Can I place the order over the phone please...?

[movietub]

First off I should state that people calling our 'online' shop and asking to order over the phone doesn't really bother me - I just don't get what they are thinking!

A few examples:

I don't do websites
-Yet you found ours, found the product, found the phone number?

I don't like entering all my information
-It's quicker to enter it yourself, more accurate than dictating via phone and safer. We need the same information.

I just like to talk to someone
-But you haven't asked me for any product advice? Why choose to talk to a person that you can see is in the business of selling remotely?

I hear a lot of stories about credit card fraud online
-No problem, just tell me all your credit card details and I'll process it online for you. Wait a minute... Online transx is so much safer than reading out your card details to anyone.

I'm new to computers, I haven't learnt how to place an order yet
-Given that you now need to place an order, the time to learn has arrived. What you mean is, you have no intention of learning at all.

And so on...

We get this several times a day, not one of these poeple asks if it's safer to order online, or if we can guide them through the check-out process. What terrifies me is that none of these people sound any older than about 60. This means they have an expected 25 years of independant life left to navigate. And they have already stopped learning new things? Online shopping barely existed 8 years ago. What will they have to contend with in 15 years time??

Too old to learn in today's fast changing world? That simply doesn't work anymore.

 

[J-Wholesale]

If it's time consuming, discourage them a little. We explicitly state that phone orders take 48 longer to process than orders paid for online. And we make a point of ensuring they do. If there's no penalty attached to taking up a lot more of your time, then why should they care?

 

[Dawg]

Movietub, please don't get me wrong: your posts are often sound, sensible and overflowing with business acumen, ...but...

This is the second pop you have had at your customers, the last about terminally dim ones or something, no? They are still punters though.

When they phone up and say fatuous things like "I don't do computers", this translates as "Can I give you some of my money please?"

The answer to which is 'Yes'.

I hope this makes your next Saturday dealing with the great unwashed slightly easier.

 

So you think it is safer give your credit card details online.

Millions have found this not to be true.

sure its great for the retailer,but safer never in a million years IMHO.

Earl

 

[Vision2]

First off I should state that people calling our 'online' shop and asking to order over the phone doesn't really bother me - I just don't get what they are thinking!

A few examples:

I don't do websites
-Yet you found ours, found the product, found the phone number?

I don't like entering all my information
-It's quicker to enter it yourself, more accurate than dictating via phone and safer. We need the same information.

I just like to talk to someone
-But you haven't asked me for any product advice? Why choose to talk to a person that you can see is in the business of selling remotely?

I hear a lot of stories about credit card fraud online
-No problem, just tell me all your credit card details and I'll process it online for you. Wait a minute... Online transx is so much safer than reading out your card details to anyone.

I'm new to computers, I haven't learnt how to place an order yet
-Given that you now need to place an order, the time to learn has arrived. What you mean is, you have no intention of learning at all.

And so on...

We get this several times a day, not one of these poeple asks if it's safer to order online, or if we can guide them through the check-out process. What terrifies me is that none of these people sound any older than about 60. This means they have an expected 25 years of independant life left to navigate. And they have already stopped learning new things? Online shopping barely existed 8 years ago. What will they have to contend with in 15 years time??

Too old to learn in today's fast changing world? That simply doesn't work anymore.

Would raise questions as to the security feel of the site and the userability of it.

there is always going to be the odd one or two that crop up through that prefer to do things over the phone.

 

Would raise questions as to the security feel of the site and the userability of it.

there is always going to be the odd one or two that crop up through that prefer to do things over the phone.

Odd one.? we do 50% over the phone ,maybe due to the technical nature of the products and the high value involved.

Earl

 

[sonnas]

dont mind taking orders over the phone. but there is a embrassing long pause as i have to manually log in to the relavant areas and i have to repeat "sorry to have you wait, just loggin into the system.."

if they dont mind giving card details over the phone and the wait, i dont mind taking there money! but as a punter, when i buy stuff, i do feel safer doing transaction through secure system rather than give all my card details over the phone.

some people cant be "seen" buying stuff over the net when they are meant to be at work. if they are on the phone they can pretend they are making business calls lol!

 

[papverpoppies]

So you think it is safer give your credit card details online.

Millions have found this not to be true.

sure its great for the retailer,but safer never in a million years IMHO.

Earl

Well here is someone who has had her account hacked 3 times from online transactions - and yes I do use secure encrypted sites, I have fire walls, the lot, but like my bank said, you only need one dishonest person along the chain.

