In recent years, the role of customer service has evolved from merely addressing customer concerns to becoming a pivotal part of enterprise growth strategies. By 2028, Gartner predicts that 75 percent of service organizations will be expected to contribute to revenue growth. This shift presents unique challenges for service and support leaders who must balance their traditional roles with new revenue-generating responsibilities.
In a survey of customer service leaders, 51 percent indicated that increasing revenue through sales to existing customers would be more of a focus in 2025 than it was in 2024. In fact, 21 percent of respondents said that revenue generation would be their top priority for 2025.
Factors contributing to this heightened emphasis on revenue generation include the following:
- Agent assist tools: These tools guide agents on how and when to make sales, simplifying the process.
- Sophisticated self-service capabilities: Advances in generative AI (genAI) have expanded self-service options, freeing human agents to focus on value-added interactions like upselling.
- Crisis of legitimacy: As genAI threatens traditional roles, service leaders are under pressure to prove their department's value as a growth driver.
Despite these motivations, many leaders are unsure how to effectively pursue revenue-focused goals without compromising customer experience. There are four essential components for successful revenue-generating initiatives in customer service: alignment, metrics, agent support, and agent bandwidth. Focusing on these components ensures that customer service organizations fulfill their core responsibilities as they evolve into a revenue-generating entity.
Alignment: clarify the customer service function's role in generating revenue
Customer service agents are not and should not be sales professionals. Their primary job is to help customers. Making a sales recommendation should never get in the way of that mission. Misalignment can occur if executives prioritize revenue over customer service's core function. Successful alignment involves the following:
- Performance tied to operational goals: Leaders should focus on achieving operational goals rather than specific revenue targets. For instance, tracking the increase in successful upsell offers year over year is more beneficial than setting a fixed revenue target.
- Collaborative relationship between service and sales teams: Service agents should close deals when appropriate and generate leads for the sales team when necessary. Establishing thresholds for deal size and complexity ensures that service agents handle appropriate transactions.
Metrics: incentivize new agent behaviors
Customer service leaders have long struggled to demonstrate the value of service to the organization because they communicate using operational metrics, such as average handle time or customer satisfaction score. When they take on a revenue-focused objective, they need to holistically reevaluate their metrics to ensure they align with the function's new business objectives. To demonstrate the value of service, leaders must reevaluate their metrics to align with revenue-focused objectives. A hierarchical approach can help with the following:
- Strategic objectives and metrics: At the top of the hierarchy, place strategic objectives and select one or two strategic metrics per objective. For example, use conversion rate to report on upselling success.
- Operational metrics: Choose metrics that assess how processes and personnel are functioning, such as the percentage of interactions where upsell recommendations are made.
Balancing growth-focused metrics with customer-experience metrics is vital, especially during transitional periods. Overemphasis on growth can undermine long-term customer loyalty.
Agent support: provide training, technology, and quality assurance
Agents require more than a scripted sales pitch to effectively generate revenue. To ensure agents' sales efforts do not harm the customer experience, customer service organizations need training materials and performance metrics that uphold a help-first-sell-second mentality. Training should emphasize situational awareness and product knowledge in the following ways:
- Agents must evaluate the customer's context before attempting a sale. They should understand the advantages and disadvantages of products and communicate how they meet customer goals.
- Technology support through agent assist tools can enhance product knowledge and emotional intelligence by providing real-time insights and guidance.
- Quality Assurance, implementing a program that assesses agent competencies related to customer-centric cross-selling and upselling rather than relying solely on scripted checklists.
If agents only hear about issues and problems, it's hard for them to be enthusiastic about the products' value. Change the focus of your internal communication to emphasize the value customers receive from products and services. This is important to gain support from agents to sell.
Agent bandwidth: redistribute value-eroding interactions
Agents should focus on high-value activities, not routine issues. Customers seeking quick answers are not ideal for upselling conversations. Adopting a channel strategy that prioritizes complex interactions ensures agents can concentrate on generating revenue.
Transitioning customer service into a revenue-generating entity requires a strategic approach that aligns goals, metrics, and support systems. By focusing on alignment, metrics, agent support, and bandwidth, service organizations can evolve to meet the demands of modern business while maintaining their core responsibility of helping customers. As self-service capabilities grow, intelligent channels will further enable personalized sales offers, enhancing both customer experience and revenue potential.
Kathy Ross is a senior director analyst in Gartner's Customer Service and Support Practice. Kim Hedlin is a senior principal of research in Gartner's Customer Service and Support Practice.