Forum Moderators: buckworks
Do you guys have any guesses as to which industries people prefer to phone as oppose to just buying online?
The factors that I can come up with are:
- phone number is visible on all pages
- older demographic prefer the phone
- high order amounts so people feel safer phoning
- business was/is a mail order company
- people need more info
thoughts?
in the same way, I find buyers who purchase telephones buy it online. ;)
I've heard in some industries people say 2/3 of orders come via phone orders
I can't recall anyone here saying that. Perhaps that would be true of a site selling very expensive or custom made items.
We have our 800# on every page. Still, the vast majority of orders are done 100% online. I think that our phone-in orders have declined over the years as customers have gotten the hang of using a shopping cart.
Phone orders tend to be bigger than cart orders, but they can be very time-consuming.
You will hear me say that jsinger.
We get 2 or 3 phone orders for every completed internet order. Somedays its 4 to 1.
It can be a 20 dollar sale or a 10 000 dollar sale.
Maybe we are unique.
Do you have a catalog that you mail out? That could be a reason *shrugs* i.e my mail order 'theory'.
not anymore, we discontinued it 4 years ago to focus on the web
we still get lots of calls requesting the catalog
usually when people call they are looking at the website at the same time
Yes a website with loads of products is no joke either, but I'm sure things get complicated when you get into print/delivery etc.
I would guess that the vast majority of mail order business has transitioned online but with the added competition online many probably have tried to stick to mailing a catalog hehe.
some people are angry when they call and ask for the catalog and we give them the bad news, in fact somebody just swore at one of our sales people and then hung up about an hour ago
i think there are just as many catalogs printed and mailed in north america as there ever were ... judging from my mailbox
that is true, then it is up to the sales person to close the sale and try to up sale the customer
that is the upside to phone orders
So a number at the top of the page could be like a 'hacker safe' icon for some stores, while others it is a deal breaker to not have one (I believe the auto parts industry is also 2/3's by phone).
Other factors:
- nature of the product, is it complicated? Are visitors new to the industry that might require some hand holding, etc.
- people have heard of fake products being sold in the given niche, and get some sort of assurance when talking with someone that the product they are buying is not a fake/knockoff.
If there are 10 rules for building trust the phone is definately one of them.
We get at least half of web generated orders called through on the phone. Have no problems with it except its manual processing
If there are 10 rules for building trust the phone is definitely one of them
Among the top 10, I'd rank Hacker Safe and BBB around number 782 :)
I've heard in some industries people say 2/3 of orders come via phone orders.
That's the key phrase right there.
In some industries the 2/3 statistic may apply. Brett just posted topic recently where a recent survey showed that...
29 percent of U.S. households, or 31 million homes, do not have Internet access and do not intend to subscribe to an Internet service over the next 12 months.
Um-hum, I don't know about you, but 31 million homes seems like a reasonable market to target, yes?
If you are appealing to an audience that does not use the Internet regularly, phone orders are a viable and strong potential source of revenue. If you have the volume, a call center operation may be an option.
31 million homes? Without Internet access? That's where all us "regional folks" come in with our local advertising campaigns, print ads, door hangers, newspaper inserts, etc. And right across the top of everything, that local telephone number. Let the switchboards light up! ;)
And then, all those phone orders are entered in directly through the web based system. The call center acts as the conduit between consumer and fulfillment.
The factors that I can come up with are:- phone number is visible on all pages
- older demographic prefer the phone
- high order amounts so people feel safer phoning
- business was/is a mail order company
- people need more info
Another top factor is price point. The higher the price point, the more apt that consumer might be to place an order via the telephone. Many have preset limits on their credit cards as far as single purchase amounts go. They don't know it until they try to make the purchase. I know, its happened to me. :(
P.S. Many of those in those 31 million homes will probably access the Internet from work. Phone numbers are very important!
Over the years we have added more content. Partly to give the best description and information possible AND reduce the amount of calls.
We are now reversing our "more info online" strategy a bit to encourage more calls. We know our stuff better than most of our competitors and many calls can be converted. The consumer comfort level goes WAY up when they speak to a knowledgeable, friendly person. Call centers can't do what we do.
We don't always close the sale on the first call but in the end we close the sale on over 80% of calls.
I also know that my elderly mother, who refuses to learn how to read a text message on her mobile let alone buy a computer, uses mail order a lot more than I do. Anybody who goes internet only is going to loose her "grey pounds".
Before one site in particular went live with their ecommerce site, customers would use the website or catalogue to decide on their purchases, then use email to fine-tune any requirements, final costs, etc, before calling up to hand over their payment details.
We did run the site with an order form for a couple of months, with instructions that the company would call back the customer to obtain payment details and often the customer would have changed their mind or forgotten that they'd even filled out an order request!
We sell name brand consumable products. These are products the consumer has been using for years and knows exactly what they are getting. Our internet orders are 10 to 1 phone orders. In our business the phone is used more for information, troubleshooting and occasionally for ordering.
For those calling in to order: They tend to meet the demographic information mentioned above. Elderly, no computer , etc.
Great thread, we have really been evaluating our phone business recently on how to upsell and/or close the deal.
86% preferred to order Online to 14% that preferred the telephone.
