Answer the phone!!!!

[gibby]

Ive been looking around for a week to buy a till online.
before wanting to purchase I needed some questions answered to make sure it would do what we wanted.

Out of 12 firms only 2 answered the phone. All of them had a website or online store. Most of them just had an answer phone..
This went on over the full week & no one bothered to call me back.

This was really annoying but made me question how much business must be lost in the UK. Most of these firms had spent time on nice looking sites but If they are not returning or answering calls how do they expect to stay in business.
Crazy


G

 

[TestAPlug]

Also, would you be happy just phoning and leaving a message when it breaks down! KEV

 

[Dymo King]

Most of them a probably one or two person businesses, half of them probably home based, and probably using a distributors 'reseller site'. (Did any of them look similar in the structure or product range...?)

Why are you looking to buy online? There must be more traditional companies with sales people, and showrooms, and support staff - why not try them?

 

[Mister B]

I agree Gibby, I have a landline phone which is manned six days a week and although we only receive two or three calls a week, it is an aditional two or three sales a day.

In my experience, there are a fair proportion of people out there who do not want to pay online and prefer the human touch

Mister B

 

[Donela]

Yes I agree too, we have a landline which is also manned. It was unable to be manned for 1 week, although we were regularly checking the messages. There was a significant drop in business for this one week.

 

[Chris Kaday]

Does not surprise me in the slightest G. It is amazing that these companies invest in sites presumably to get leads, but do not bother to respond to the enquiries they generate. When I was more interested in starting businesses myself I had considered setting up a company to do this for them. Perhaps an idea for someone in here?

Chris Kaday
Sales Coach

 

[Dymo King]

It is amazing that these companies invest in sites presumably to get leads, but do not bother to respond to the enquiries they generate.

Maybe the simple fact is that many of them don't put up sites to get leads - they put up sites to get sales.

With those that are 'reseller sites' (ie. the distributor supplies a blank website and they just fill in their logo and contact details, and change the colour scheme) they've probably never even seen the products their selling let alone know enough about them to answer technical questions.

You also don't even know if it's their full time occupation - many could have full time jobs and this just brings in some easy cash for not much work... They can just forward orders to the distie in the evening and maybe do a bit of SEO at the weekend...

 

[Chris Kaday]

Good point re ecommerce sites but I have found the same thing on sites with no sales platform which are there just to generate enquiries.
Chris Kaday
Sales Coach

 

[i234i]

Maybe the simple fact is that many of them don't put up sites to get leads - they put up sites to get sales.

I doubt they'd get many of these either if they dont answer!

 

[Dymo King]

Good point re ecommerce sites but I have found the same thing on sites with no sales platform which are there just to generate enquiries.

Could be someone set it up in a blaze of optimism, it failed to generate any leads and they just gave up - but never bothered to remove it... That's the problem with the internet, you have no idea how long a site has been there or if it's still live... or maybe they're getting too many leads and are cherry picking the best ones and ignoring the rest...?

 

[Dymo King]

I doubt they'd get many of these either if they dont answer!

You're missing the point. Take ourselves as an example (although we are not a 'reseller' as described above - we keep all our own stock, know the products and work more than full time!). While we get a few queries before purchase the vast majority of our customers just come to us and buy with no previous contact - no salemen, no phone calls, no emails. So for the scenario I described above that is what they'd be aiming for - get the majority who just want to purchase, ignore the minority who want to ask all kinds of questions they don't know the answer to...

 

[AdvantageMedia]

We sell online (quite successfully) and answer the lines until 10pm 7 days a week alot of compnaies think that online sales are only completed online...this a major mistake...although the actual mechanics of the sale may be transacted over the telephone...most sales area result of some form of call or email....companies need to understand this as not answering the phone will definitely affect your sales....online or not online!

 

[J-Wholesale]

Let me ask a question. Has anyone ever tried to call Amazon? Or eBay? Or indeed, any of the really big and successful eCommerce sites? It pretty much can't be done.

Online stores are usually cheaper than their high street equivalent, in many cases considerably cheaper. This is because they don't have the costs associated with a bricks and mortar businesses, and this money saving can be passed on to customers. Removing customer service staff (the guys who stand behind a counter and smile at you, or point you to the Sci-Fi section when you ask even though you would have found it in a few seconds anyway) can reduce these costs even further.

Our experience has been that people who call us rarely ask a question that is not on our FAQ page, and when they do, it's something that has nothing to do with the products they want to buy - often general 'guide me through setting up my Jewellery business' conversations. They tend to be talkative people who just want a chat.

Now, this is all very well, but if our people spend 3 hours on the phone every day, just because some start up business person needs some hand holding, these costs have to be passed on - which means higher prices. It's invariably these very people (often gushing about how wonderful our products are, and the great big orders they're about to place) who go away and are never heard from again.

If your site gives all the information needed, and you respond to email queries promptly and in detail, your customers should have no reason to call you. If you want to talk to a sales man, then you go to a shop and pay the extra money required.

