work opportunities, including customer service teams. Hybrid customer service may work across different geographic locations, but still provide delightful customer support.

Customer service teams can work more easily thanks to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and self-service support services such as chatbots and information centers. Being aware of the different roles of a hybrid customer service team can provide ways to manage the team better.

How to Implement Hybrid Customer Service

Customer service duties are often more synonymous with face-to-face representation with customers. Even so, changing times have made it possible for companies to implement hybrid customer service in the following way.

1. Replicate the environment like face to face

When working hybrid, you work in a space that is physically separate from the rest of the team. To create an effective work balance, most experts provide some of the same tips. You need to create an environment that resembles or replicates a face-to-face experience, for example with collaboration and interaction.

One example of the interaction in question is normalizing ad-hoc virtual meetings if necessary. This replaces the brief moment of questions asked by one team member to another member.

2. Communicate everything within the team

The nuances of virtual communication can cause misunderstandings and confusion that can be detrimental to customer service success. That's why communicating everything (over-communicating) is key to ensuring everyone on your team gets the information they need.

There may still be questions, but being as clear as possible about everything will make it easier for customer service to get specific answers.

3. Don't ignore the little things

There are things that can only be done while working in the office and are not an option for remote and hybrid employees.

If you are in the office and lead a team that works remotely, understand that they do not have the option to do things that may be considered unimportant.

With hybrid teams, ensure that everyone is always involved. For example, ensuring that every meeting invitation contains a Zoom meeting link so that teams who are not present do not feel isolated. Avoid having other conversations with participants attending face-to-face without being overheard by participants attending online.

4. Prioritize one-on-one sessions

Hybrid teams should have one-on-one sessions with their managers. This session is a good opportunity to find out things that can affect team members. If you miss it, you may not be able to understand it because it is in a different location.

If you only meet with remote employees once a week via Zoom, take advantage of the opportunity to learn about their experiences and fully communicate important information. Try to provide empathy so that employees who work hybrid don't feel isolated.

5. Empower the team well

Both hybrid, remote workers and face-to-face workers require individual self-development. Maybe you can see employee development more easily when working in the office, but working remotely is not an excuse not to develop yourself.

Therefore, you need to facilitate your team well to encourage employee empowerment. Provide adequate access to information with the help of sufficient tools to accommodate collaborative needs. What is no less important is giving confidence to all team members to complete their tasks.

6. Set boundaries and expectations

If done in the same place, it is very difficult to separate work and personal life. You may also open your laptop after working hours due to time zone differences.

This can actually be overcome by setting working hours that can be accessed publicly. Usually, you can set your working hours on your calendar so that you can only be contacted during the available schedule.

7. Have fun together

It can be difficult for remote employees to stay connected with team members, especially if it's all about work. Give people a chance to get to know each other. This can be as simple as having a chat after the monthly meeting to chat casually or ask an ice breaking question.

So, those are some things you can do to implement hybrid customer service in your company effectively. Like other jobs, customer service can also work remotely with the availability of sufficient support and resources from the managers and companies involved.

The increasing use of social media encourages business owners to carry out marketing strategies through social media. Social media is one of the "tools" used by business people to get revenue conversions from social media.

Maybe you already realize the importance of social selling from using social media, but are not sure about how to use it. If so, you can pay attention to the following information to be able to take advantage of social selling strategies.

What is Social Selling?

Social selling is the process of researching, connecting, and interacting with potential consumers through social media networks. Usually, the sales team builds organic relationships with buyers who respond to brand posts on social media.

Instead of carrying out relatively difficult sales closing tactics, social selling tends to take the form of lead nurturing. Social selling is not a way for sales representatives to get the best solution or a quick win, but rather an effort to build credibility by interacting with their target consumers.

How to Measure Effective Social Selling

Measurement can be called the most challenging part of social selling because its impact is not linear. There is no formula that can map the correlation between content performance and the number of transactions completed.

Social selling involves a more personal mode of selling by building relationships on social media. Social media can be viewed from a qualitative and quantitative perspective so measuring effectiveness must involve both in the following way.

1. Brand's online presence/awareness

Salespeople usually show a willingness to discuss the value offered by the brand. Audience enthusiasm that appears repeatedly is an indicator to stay connected with potential customers better.

