Forum Moderators: buckworks
1) buyer may not be online and a friend gives them a printout of your product with contact information.
2) buyer fears site is not secure in some way or the information will be used for fraud or e-mail spam.
3) buyer wants to know business is legitimate and by having someone answer at the other end, s/he feels more comfortable with the transaction.
4) can not process payment online and calls order in.
5) buyer used up their dial-up hours and wants to save by calling your 800 number. ;)
What have I missed on the list? Any comments on what is posted thus far?
Also: wants to find out more information about the product that they don't see on the page.
However, those businesses who don't allow for phone usage, don't get their business.
On a slightly related note, my father refuses to use pdf-based owners manuals, insisting that all documents be PRINTED out so he can read them (never mind that one manual for Palm was over 200 pages). *sigh*
Unless you can't afford to manage the phone lines, never leave a channel to the customer closed or blocked off!
Good luck,
Patrick Elward
Also, some people like to talk!
Thirdly many websites are giving worrying little security messages or take a long time to get the user to the checkout finish line. (Forced phone number fields, States field mandatory when I live in the UK... that sort of thing)
freaked me out big time!
Of of my clients even related something similiar. He was at a gas station & was paying by credit card. he went int the station, gave the man the credit card to hold while he pumped the gas. A few days later, someone was trying to use the CC number in Arizona at a hardware store.
Sooner or later, it will become the norm to pay everything via the internet. But just for now - we will continue to hand over our CCs to perfect strangers :)
-Corey
Most people who phone up simply want reassurance that their widgets will be made the way they want, or to discuss a complex order.
We also have a few people we phone us just to see if someone answers, enquire briefly about a product, and then order it online. I guess most people just need that reassurance. Sales have increased since we listed our phone number on every page.
Sometimes, I'll go to phone if the order is complex and I don't trust the site's logic.
It's funny, but sometimes this is a habit on poor looking sites.
When we do its, a guaranteed order BUT this also takes up on average 30 minutes of phone time. For us the ROI is not there to spend 30 minutes on phone with them, so now don't call people any more!
Why do the call? We now have discovered that they really just want to talk.
Which makes sense. But then there are those who phone in and give you the card details over the phone. Oh dear! Nothing needs to be hacked into now! Someone else now knows your number and it is probably now on a bit of paper floating about an office somewhere. (I wonder if the company owns a shredder? Or even uses it?).
The biggest problem I suffer from is dyslexic and unclear people. They give you the wrong card number, or read it so fast that you get it wrong. Then, you have to ring them back. Either that, or they give you the wrong address details, or again - read them so fast... Then the parcel gets lost, you have to send a replacement and I lose a lot of money.
From next month I am going to start charging delivery on all phoned orders (admin charge plus insurance for lost parcels). I will be offereing free delivery for internet, faxed and posted (cheque). See how that goes!
I find that a customer will ring up to get help choosing what to buy, how fast to ship, check on stock before placing an order online ...
It's a great way to interact with them and get some feedback.
Broken/Hard to use/Not pretty site.
There are some folks too who just can't type very well, but have better than average verbal skills. If you're placing a large order with us, I can almost guarantee that you'll get a discount after talking to the boss. And, it's easier to tell me what you want so I can type it all in for you...
For one thing, ordering many products is harder to do online.
In late '97 I worked for a large brewery in teh finance dept, all teh pubs used to return CC slips with card details on to us weekly.
If id have been crooked.....
It is also a good chance to work an upsale. We had one man call wanting a $500 pendant for his wife and while my partner was talking with him she mentioned the new earrings and necklace she had just finished and we didn't have photographed yet. He decided to order those ($150 for the set) for his kids to give. That one upsale paid for the 800 for many months.
We have no problem taking telephone orders (we love them!), but the problem is that only 1 of 10 callers actually wants to place an order. The other 9 want to ask basic information that is easily accessible on our site, or want to ask questions like "what shade of red is your red widget?"
Probably 2 of the 9 eventually place an order online, so it isn't wasted time, but it is frustrating. Since we don't have a dedicated phone staff, every hour on the phone is an hour away from more direct-revenue-generating work.
As others have mentioned, many people just want to talk - quite a few seem to have no real interest in the answers.
If I have a real need for a product, I will buy if the other end answers all my questions and takes a real interest in my situation. The business enstills the confidence I need to conduct business with them. As the business, the difficulty I have is in trying to figure out which calls have potential and which ones are a complete waste of time.
Anyhow, seems to me qualifying buyers right away might be in order. I'm not interested in chit-chat ("how are you doing?")... "Are you calling to inquire about our products, or would you like to place an order?" might do the trick. This might seem curt, but I don't like to be wasting my time, or the customer's.
For some of the questions, the answers won't matter- I believe a lot of people are calling to feel safe that there is someone on the other line.
