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Click to Call An Expert Guide: Giving Voice to Online Transactions
www.eStara.com © 2008 Art Technology Group, Inc. All Rights ReservedAN EXPERT GUIDE: Giving Voice to Online Transactions
The New Interactivity: Conversation Comes to e-Commerce
In the agoras of old, no transaction could be completed without engaging in a back-and-forth conversation between buyer and seller. Through this dialogue, price was negotiated, questions were asked and answered, and a deal was struck only when both parties were in agreement.
Today, transactions have moved online and the process has transformed into a series of impersonal, yet efficient, clicks. In the absence of conversation, however, countless transactions are abandoned and a great deal of user satisfaction has been lost. In the online channel, merchants are often denied the ability to engage customers in conversations that can help drive sales to closure.
At the same time, analysts have shown that most consumers still prefer doing business over the phone rather than online via email, self-service, or text chat. There are a number of reasons why this is so:
. Phone is faster. Even with queue times, response time by phone can be up to eight times faster than email, and more than four times faster than self-service. . Voice is friendlier. The sound of a human voice in direct and immediate interaction with the consumer makes consumers feel more secure and comfortable, especially when imparting personal information. . Chat and self-service tools are limited. Chat doesn't always offer the privacy and responsiveness that customers want, and self-service is a liability when the customer needs more information, or has questions or concerns.
eStara Click to Call is an innovative tool that allows customers to initi-ate telephone calls from their PC directly to a sales or service rep - or to request an immediate callback from an appropriate agent. Contact may be initiated via any online medium, including Web sites, emails and interactive ads. eStara's market-leading technology enables companies to leverage their existing PSTN infrastructure and integrate it seamlessly with their online channel.
This paper will explain why Forrester Research identified Click to Call technology as one of the "Twelve Technologies That Will Transform Online Retail"1 and why leading marketers in a range of industries are embracing this innovative way of bridging the old (PSTN network) and the new (IP networks) for their benefit - and for the good of their customers.
Click to Call Enhances an Organization's Ability to Sell and Serve
Click to Call is so innovative, and yet so simple. It addresses a key paradox in the e-commerce world: many people use the Inter-net to browse and research merchandise, but most consumers opt to purchase these items offline.
1Trends report by Sucharita Mulpuru with Carrie A. Johnson, Sean Meyer, and Brian Tesch, Forrester Research, November 28, 2005
www.eStara.com © 2008 Art Technology Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved"
AN EXPERT GUIDE: Giving Voice to Online Transactions
With eStara Click to Call, online buyers can move between phone and Internet channels in a single unbroken session, merging the best of both worlds: the immediacy and human touch of the phone, with the ease and convenience of the Internet. For com- panies, this delivers a number of important business benefits including: Increased sales conversion - In the brick-and-mortar world, it's well-established that attentive, helpful, and timely service from a good salesperson can keep a confused customer from leaving the store and help close a sale. Because good salespeople can't live inside your Web site, it's likely that a number of customers are leaving your store without making a purchase. By keeping customers engaged and enabling them to receive the information and service they need, when they need it, through any chan- nel, eStara Click to Call can help you increase sales and upsell customers. In fact, companies are enjoying increased sales conver-sion rates of two to three times those of other channels when using eStara Click to Call.
Reduced abandonment - Nearly 60% of online transactions are abandoned. Each empty shopping cart or incomplete form is a lost opportunity, not only for current sales but also for future sales. There are a range of reas... [download for more]
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