As a by the way - we do answer our phone when potential customers call. It does little to increase sales and takes up a lot of staff time. We'd be happy to lose these customers, not have to answer the phone, and let our staff work on answering emails, packing orders and taking photographs - and of course, reduce our prices.

 

[AdvantageMedia]

J-Wholesale you make some interesting points but I think as a wholesaler you may be , wrongly, comparing different types of customers...

"Joe Schmo" calling to make a purchase of a, I dont know, er, a quilt will normally want to ask some questions...yes I agree the FAQ's page is a great place to start but the biggest question is will I get it, when, and is it what I think I am ordering....all questions that can not ordinarily be answered by a standard FAQ page...

"Walter Hall" wishing to fulfill an order for 2500 quilts for his retail business, knows what he is looking for, and normally just wants the lowest possible price....

Do see what I mean...Joe needs reassurance....Walter wants the lowest price....big difference in the buying thoughts of both customers...both equally important but to 2 different suppliers.

Answering the phone is a pain (I know I do it til 10pm!) and it is normally just to repeat what the page says (really, really annoying!) but its part of the sale for customers of this type.

Hope this helps!?

Cheers Darren

 

[oldeagleeye]

Gibby - Try these freephone and next day delivery if ordered before 3 pm. the Sharp A102 a good little till with about 80 pre-programable plus at about £60 quid
Rob
http://www.cashregisters-epos.com/scripts/prodList.asp?idCategory=55

 

[VLAHAKISA]

Maybe they don't get enough phone calls to warrant the cost of fully covering the phone line.

I used to spend about £90 a month covering my phone line, and then over time I slowly realised it wasn't worth it for the 1-3 calls a month I was receiving!

Absolutely every one else sends an email - my customers just prefer to email rather than telephone. Therefore the few callers I do get now also face an answering machine most of the time

Actually now my son is going to school most of the week starting on the 18th (yey freedom!) I will start manning the phone lines more, but I don't expect many calls because when they were manned all day every day I barely got any callers each month.

Amanda

 

[alldayPA]

I used to spend about £90 a month covering my phone line, and then over time I slowly realised it wasn't worth it for the 1-3 calls a month I was receiving!

Amanda

Have you ever contemplated using an answering service that charge on a per minute basis?

That way, you only pay for the calls that come through to you.

I may be biased (let me amend that statement - I am biased ).........but what a fantastic service for small or medium sized business to have.
You are guaranteed to have someone sitting there, waiting to take your calls 24/7 and if you only get one call - that's all you pay for!
Brilliant.

Ruth

 

[Dymo King]

We sell online (quite successfully) and answer the lines until 10pm 7 days a week alot of compnaies think that online sales are only completed online...this a major mistake...although the actual mechanics of the sale may be transacted over the telephone...most sales area result of some form of call or email....companies need to understand this as not answering the phone will definitely affect your sales....online or not online!

I think it really depends on the type of product you are selling, and how much hand holding is required by the average customer. We used to provide a phone number, but only got relatively few calls and they were mostly asking about the status of their order (usually the day after ordering even though they paid for 3-4 day shipping ).

That way, you only pay for the calls that come through to you.

We also tried that, which worked out about £1 per call, but were annoyed that we got more calls from cold calling salesmen than we did from customers - and more annoyingly, instead of leaving a message they simply called back the next day instead in the hope that they would speak to someone different who would put them through to the business owner instead so we had to pay repeatedly for the same idiot salesmen calling repeatedly...

 

[gibby]

The reason I was ringing around is that we needed something that can handle 2k of products & can scan barcodes

I did find 2 firms that answered the phone - one gave me the info I needed but refused to supply as I was not local.
I was told to try out yellow pages instead but I had the same hassle there.
7 firms & 1 answered but wanted to charge £1500 plus a service contract.

I eventually found a firm through ebay & got a nice samsung for less than £350.
I went for thsi one as I use other samsung printers & the warranty & service is good.

I do find firms like Amazon a pain as you can never get through to them.
Infact we had a duplicate order last xmas from them and never managed to get a reply on how to send it back to them. Ended up giving it to a charity

G

 

[Chris Kaday]

Good point DK but actually they were established mid sized businesses such as data supply, an architects, heating engineers and so on. Very few companies ever get back to you whatever their size.

Chris Kaday
Business coach and mentor

Could be someone set it up in a blaze of optimism, it failed to generate any leads and they just gave up - but never bothered to remove it... That's the problem with the internet, you have no idea how long a site has been there or if it's still live... or maybe they're getting too many leads and are cherry picking the best ones and ignoring the rest...?

 

[Dymo King]

ah, they probably fall into the the 'cherry picking' and/or just plain 'too busy already' categories... there must be some reason...

 

[sysops]

ah, they probably fall into the the 'cherry picking' and/or just plain 'too busy already' categories... there must be some reason...

One of our phone lines was getting a total of around 40 calls a day on average.

