Every call counts. Often times in customer service there is a snap judgment on whether the current call needs to be handled completely (and documented) or if it is a call where a quick answer will allow it to end in seconds without much involvement from the CSR. Suppose your customer calls and asks you to confirm which week is their recycling week or when their bill is due. The most common approach for a CSR to take is to give a quick answer and hang up. What are you missing with this approach? The opportunity to update the account information, ask for payment on outstanding balances and to promote another service.
Upselling in both franchised and competitive markets. In a franchised market the only way you can increase your revenue is by selling more to your existing customers. Regardless of the market, customer service needs to be active in selling to existing customers. An easy way to upsell is to promote roll-off to every customer that is not unhappy with service. That means that even when a customer is moving you have an opportunity to promote roll-off for the clean out. Additionally, as the CSR pulls up the customer’s account there should be a quick review of what services the customer currently has along with an offer of something the customer does not have.
Example: Mr. Smith I see that you have weekly trash and recycling service. Would you like to add yard waste service today?

Lead with what you want to sell. If your location provides several cart sizes for residential, but operationally you want everyone to have the 96 gallon, then your sales strategy should reflect that. Right now you may state you offer 32, 64 and 96 gallon service, for example, when it would be more effective to lead by presenting the 96 gallon service alone. When would you bring up the smaller service options? If your customer is not interested in the 96 gallon service.

Selling roll-off versus a small dumpster Don’t be misled by a residential customer who is asking for a small dumpster. The sales representative or CSR should be assessing the debris in order to determine if roll-off is really the right option. As I was doing side-by-side coaching with a new CSR, her instinct was to go right into offering the 2 or 4-yard and provide the pricing. She politely asked this customer to hold so we could take a moment to review what assessment she needed to do in order to insure that a small dumpster would work. When she returned to the call and assessed the debris it was determined that it was construction debris and roll-off was the only option for this customer. CSRs need to know what the parameters are for small dumpsters along with the damage that can be caused by putting construction material into both the container and the truck.