The latest is, if you have visited a site, used your card details, but left that page open in your browser they can hack it!

The honest answer is, nothing is safe.

If you are a business owner is money not money, irresepective of how they buy and pay.

Poppy xx

 

[Vision2]

Odd one.? we do 50% over the phone ,maybe due to the technical nature of the products and the high value involved.

Earl

50% is a insanely high amount, whats the address?

It can be understandable for certain high grade / high price products to be more phone orders / arranging time to come look at etc.

Most high volumnes of phone calls i've seen on sites is due to lack of security feel, bad design, poor userability and just the 'umm this doesn't quite feel right' type of aspect and people want to call to check it's legit. Which is basically a design, system you are using or security issues.

Come across a fair few sites like these, they tend to mostly require a design or at least some design changes.

It can also be down to the lack of payment gateways or using gateways customers don't feel comfortable with.

 

[sonnas]

Well here is someone who has had her account hacked 3 times from online transactions - and yes I do use secure encrypted sites, I have fire walls, the lot, but like my bank said, you only need one dishonest person along the chain.

The latest is, if you have visited a site, used your card details, but left that page open in your browser they can hack it!

The honest answer is, nothing is safe.

If you are a business owner is money not money, irresepective of how they buy and pay.

Poppy xx

all u need is one dishonest person. very true.

may be a bit of off topic but when i go macc d's drive thru i always use cash coz some **** cloned my card when i handed it over. and i thought it was safe since i was "face to face" with the merchant.

 

[Vision2]

Well here is someone who has had her account hacked 3 times from online transactions - and yes I do use secure encrypted sites, I have fire walls, the lot, but like my bank said, you only need one dishonest person along the chain.

The latest is, if you have visited a site, used your card details, but left that page open in your browser they can hack it!

The honest answer is, nothing is safe.

If you are a business owner is money not money, irresepective of how they buy and pay.

Poppy xx

It's not acutrally about dishonest people, it's a lot of cases piss poor developers.

You would be amazed at how many sites i come across which use open credit card details. You would also be amazed at the amount of times i tell people to NOT send credit card screenshots, AT LEAST BLANK IT OUT! heh.

Crazy crazy people.

Lot of bad dev's out there, but that's usually down to people going for the cheap

I suspect you had your cards nicked from sites like this, or a virus on your machine.

 

50% is a insanely high amount, whats the address?

It can be understandable for certain high grade / high price products to be more phone orders / arranging time to come look at etc.

Most high volumnes of phone calls i've seen on sites is due to lack of security feel, bad design, poor userability and just the 'umm this doesn't quite feel right' type of aspect and people want to call to check it's legit. Which is basically a design, system you are using or security issues.

Come across a fair few sites like these, they tend to mostly require a design or at least some design changes.

It can also be down to the lack of payment gateways or using gateways customers don't feel comfortable with.

How many people do you think would be happy doing 10k+ transactions online without speaking to someone first.?

Earl

 

[sonnas]

How many people do you think would be happy doing 10k+ transactions online without speaking to someone first.?

Earl

if this is off the mark then apologies.. (im only guessing from your sig.) 10K deals for used carparts? or are you refering to a different business?

 

[Vision2]

if this is off the mark then apologies.. (im only guessing from your sig.) 10K deals for used carparts? or are you refering to a different business?

heh, hense reason why i asked as well

 

if this is off the mark then apologies.. (im only guessing from your sig.) 10K deals for used carparts? or are you refering to a different business?

OK gottcha We sell jetskis and quad bikes as well as a few other bits and pieces.

Earl

 

[sonnas]

OK gottcha We sell jetskis and quad bikes as well as a few other bits and pieces.

Earl

lol that makes sense then. im a bit of a petrol head myself and when i see "cheap car parts" (i ggole that alot) im not thinking "il throw down 10k this weekend!"

 

[Vision2]

OK gottcha We sell jetskis and quad bikes as well as a few other bits and pieces.

Earl

that makes sense then

As i said before, 50% is high unless it's some high grade / high cost product

I would expect calls / visits of the products to be honest in which case, i'd concentrate on portraying the product over right with really good images / content / specs etc in a really easily readable / userable format.

 

[An Oasis]

50% is a insanely high amount.

100% here, no way to do the Ecom route. We thought through all aspects and the only way is with cheasy package deals, a route we ain't going down.

