CUSTOMER SERVICE

Upserving vs. Upselling?

What’s your bull’s-eye? Dial in 7 easy ways to get on board with today’s new “It” selling-meets-service strategy

BY BARBARA THAU

Here’s a radical way to move merchandise and boost sales: Stop selling and start serving.

That’s the idea behind upserving, a marketing concept introduced by Daniel Pink in his best-selling book “To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truths About Moving Others,” which explores what the author describes as “the art and science of selling.”

This idea flies in the face of today’s ubiquitous upselling sales technique. In fact, upselling is all around us. Ever-present. “Do you want fries with that?” “Would you like to add an appetizer to your order?” “Would you like AR on your lenses?” Even the postal clerk asks us, “Will you also be needing any stamps today?”

Upselling is a sales technique via which a seller coaxes a customer to buy more expensive items, upgrades, or other add-ons in a bid to make a more profitable sale—regardless of whether or not the upsell brings meaningful value to that shopper or serves an unmet need. The selling strategy can result in consumers getting roped into buying things they neither want nor need.

By contrast, upserving turns the selling model on its head by introducing a different motivation to the seller. “What would happen if in a buy/sell transaction, the focus of the seller was to upserve?” Pink says in “To Sell Is Human.” “This would involve the seller elevating what they could do for the buyer and seeing the buyer as a highly valued friend. We would want to enrich, not diminish the relationship.”

That notion of elevating sales from the transactional to purposeful is catching on.

“Upserving is a growing strategy among merchants because it’s all about businesses doing something extra for their consumers,” says Casandra Campbell, content marketing lead at Shopify, the behemoth online ecommerce platform. And, this is what today’s consumer wants—and demands.

UPSERVING OPTICAL

And in the eyecare and eyewear world, upserving has one goal: “To create loyal patients and customers,” says Tim Fortner, CEO of Fortner Consulting Group, a firm that offers education to the independent optical professional. “A satisfied patient will shop anywhere, anytime; not so for loyal patients.”

And loyalty has a business advantage.

“Loyal patients are more profitable. Loyal patients are ambassadors and create more referrals,” says Fortner.

That upserving has struck a resonant chord in the business world is a sign of the times. Amid the infinite selection of goods and services available online, consumers need more reason than ever to lure them in the retail door—and the optical store.

At the same time, shoppers are spending more on experiences these days than tangible things—be it eating out or entertainment—so much so, that experts have heralded the dawn of “the experience economy.”

7 UPSELLING STRATEGIES

Here, experts share insider tips on how eyecare professionals can create memorable experiences for patients and customers by incorporating upserving into selling eyewear.

In order to provide valuable patient education and the right experience to customers, eyecare professionals should ask themselves the following three questions, according to Fortner:

● What do you want the patient to know?

● What do you want them to feel?

● What do you want them to do?

RING IN SALES WITH CONCIERGE SERVICE. Top-notch service and unexpected extras, like a special, multi-purpose cleaning cloth with the eyewear “unboxing,” are keys to upselling.

“Sit down when you discuss the outcome of the patient’s examination and answer all their questions and concerns,” says Fortner. “Never stand at the door with your hand on the doorknob.”

Consider offering policies such as unconditional frame and lens guarantees for 24 months, with generous return rules, like, “If you do not like them for any reason, bring them back and we will make you a new pair in the same price range at no cost,” suggests Fortner.

The principle: When you remove the risk, you increase the interest. This is an upserving warranty, which goes beyond what’s expected.

When it comes to e-commerce, “the unboxing experience can be a brand’s best opportunity to make an impression on a new customer,” Shopify’s Campbell says. While the aesthetics of your branding can be as important as the product, including something extra for your customers to make sure they’re feeling valued is always a nice touch.

For eyewear businesses specifically, a low-cost option would be to include extra cuts of shammy cloth for cleaning eyeglasses, or travel-sized bottles of eyewear cleaner or contact lens solution.

Following an online transaction, upserve customers with a surprise bounce-back coupon offer that provides a “time-sensitive discount for consumers and incentivizes them to place their next order quickly,” Campbell says. “In terms of the customer experience, even if they don’t end up using the coupon, it ensures they feel appreciated.”

Eyecare professionals can also offer in-store bounce-back coupons.

Place a large bowl in the reception area “where patients are asked to put their name and contact information in for a drawing held each week for a $50 gift card,” Fortner says. “Spending money on people who already do business with you rather than spending marketing dollars to attract people you do not know is upserving in action.”

Bring scent diffusers into your practice. “For years, retailers have known this fact: The sense of smell has a direct impact on emotions,” Fortner says. “It’s all part of creating the experience.”

MONEYBALL. Master the art of winning sales with simple upserving techniques like bounce-back coupons.

Barbara Thau is a contributing writer at Forbes.com, where she writes about the intersection of retail and consumer trends.