80% of those were sales or media calls (people trying to sell us stuff or get free stuff)

15% were potential customer calls - I say potential customer, but in reality the majority of 'potential customer's who called did not end up making a purchase.

The remaining ~5% were genuine calls from real customers, ones who had genuine enquiries.

This adds up to a significant cost, which can only be written off as an overhead. To reduce this overhead, we have outsourced this one line to a call centre. Sure the quality isn't the same, and the genuine enquiries take a little longer to get answers (like 30 minutes instead of 2 minutes), but when you look at the numbers, it's a no-brainer.

 

[Pteppic]

We are an online 2 man business run from a residence. We would miss out on 50% of our sales if we didn't man the phones Mon-Fri, 9-5. Going back 2 year we would have missed 70% of our sales but there is a clear swing to online.

The rest of the time, evening and weekends there is an answer phone which we return calls = more sales.

It wouldn't be worth our while of we didn't answer the phones.

 

[Dymo King]

what do you sell?

 

[A Party Shop]

Generally, apart from the ocassional stock enquiry, we are generally harrassed non-stop by web advertising sales calls. This does cause a real problem as we are a bricks & mortar shop too. We've allocated a separate number for web enquiries but to be honest the customer (or sales rep ) just calls the first number they see.

 

[AdvantageMedia]

Generally, apart from the ocassional stock enquiry, we are generally harrassed non-stop by web advertising sales calls. This does cause a real problem as we are a bricks & mortar shop too. We've allocated a separate number for web enquiries but to be honest the customer (or sales rep ) just calls the first number they see.

You made a very good point alot of the calls we receive are from SEO and web marketing companies...but, and I suppose alot of this depends on your product that you are selling online...if its a boxed product sales enquiries are fewer than a complex bespoke product like litho & digital flyer printing, if you don't take the calls will you miss out on sales leads...In our experience we prefer to take the calls...and just reject the SEO "experts".

Interestingly we have recently been getting a few calls out of hours (after 6pm, we answer sales calls til 10pm) from foreign call centres...someone needs to tell them we have all left for the day!

 

[Pteppic]

We sell dog training products. A large number of customers want advice before they purchase.

We do get a number of marketing calls but the benifits are far greater. And you learn how the deal with the marketing calls without them wasting too much of your time when there are customers trying to get through.

 

[Dymo King]

We are an online 2 man business run from a residence. We sell dog training products. A large number of customers want advice before they purchase.

The problem that you'll have is that as you become more successful you'll find yourself spending all day answering phone calls and have no time to actually pack the products! Then you'll probably need another employee to help out... then you'll probably need an office... then you have to raise prices to pay for it all... then you start moaning about how all those 2 man operations running out of a back bedroom are undercutting you... lol

 

[AdvantageMedia]

The problem that you'll have is that as you become more successful you'll find yourself spending all day answering phone calls and have no time to actually pack the products! Then you'll probably need another employee to help out... then you'll probably need an office... then you have to raise prices to pay for it all... then you start moaning about how all those 2 man operations running out of a back bedroom are undercutting you... lol

You make a very good point as you become more successful (ie busier) you can sometimes end up creating a monster thats ready for undercutting by someone simialr to how you once grew yours! Interesting point.

 

[gibby]

most of our business is done online through the website, but we have been shocked at the numbers of customer who like to order via the phone.
For us telephone calls mean orders & profit

We did waste lots of time with sales calls but managed to kill them off and they dont lose us time now.

G

 

[Page]

The problem that you'll have is that as you become more successful you'll find yourself spending all day answering phone calls and have no time to actually pack the products! Then you'll probably need another employee to help out... then you'll probably need an office... then you have to raise prices to pay for it all... then you start moaning about how all those 2 man operations running out of a back bedroom are undercutting you... lol

All you need to know is here.

It is up to you to then decide whether your customer model requires telephone support.

It may be that now your time is "free" in which case offer support and learn a lot in the process.

Then when and if things hot up start reducing your telephone and support options but based on experince of whether this IS the right route to go down.

Good Luck.

 

[Page]

most of our business is done online through the website, but we have been shocked at the numbers of customer who like to order via the phone.
For us telephone calls mean orders & profit

We did waste lots of time with sales calls but managed to kill them off and they dont lose us time now.

G

How?

(Plus text to lengthen to allow me to post)

 

[gibby]

how? what do you mean>
ta

G

 

As we sell world wide Phones available 24/7 .

sure on occasions I get woken up in the night,but if it means selling a jetski.

I can live with it.

Manned phones very important in my opinion ,lots of people do not want to give there credit card details online ( and I don't blame them ).

also the aspect of trust given by speaking to a human being as well as the ability to answer any technicall questions.

Sales are very often about instant gratification.No phone answered and they poodle off to the next site that does.

Once a person has spoken to you and established your credability ,they will then have far less qualms about ordering online from your site knowing if the Sh*t hits the fan ,there is someone to talk to to sort it out.

People like people.Everyone hates computers.

Earl