 

[Rhyl Lightworks]

One of the main reasons people phone in orders, I find, is that they have had a bad experience through shopping on line in the past. This is often because some websites automatically take the order irrespective of when they can, or even if they can, expect delivery. If there is to be a delay on delivery, the website should say so, otherwise they have a right to expect delivery within a few days (preferably next day).

I have experienced this myself, on one occasion waiting several months for a purchase and on quite a few occasions having my money refunded because they could not fulfil my order. If they phone up, they can check stock levels and expected delivery dates.

Barrie

 

[Bri]

I'm trying to encourage people to use a prepaid debit card for online transactions, that way only the cash on the card is lost if some t**t decides to steal off you.

 

[deadgoodundies]

Personally I actually prefer customers to call as it gives me a chance to chat with them and form a sort of bond that will lead to customer loyalty.

I do the hairdresser chat thing i.e if they are buying swimwear i'll ask them if they are going on holiday, if they say it's a gift for someone i'll ask if it's a birthday and if so i'll throw a little something extra in for them. All things I couldn't do if they were just putting the order in on the website and all things that are going to ensure that next time they want something that we sell they are going to come to us and not a competitor.

Also although we use a live stock system if we are down to showing the last one left on the website , if a customer calls I can say just give me a second to and go into the warehouse and double check that one just to make sure. and the customer is amazed and thankfull that the person on the end of the phone will get up from their desk and go and check in the warehouse for them.

 

[moosegoose]

hi im new to this in fact im just about to get the wheels turning. but as one off the posters mentioned he gets 50% through the phone. thats a lot of business to turn away. and i would not want to discourage this by making it harder to buy over the phone. in fact i think i will make it easy for customers. maybe odering online with payment over the phone. at least this way you would only need to get paymet details.

 

[movietub]

Movietub, please don't get me wrong: your posts are often sound, sensible and overflowing with business acumen

Harsh but true

...but...

This is the second pop you have had at your customers, the last about terminally dim ones or something, no? They are still punters though.

When they phone up and say fatuous things like "I don't do computers", this translates as "Can I give you some of my money please?"

The answer to which is 'Yes'.

I hope this makes your next Saturday dealing with the great unwashed slightly easier.

What can I say? Just so many crazy odd people in this world... It's ok, I probably appear mad to them...

Almost everyone who has responded to this thread has reacted as though I have a problem with people placing orders over the phone, despite my opening sentance! The reality is, I would take their money if they turned up in person and threw it at me one coin at a time...

The point of the thread was, why does this situation exist? And why are so many people able to find a website, product and price but unable to continue typing when it comes to using a cart checkout? And the greatest of my concerns, if these people are stuck now at the age they are now, what is the hope for them in 20 years time?

 

[movietub]

So you think it is safer give your credit card details online.

Millions have found this not to be true.

sure its great for the retailer,but safer never in a million years IMHO.

Earl

Is being wrong a hobby for you?

Millions of people have not found my statement to be untrue. They may have been a victim of online fraud, but that does not mean online fraud is more of a present danger than using a card in a shop or over the phone.

There are many clever ways of scamming a card user, but the most common involve another human being handling the card or knowing the card numbers. Computers never want to rip you off, people sometimes do.

Shopping onlone is one of the safest ways of using your card. 2% of online shoppers get affected by fraud in some way, 3% of high street shoppers get affected. High street = 150% risk of shopping online.

 

[deadgoodundies]

The point of the thread was, why does this situation exist?

IMHO it's because

1. It's often quicker to phone a order through than place it online (don't need to deal with entering your details, give the phone operator a product code instead of clicking
2. Some people just like to talk to someone
3. Because some people feel safer giving their card details to a person from a reputable company over the phone (the media is partly to blame for the hysteria)

Pretty much all of which have already been covered in previous posts but I emphasise the SOME PEOPLE - right or wrong (well there is no right or wrong is there) no matter what some people prefer to talk to other people.

 

[movietub]

IMHO it's because

1. It's often quicker to phone a order through than place it online (don't need to deal with entering your details, give the phone operator a product code instead of clicking

All we ask for, and all I am asked for when I shop online, is address, email and a contact number along with card details. This is the minimum you need to give over the phone to actually get the product, receipt and pay for it. There is no way you can find the product code without clicking, and there is no way you could read out a product code as fast as I can click 'add to cart'. Same for dictating address details etc, it's just faster to type yourself. Most importantly, it's more acurate when it comes to postcodes and so on.

