I walked in to an electrical store this weekend to purchase a Cambridge Audio
Azur Receiver but couldn’t find what I was looking for. There were no sales staff around whatsoever to
ask whether they had the item in stock, although a sign read ‘leave us a
message and we will try to get back to you within 48 hours’.
Sounds strange!
However this is the scenario still faced by many online shoppers.
Most customers expect an immediate response to product and service queries. Answers may come from the help and product information
displayed on your site but when it doesn't answer their query your customer
needs to be able to talk to a Customer Services Representative. Customers also
require the reassurance that should they need
help there is someone to talk to.
By simply positioning your customer services phone number in a prominent
location you can significantly increase customer confidence. Some users I’ve done research with refuse to
shop at any store without a direct line to the stores customer services. So get your phone numbers up and make them
easy to find.
Sounds obvious!
Yet many ecommerce sites still don’t provide a non-premium contact
number or make it hard to find. View
your web site as a Virtual Customer Service Representative. The web site is
there to help your customers find and purchase your products, as well as to
give your customers the confidence to do business with you. This Virtual Customer Services Representative
should be as helpful as possible but when they cannot answer your customers
query then there is no substitute for contact with the real thing. Offer your
customers reassurance that if they had a problem there is a real person they
can talk to.
When we built a content managed ecommerce site for one client I
recommended that they place their Customer Support phone number in a generous font
at the top centre of every single page. The eCommerce Director was concerned
that this would increase the call volume. I reassured him that there might be an initial
5-8% increase in callthrough rate after their site redesign as customers
familiarise themselves with the new site but after that the number of calls
would steadily fall below that of the call volume before the site launch. The
client listened and the phone number took pride of place in the header (and
footer) of every screen.
Post-launch a slightly disgruntled client informed me they had been
swamped by calls and the increase was closer to 40%. I had advised the client that the prominent
positioning of a contact number is just a small element of a wider strategy to
address customers support needs. When I
reviewed their site I discovered poor product descriptions and product imagery, confusing information around their delivery proposition, almost non-existent FAQs
etc The increase in callthrough was
only partly due to the prominent number but more so because they were not
addressing their customers’ needs. For example, they had increased their
product catalogue ten-fold but not enriched the product data. Most customers
tend not to call unless they have a reason - of course there are exceptions and
there is no accounting for the actions of some folk who will phone no matter
how clear and informative your site is.
You need to give your customers as few reasons as possible to phone. Building the site experience around your customers
needs will reduce callthrough and increase conversion rates. When you provide a
contact phone number you must have the support strategy, infrastructure and
agents in place to handle the calls, otherwise customers will suffer a negative
experience of your customer service. One user went as far to say “I would phone
the telephone number to speak to someone to get an idea of whether to do
business with them or not.”
I recently phoned Empire Direct 2 or 3 times a day for 5 consecutive
days with a product query and did not get through one. I finally gave up. If I had a problem with a faulty
item I had purchased then I would not be able to resolve it if I couldn’t speak
to anyone. So I shopped elsewhere.
And let's not forget the infamous Kiddicare whose disregard for Customer
Services is second to none. If you are
unfortunate to have to return an item to Kiddicare you are likely to find they
don't respond by email and the only channel you can get a response from them on
is their premium phone line. You'll soon find any savings are rapidly eroded as
you are kept talking on their revenue generating premium line.
Webcredible carried out research last year to identify what builds
customer trust in a website when buying online. From nearly 1200 responses
'contact phone number readily available' was the 4th most popular reason. Making
the number available was rated more important than providing security
assurances.
Customer services is regularly viewed by the business as an overhead but
the costs can only be reduced by either investing in a user-centric site design
and/ or by regularly updating your website to ensure all support content on
your site is still relevant and adding stuff to address latest support
enquiries. As customers are very cautious when buying online you must go the extra
mile to reassure them and build that level of trust. The worst thing you can do
is hold back or hide your contact numbers.
P.S.
Conchango are recruiting! If any of my ramblings interest you and you
are passionate about User Experience the we'd like to hear from you.
Why not contact me and let's have a chat?
Listening to: Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weekend