Reselling employee time clocks is a potent way to grow your software business. Time clocks are a critical employee interface with your time tracking software, working with it to enhance its value to your customers. Yet, the era of digital transformation requires an update to the adage that people buy from people they know and like. People buy from people they trust.
Developing trust, based on empathy and credibility with customers, is one of your most vital tools for selling both your solution and employee time clocks.
How to Sell Employee Time Clock Systems by Building Trust
Trust doesn’t come free, it’s an investment in time and resources. Building trust with your customers and prospects also requires putting them at the center of your relationship-building efforts. The practices outlined below will help you earn trust from your prospects and customers.
#1 Offer Free Education on Time Clocks
Knowledge is power. The more a business knows about how to use employee time clocks, the more value the time clocks provide to the business, beyond tracking work hours. Develop free educational resources for your customers that cover all the ways they can optimize the use of their time clock software.
Contact ATS
Free educational resources should come in a variety of formats to address different needs and the different ways employees learn. Long form content, like eBooks and guides, are useful for providing broad and detailed guidance. They’re helpful tools to teach users everything the time clock system can do, besides its tracking time features. Short form content, like quick start one-pagers and blog posts, can focus on helping a user achieve one task or understand one issue.
Also include visual, video, and audio educational resources. Create a weekly or monthly podcast targeting employee time tracking tips for the time clock software. It’s easier than you think and is content you can use indefinitely. Regardless of content form, focus some educational resources on specific use cases that appeal directly to the needs of different users or specific business goals.
Your time clock vendor may offer you educational content to share with your prospects and customers. ATS puts our partners’ brand on the educational material so their company is the one that stays front of mind.
When you share valuable education resources with prospects and customers regularly, you’re earning their trust as a knowledgeable partner because you’re empowering them to make smart decisions.
#2 Offer a Free or Affordable Tool
Sometimes, a simple utility can make a world of difference. You can offer prospects free online tools that help them speed up their decision. An online calculator that quantifies the time and money a company can save by automating their employee time tracking can help them make the internal business case for using time clocks to the decision committee. The American Payroll Association estimates that a payroll employee spends six minutes with each employee time card. Using that metric and collecting company-specific information, such as number of employees and hourly wage for a payroll employee, the online time tracking savings calculator can put hard numbers on that company’s potential savings. A tool can also come in the shape of an upgraded feature. Our partners using AccuCloud, our cloud-based time clock system, can offer their customers a tool that gives them detailed oversight of all the time clocks on their premises. The AccuCloud monitoring portal lets our partners and their customers see employee punches from any web browser anywhere in the world. Their customers can also see the operational status of each time clock in their fleet. Any AccuCloud reseller can offer monitoring portal access to their customers for free or bill for it- they have full control.
In short, handy tools transform what would otherwise be a cumbersome task for your customer into a simple one. Your company can differentiate itself from your competitors with small tools or upgraded features that provide outsized value.
#3 Know the Difference Between a Good Quality vs Lesser Quality Time Clock
While earning trust is a process, losing trust can happen in an instant. Offering your customers sub-par time clocks can erode away trust you’ve already built with them. That’s why it’s critical that you partner with a hardware vendor that can deliver the best and most durable time clocks, made from high-quality materials and parts. Let’s face it, your sales team may not know what to look for in a time clock and how to determine whether it’s a high-quality employee time clock or a cheap one. Price may be an indirect clue, but it can’t tell you the full story. Here are a couple of ways to assess the quality of a time clock, start by looking at these critical qualities:
1. Durability: Time clocks are hardware. Their physical design and manufacture matters. Look for durable materials used in its construction. A durable time clock should last your customers many years. Choosing to sell sub-par time clocks may be costly for your customers and to your business. In addition, the materials and design of the time clock’s enclosures are important, especially in industrial worksites, where dust, rust, moisture and other debris are potential problems. If you are purchasing a time clock to be used in a harsh environment, check the NEMA rating for the time clock to ensure its enclosure has been tested and found to protect against such matter getting into the clock’s casing.
2. Easy to Upgrade: A well-manufactured time clock has physical durability, but the clock must also have time clock software longevity. Any valuable time clock system will have regular updates to its time clock software. The time clock should not be an obstacle to customers benefiting from the latest features and version of the software. Look at the time clock’s software upgrade delivery system, find out how the time clock vendor pushes out updates to the software and operating systems. This should be an easy, configurable process that doesn’t create hours of clock downtime.
Being able to recognize a quality time clock offers you another opportunity to show your value as a partner to prospects and customers.
#4 Acknowledge Payroll Challenges Associated with Time Tracking
Automated time tracking is a tremendous step up from tracking work hours manually. Yet, for your customers to get the most value from your software, you need to get the employees in payroll excited about what it can do for them.
Your team must speak knowledgeably with the payroll employees about their systems and concerns. They worry about accuracy, time theft, compliance – a host of issues. Educating them on how the right time clock system can support their department starts by asking the payroll employees questions that show them your team’s empathy and expertise regarding their needs.
For example, an accurate payroll relies on the quality of time tracking data collected. Collecting the exact date and hours is only the start. Payroll often needs additional information collected at the time clock to calculate payroll accurately.
Instead of opening your questions with “what other data do you want to be tracking at the time clock?” start by asking targeted questions that show your knowledge. Ask the payroll team:
- Do they use chargebacks when an employee is temporarily assigned to work in a different department?
- Do employees who work on multiple projects or in different departments get paid differently for the different work hours? There are many payroll scenarios that require employees’ engagement in tracking their work hours according to the specific role or department when they clock in. If the time clock isn’t tracking this information when the employee clocks in, then their time tracking process still has a burdensome manual element. A burden that’s carried by the payroll team.
Ask targeted questions about the external risks that often interfere with a smooth payroll system, like buddy punching. Having one employee clock in or out for another is an easy way for employees to steal time (and money) from the company. You can explain how adding biometric time clocks makes buddy punching impossible, saving labor costs.
Asking the right questions demonstrates your awareness of their needs. It also shows that you’re there to listen and help them solve their specific challenges. You’re opening up a two-way street that strengthens relationships.
#5 Understand the Daily Time Clock Rituals of Employees
The employees are another important group of people with whom to build trust. The employees are the primary group who interact directly with the time clock – often multiple times a day. When your team knows how your customers’ employees feel about their experiences with time clocks and their expectations, it can start building more opportunities for communication.
Here are some questions you can ask about your customers’ employees to understand more about their experience using a time clock:
- How long do you typically wait to clock in or out? Is there often a line?
- Do you find clocking in and out is fast or does it take longer than you think it should?
- Would it make things easier for you if you could check your upcoming schedule or submit vacation requests at the time clock?
- What scheduling and payroll questions do they often wish they could find the answers themselves, instead of having to ask their manager or payroll?
- Do you have any health or safety concerns about using the time clock?
This is a starter list of questions. Listening to your customers’ employees talk about using time clocks will spark additional questions. These interactions with employees can expand your vocabulary surrounding how you discuss time clocks. Using this vocabulary with new prospects and customers communicates to them your expertise in creating a positive time clock for employees.
Building Trust Takes Time, But Yields Great Rewards
At ATS, we’ve long put trust and support at the center of our partner relationships. It’s how we’ve built long-term partnerships to everyone’s mutual benefit. Whether you are interested in evaluating new hardware for your business or need a comprehensive solution such as AccuCloud, ATS can work with you to achieve your goals.
Reach out to us and schedule a time to connect to a time clock expert.