2. Some people just like to talk to someone

Never minded talking to anyone and we offer free advice, we advertise free advice and our phone number at every opportunity in fact. But it's still quicker to actually place an order online.

3. Because some people feel safer giving their card details to a person from a reputable company over the phone (the media is partly to blame for the hysteria)

You're right of course, it's about the way people feel, not the reality. But this means we are breeding people that are scared enough about online fraud to avoid it and in effect put themselves at greater risk. Yet these people are not sufficiently scared or brainy enough to do a little research into the facts.

So it still comes down to people resisting something new, refusing to learn new ways of doing things. I think that's sad and worrying in a world that will only ever evolve faster and faster.

 

[Vision2]

You should use a system that is capable of stock handling, Magento is very good at this.

 

[oldeagleeye]

To add my 10p worth. On-line shopping is NOT safe. The Internet was never designed to be safe. Quite the opposite it was and is despite some ISP and governments restrictions an open information provider and that gentlemen is completely at odds with security.

The fact is the banks are covering up billions of pounds of losses because even so the Internet is cheaper than employing humans and my bank in particular has changed it access method no less than 3 times in the last 18 months. First a litle gizmo that changed password every time you log on and then 2 other 3 party verifyiers.

There is only one way to shop on-line realtively safely then and that is to seperate your purchasing card from your bank. I use the prepaid Paypal one and top it up the day before I plan a spend.

I have to see that it is not just payment processing that is big hassle with on-line shopping. It is the tricky way that many companys hide the small print behind pages and pages of terms & conditions leaving the customer bewildered.

Now I am not stupid. A few weeks ago I decided to change my telecomes provider and signed up with BT on line for their top broadband & phone package.

19.95 a month for 3 month then 27.99 + 9.95 line rental. Now it clearly states on the BT web site free new line installation even with the cheaper package. Well .The first bill came in yesterday and there is a charge for over £127 quid.

It says on the site that your hub and phone will arive 2 days ( 4.95 postal charge bloody cheek when its delivered free by their shop) before install and the engineer will set it all up but to open the box and have it all ready including the install cd and charge the hub up which I duly did.

The install cd didn't work. There was no phone lead in the boxes and when the engineer arrived the next day - guess what. Sorry but we don't touch any of that gear.

He explained he only installs lines and doesnt work for BT anyway but a company that services all the main providers who buy and resell BT services. I got eventually got a dialing tone and that is it. The leads I bought from Tandy.

Now I have no doubt that somewhere on the BT site there are disclaimers to cover everything but that company are blatantly out to exploit customers by saying so themselves order on the Internet and it is so so easy..

Internet it maybe but if a rep don't get down here and sort this out after I phone them in the morn they can kiss my bloody arssssse and account goodbye.

As for you Movietub I am surpised too. You like many others on here seem to believe that everyone's life revolves around the Internet - it doesn't. If the open Internet went tommorow we could all live without it. A customer is a customer be grateful for them. I remeber 2 years ago you were struggling to find new ones for yourfish tank.

Rob

 

Is being wrong a hobby for you?

.

According to the wife Yes.

But I do know that we would have lost hundreds of thousands of pounds in sales if we were not prepared to reassure and guide our more nervous customers through the buying process and to let them know we were a genuine long established business that they could trust.

Some people seem to agree with our methods:

http://www.internetretailing.net/20...uk-with-online-retailers-to-blame-says-study/


Earl

 

[movietub]

You should use a system that is capable of stock handling, Magento is very good at this.

What has that got to do with anything?? :|

 

[movietub]

As for you Movietub I am surpised too. You like many others on here seem to believe that everyone's life revolves around the Internet - it doesn't. If the open Internet went tommorow we could all live without it. A customer is a customer be grateful for them. I remeber 2 years ago you were struggling to find new ones for yourfish tank.

Rob

I don't recall saying any such thing! I said quite clearly that I am happy to take any customer. This is not a gripe, more of a concern that people of a certain age want to shop online, yet have don't think they need to learn how.

 

[movietub]

According to the wife Yes.

But I do know that we would have lost hundreds of thousands of pounds in sales if we were not prepared to reassure and guide our more nervous customers through the buying process and to let them know we were a genuine long established business that they could trust.

Some people seem to agree with our methods:

http://www.internetretailing.net/20...uk-with-online-retailers-to-blame-says-study/


Earl

I like talking to customers on the phone, mostly. I can give good advice and I enjoy helping people. But calling up for no other reason than not having tried ordering online? Thats laziness.

