Relationships = Revenue

I’ve been sharing my message for entrepreneurs to call their customers. It’s always great to hear from those who are physically picking up the phone and calling customers (mostly because it’s quickly followed by a confirmation of its effectiveness); but I do get a fair number who have never tried it. Of those people, we have seen a recurring theme of two answers:

1. Why would they want to talk to me, what would I even say?
2. I’m too shy

Here are two scripts you can start using right away and start converting your cart abandoned customers, and work to overcoming the above two negative thoughts. After getting started with these two scripts, you will quickly pick up what works and what doesn’t, and learn to evolve your phone calls as you learn more about people’s questions. If you need more scripts, we have 10 sample call scripts available in our free guide that you can download from here.

The Thank You/Feedback Script

The purpose of this phone call is to thank them for visiting your store, and get feedback to grow your business. If you have a pleasant conversation with your customer, more often than not, if they really are in the market for your product, they will convert. If they are not really interested in buying, it’s still okay because it’s designed to give you feedback on improving your business.

Hi Bill. My name is Hillary and I’m the owner at ABC.com online store.

It always feels good to get a personal call from the owner of the business. Online shoppers want to know there is a real person who is out to look after them if they are going to buy online. Sometimes just getting a call from the owner is enough to nudge them into confirming their purchase.

I hope this is not a bad time, I’m just calling to thank you for visiting my store and ask for some feedback since I’m trying to grow my business and would love to get feedback from a fresh pair of eyes.

At this point they will probably allow you to continue, if they don’t, simply ask for a time that suits them better.

How did you hear about us? Was the site easy to use, and did you find what you were looking for? I saw you were interested in [product they had in their cart], what interested you about this, and what caused you to leave us before confirming your purchase? Do you have any unanswered questions or concerns about the product?

You can ask, one, many, or all of the above questions. Make sure you ask at least one of the last two, as they are specifically designed to get feedback about the product they abandoned. The first two questions are great for general feedback you can use to improve your website and make it more conversion friendly. From here, you should let the customer lead the conversation because they will usually talk about what is most relevant to them, or what they understand best. Also, it’s most likely they will end up asking you a bunch of questions about the product they have in their cart, which is when you know they are still very interested buyers.

Thank you for your feedback and your time. If you still are interested, I can send you a 10% discount code.

The code is a nice way to end the conversation and give back for the feedback they have provided, or for their time that you used up. You can decide to use different tactics here, offering a discount code that expires in 24 hours (to give a sense of urgency), or for free shipping, or for free expedited shipping. Depending on the types of concerns they may have shared with you, let’s say their biggest concern was around quality, you can offer a free extended warranty.

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The Getting to the Point Script

With this script the objective is to quickly qualify whether the customer is a serious customer, and answer their specific questions to increase your shot at closing.

Hi Hillary. My name is Bill and I’m the owner at XYZ online store.

I saw you were on my site earlier today and were interested in [product name] but didn’t confirm your purchase. This is just a courtesy call to see if you had any technical issues on the site, or if you have any questions I can help you with.

With this email you’re getting to the point. Although you did not ask for permission to continue speaking with them, by asking if they have any questions, you’re inherently asking for that permission to keep speaking with them. If they have no interest in speaking with you (which will happen way less often than you think) they will say they were just looking and not interested at this time. If they do have questions, just answer them with a smile and do your best in selling the benefits of your product. It’s always great to ask questions about them and try to find parallel between them and your previous happy customers.

Thank you for your time. I hope I was able to answer your questions, if there is anything else that comes up you can feel free to call me back at this number or email me. I will be sending you an email shortly with a link to your cart and a discount code as a thank you for speaking with me.

Calling abandoned cart customers isn’t cold calling. It’s “hot calling”. Most of us hate unsolicited phone calls because that’s what they are. Unsolicited. I personally can’t stand getting a phone call from some faceless company who got my number from a random directory trying to sell me something I may or may not have been interested in 2 months ago. But Cart Abandon phone calls fit none of those categories.

When merchants call their abandoned cart customers there are a few key things to remember. Firstly, the customer has entered their phone number in their personal information page, they took the time to do this, they have already invested some of their time and effort into doing business with you. Hopefully, if you’re calling within the same day or two of the abandonment, the product is still top of mind and relevant for your customer; it’s not something they haven’t been thinking about. Lastly, customers feel good getting a phone call from someone eager to solve a problem for them.

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Note: If you’re looking for an app that will enable you to call your customers and build a relationship with them, checkout Scout. Basically, Scout looks for pre-sale (abandoned checkouts) and post-sale (best customers) relationships and alerts you when you need to know, and how you should respond. To install the app on Shopify, click here.