They have a pretty mixed demographic split between under 40 year old users of equipment and older parents that are buying equipment for a family member.
Many phone calls are the fault of poor web design and junk ecommerce software
Common problems include:
- Adding a product to the cart stays on the product page with no clue the cart was updated, or not easily identifiable, should be very clear something happened
- Can't find VIEW CART or CHECKOUT easily
- Can't find shipping amounts easily without providing CC details
... and a whole bunch more
Of course, for this reason you need a contact phone number.
BTW, I am happy to phone but am very reluctant to send an email or fill out a form, mainly because this places my decisionmaking/buying process in limbo for an indeterminable period of time. Also I have never gotten involved in an online chat with a retail site and likely never will.
Once the figure may be down to 1:10, I'm planning to take the phone-number off the top, and place it on the appropriate places burried deep down on the content pages.
I doubt those 29 % without internet access yet (probably a bit more in Europe) really are an interesting market: It is mainly lower class people seeking cheap stuff, trying to save money and complaining about shipping costs. We do sell on commission, and I'm quite happy that until now these people, who are planning not to pay and resell my stuff at ebay have been kept out of my shop for these socio-economico-technical reasons so far. This definitely isn't my primary target group, and as a shop owner you will always be in danger to perform some very basic schooling-tasks on the phone: How to fill in web-forms and how to correctly use the enter-key.
I recently bought my son a trampoline - the site I bought off was very nicely presented, easily navigable, and were bundling a freebie that made it the best deal on the web - the works - but no stock indication - so I called. Good thing was the lady on the other end was very helpful and friendly and offered choice of delivery dates etc so was a positive experience after all - I did tell her to get it sorted out though.
I think maybe this is more related to "non-brands" as you never know if the site in question is one man in his shed, or a faily large outfit with proper warehouse etc - and so you have no grasp of what stock holding they might have.
So in summary just to agree - if you get asked something more than 2 or 3 times over the phone it means your website lacks that info!
Our current online-to-phone order ratio is around 50:1, and if we could increase it to 75:1 or 100:1, all the better. We allow for order-placing online, but the calling-in of credit card numbers (AFTER the order has been placed into the system and the widget has been customized online), and this has helped a great deal.
Another great way to deter phone orders is to ask "Were you having difficulties placing the order online?" This gives us 1. the opportunity to find out if the enduser is having problems with the website (or if there is an area we can better clarify) and 2. the opportunity to passively mention that orders CAN be placed online.
I would never operate an ecommerce site without a phone number to call for orders etc.. Why
We buld trust, we build support, we build a business, we upsell to them as well.
1 some people just don't like to buy over the internet period and would rather us do it viva phone.
2- Others call for the lastest info on what is available so we have the chance to sell more to this customer
3- some call cuz they like us. Bill Do you have a store were you go because you like the employees, well we treat our online store the same way as if they were right there.
4- To discourage calls communication to a prospective customer is not something I recommend for any ecommerce site and feel without proper communications your hurting yourself more than saving...
5- We get calls all the time requesting tracking numbers due to the emails being blocked as spam as Fedex sends them out automatically with the ship. This gives us the chance to speak to them thus building all the above for a return sale...
7-If you didn't know an ecommerce business survives on return customers you build on new customers. Without a customer base it is really hard to stay in business long...
I could go on an on about the importance of a displayed phone number as one of the most important properities an ecommerce business should have and diplay with going on 6 years in one of the toughest ecommerce business there is I kinda have a good idea about the phone thing...
Get one display it and answer it....
We get 2 or 3 phone orders for every completed internet order. Somedays its 4 to 1.
For one of my top clients at the moment, this is about the same ratio. It's moving over slowly, but he deals heavily in some markets where people are still more used to picking up the phone.
Rather than decreasing our catalog mailings, we've increased them - a year ago we were mailing 5,000 per month, now it's up to 50,000, and we're shooting for 100,00 by the end of the year. The catalogs increase BOTH the phone and the web orders.
We've just put in a call center to take off hour calls - both for customer service and for order taking.
We don't particularly want to move people over exclusively to the web - this is a B2B site, with a lot of repeat business, and we feel the relationship is important.
That said, one of the sales people told me just Friday that he had a large client (a public utility) who knows very well she can get special pricing by calling him up and placing her orders over the phone, but still prefers to do them all online, on her own time and whenever it's convenient for her.
To that end, we're focusing on making it easier for clients to do that, to re-order, and trying to cut down the number of calls that are for things other than new orders or customer service issues (such as problems with the website, or questions about how to order)
Many phone calls are the fault of poor web design and junk ecommerce software.
Many are also the sign of the times. There is a whole generation out there that still likes to do business via telephone. I'll take an order from a business owner over the phone any day, any time. Its another method of generating revenue. Its all going to be industry and product/service specific too. You're surely not going to sit there and take orders for a $4.95 product over the phone. No, that doesn't work. ;)
Poor web design?
I'll agree and the smart merchant is the one who takes those calls and turns them into an opportunity to improve upon their web design. You cater to your audience.
There is also the flip side of the coin and that is where you do everything you can to cater to that audience and they still need guidance via telcon. For those types of sites, a phone number on every "primary" page is a must. Think Accessibility. ;)