Audience reception of content posted online via social media can be an indicator for assessing sales effectiveness. Qualitatively, you can also analyze consumer responses when differentiating your product from competitors.

The metrics used to measure brand awareness can also be measured based on website traffic, social media engagement, share of voice, blog traffic and shares, and online media coverage.

2. Networking strategy

There are various tools that can be used to identify prospects from social media. When contacting customer prospects, the sales team can do it manually or create a list using certain tools. It's best if they also have a schedule for contacting potential customers.

The sales team needs to personalize to connect with potential customers. Connection can be made by searching for the main channel or selecting an alternative. This can be considered a cold call so that potential customers don't just disappear.

Sales effectiveness can also be assessed based on the strategies used by the sales team in forming strong networking and pipelines.

3. Insight knowledge

The sales team must have strong skills to know the customer domain. In social sales, insight into what customers are looking for is seen through the way they convey information to stay connected with potential customers.

The fastest way to build this network is to identify the problem point correctly. After that, you need to take the time and effort to provide information to solve it.

Another way to measure effectiveness is to measure the open rate of InMail sent by the sales team. After that, you can use LinkedIn tools that measure the level of success in a non-forced manner.

4. Customer relations with Key Account Management

Social selling is not about the number of connections you have through your profile, but rather the right connections. You can track this by measuring requests received compared to requests sent.

Another way to measure the quality of your networking is to find out the number of key connections your sales team has. CRM contacts need to be built with contacts on social media to make a difference in customer relations and Key Account Management. Not only can it measure sales effectiveness, this method can fill in the missing link in measurement tools that can only be obtained from social media.

Measuring social selling can complement traditional ways of measuring sales effectiveness. Managers who want to measure the effectiveness of social selling should systematize their practices and train representatives on social impact before measuring the impact of new routines and comparing the results in the future.

When gaining exposure through social media, you usually assume that it is a marketing strategy. Not only that, the sales team can use the same channels to build good relationships with potential customers as a social selling tactic.

This strategy could be an alternative so that a business can generate additional revenue. However, there are still many mistakes that occur and may not be realized when using social media channels as a means of social selling.

Mistakes in Social Selling

As much as possible, social selling strategies need to be utilized as a way to build leads and generate prospects. This method must be utilized properly to avoid failure. The following are some examples of mistakes in social selling.

1. Using social networks for promotion

Running paid ads on social media is easy. However, that's just one feature that social media offers. Social media is a place to connect with other people, including business professionals.

You should use social media as if you were approaching someone at a networking event in person. Select people who are considered to benefit from getting to know you and the products your business offers.

Create conversations with potential customers to pique their interest. From there, you can start selling after building connections and becoming part of the community.

2. Not investing in social training

Even though the use of social media has become increasingly popular, its use as a social selling strategy is not something that can be underestimated. You still have to train your sales team to be able to utilize social media channels in the following ways.

• Carrying out effective personal branding
• Have expertise in your product niche
• Carrying out identification and research related to the target market
• Build and maintain relationships over time
• Create communication content that suits your audience

3. Unclear goals

Even a great sales team will not be able to contribute well if you do not determine the indicators of success that must be achieved. Social selling may not be the main strategy used by the sales team so you need to define it clearly.

Determine the vision that the company wants to achieve through social selling efforts and determine the measurement metrics. This will help the sales team to align actions targeted at potential customers.

Use the right tools to assess the conversion of leads to the resulting transactions. Some tools that can be used include Feedly, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and Sales Hub.

4. Spammy outreach

It is important to remember that the sales team also brings the brand's good name to the table when following up with potential customers through social selling. Sending broadcast messages may not be a good idea if it will ultimately damage your reputation.

Take a personal approach to potential customers based on their needs, interests and problems they face. This method will make it easier for the sales team to personalize messages and find the best solutions that the brand can offer.

5. Lack of consistency with prospects

The sales team must be able to maintain a consistent presence for potential customers. Even though it is not a sporadic effort, social selling must be carried out as a long-term, sustainable process.

If there is a change in the relationships you have built, they may disappear and you will lose credibility. You also have to build relationships with customers through identifying moments and consistent follow-up across all sales channels.

Regardless of the mistakes that have occurred in your sales team, it is never too late to fix them. Therefore, implement different social selling strategies to make your product development efforts successful.