These are people from a generation that (supposedly) prided themselves for doing thing for themselves.

Truth is, It upsets me to see anyone asking for something to be 'done for them', rather than take the opportunity to learn something new for themselves.

 

I like talking to customers on the phone, mostly. I can give good advice and I enjoy helping people. But calling up for no other reason than not having tried ordering online? Thats laziness.

So whats wrong with laziness.?:|

Most people I know are saving up for that very thing.

I thought the idea was to sell stuff to your customers in a variety of ways.

Calling them lazy B's don't sound like good PR to me.

Earl

 

[movietub]

So whats wrong with laziness.?:|

Most people I know are saving up for that very thing.

I thought the idea was to sell stuff to your customers in a variety of ways.

Calling them lazy B's don't sound like good PR to me.

Earl

Really am happy to sell in any way my customers wish to buy. They are my boss, they pay my wages. I get it.

I don't think people save up in order to be lazy, I think we all want security and an easy later life. Thats very different from hitting 60 and stopping learning new things. I don't mind serving people like that, but I still despair at their short-sightedness (no pun intended).

Have you stopped learning since turning 60?

 

I don't mind serving people like that, but I still despair at their short-sightedness (no pun intended).

Have you stopped learning since turning 60?

Blimey if you start looking for the short comings in mankind.You are going to have a very despairing life.

I personaly have not stopped learning.

But I suspect these days I forget more than I learn.:|

Earl

 

[quikshop]

Look at it as a direct sales call but with the customer calling you. Don't see it as an inconvenience but a wonderful opportunity to up-sell and generate further sales from a 5 minute conversation.

As for reluctant or dim online shoppers, what's the problem with reluctant or dim money :|

 

[movietub]

Look at it as a direct sales call but with the customer calling you. Don't see it as an inconvenience but a wonderful opportunity to up-sell and generate further sales from a 5 minute conversation.

As for reluctant or dim online shoppers, what's the problem with reluctant or dim money :|

I do see it that way - doesn't mean I can't also question the antique at the end of the phones outlook on life and learning.

 

[Vision2]

umm, online shopping is safer than retail (out and about) shopping by a long stretch.

Thing is, people arn't intelligent enough quite yet to spot a dodgy site against a legit site. Althrough this is changing.

My advice would be to ensure your site looks as safe, secure, user friendly and a simple easy to use checkout process that doesn't raise questions. People need to understand who they are buying from, and if the **** hits the fan they can pickup the phone if needs be.

It's the simple changes on sites that make all the difference in dealing with consumer confidence.

But as said before, there are a lot of dodgy sites out there, i've been asked to do work on a fair few and outright refused to work with them unless they changed there methods. (Taking cards direct unsecurely for example).

I tend to hand over the advice, and on some critical things, almost enforce it to some degree. But bottom line is it's upto the owner of each site to ensure that they are doing everything they can to keep their consumers safe online and offline.

People seem to lose track of the standard things in the outside life when buying, it's crazy what people are willing to do.

It is however, being more and more advertised, in the news etc about SSL's for example, and people are catching on to this and various other things, so if you want to stay in business - step up your game if you haven't already

As for the larger purchases, it's a given that buying a item worth thousands online people would want to see the item first or discuss some finer details, as well as these high cost items are generally very big in a lot of cases and needs some special arrangement sometimes in delivery and whatever else. It's a given that people will want to touch base assuming that their initial visit was successful enough for them to want to buy in the first place.

Also to note, that just because some item's don't sell directly online too well, doesn't mean that you shouldnt have a ecommerce site. It just means that you should be pushing people to make contract to purchase whilst also giving them the option for a normal ecommerce shopping process. It's madness to not.

 

[Vision2]

Also to note, the growth of online sales. Online sales is now far exceeding if i remember rightly retail sales by a long mile now and it's only going to get bigger.

People should stop thinking about how to hinder people buying online, and start aiding in it. Also, people should stop considering how to seperate their shop outlet with their ecommerce site and start ensuring that they acturally work both those things together. This is a huge missing aspect that a lot of people seem to forget.

 

Also to note, the growth of online sales. Online sales is now far exceeding if i remember rightly retail sales by a long mile .

Hardly as the average UK online spend was just over 1k in a year.

still a tiny part of retail sales.

I would have though that might have been a handy bit of information for an ecommerce developer to have.

Earl