online quote - improving conversions

[G. Lasagne]

I have resurrected an old online quote sytem, which i had on my website, the reason i took it off was because although it caused the enquiries to flood in, i was giving a price to the customer via email, and occassionaly by telephone, and i thought the conversion rate would be better if i visited there home and carred out a proper quote.

I have put it back on the site after my analytics showed it was one of my best performing pages and since putting it back on, sure enough the enquiries have flooded in.

Whats the problem you may ask?

Well although it has been edited, i feel im getting a lot of "window shoppers" as apposed to serious enquiries. One of my few strong points is my physical quotes, i provide a really professional quote, give out brochures, show the customer examples of the associated controls etc, which believe it or not most of my competitors dont.

I convert at least 50% of my physical quotes as apposed to probably 20% of the onlie forms, they already have a price so they use that as a guide to find someone cheaper.

My question is how can i use the onlie quote to get a physical quote or at least increase the online quote/ physical quote ratio? the online quote brings in far more enquiries than people just ringing up and saying "can you come out and give me a quote" so if i could then follow them up by going out and carrying out a survey i would be on to a winner

i have edited today, to see how it goes, ive changed "how would you like to be contacted" to "if your require a free survey whens the best time" and " when would you like the work to be carried out" to "whens the best time to call" in an attempt to get more surveys, ive also put a little explanantion next to the survey question, ive also removed a couple of questions.

is this enough to increase it, or can you think of anything else, bearing ion mind that the appeal seems to be the fact that they get an instant price.

cheers http://www.gasangelheating.co.uk/online-quotation.htm

What do you think about changing the whole thing to "book a free survey"?

dave

 

[cmcp]

Not related to your physical conversion problem, but to save you some time might be worth using javascript to tally up the cost if all your form fields have predefined values. Doesn't have to show on the website, you could have it emailed to you to which you just add on a custom welcome paragraph and forward back to customer.

 

[SFD]

Rather than give an exact price, why not give a price range and say to get an exact price you have to visit their property as a website cannot cover all the eventualities?

That way they don't have an exact price to shop around with and you get their contact details.

 

[G. Lasagne]

Rather than give an exact price, why not give a price range and say to get an exact price you have to visit their property as a website cannot cover all the eventualities?

That way they don't have an exact price to shop around with and you get their contact details.

Yeha thats the sort of thing im thinking about thanks, but i have to make it as appealing as possible. for them to complete the form.

cmcp - thanks but time is not a factor, it takes very little time to send the quote via email.

Another problem is that when they ask me to call with a price, i gave them a price straight away, maybe i should give an estimate and say i would have to call around, i dont want to sound like a pushy car salesman though:|

 

[fisicx]

Was going to suggest exactly the same as SFD. Use the quote system as an information gathering execise then follow up with the phone call and visit.

Although this page was the best converting, if it doesn't generate the leads then the rest of the site will suffer. People will head straight for the online quote and forget all about you. By the time you get back to them they may well have found someone else.

On the other hand if you have some example prices on the site with the hook that if they leave their number the actual quote if often a lot less, then you are going to eliminate all the competiton using your form to compare prices.

 

[Matt1959]

well, you could do what others do I guess which is give a lowish estimate to hook them then when you get invited round (because of your estimate being low) you can hike it a bit. Not to do it as crudely as I'm suggesting but using that principle I'm sure theres a way to do this is that doesnt come across badly.

The principle usually remains that once you're in the house and people like what they see/ hear, they prob won't mind paying a bit more....

 

[sjr4x4]

I think the instant price bit is what's generating your window shoppers, so losing these isn't really going to hurt your conversions.

How about scrapping the price, maybe:

..either give us a call on 0191 2893464 or you can complete the form below and we will call you back within 24 hours to arrange a free no obligation survey.

Please note any price given is final providing the free no obligation survey has been completed.

Try a simple text change and see if it scares away the online enquires. You've got your conversion baseline, keep tweaking the copy and see if this does the job before getting to any more radical changes.

 

[G. Lasagne]

great stuff fellas, i have never though about matts suggestion about going in low and then hiking it up, dont know if i want to use those tactices but would if it could be done in a subtle way.

steve - im gonna make that change, thanks

 

[inspired38]

Have you looked at the everest web site - the window guys - they have a wide number of opt in and quote options on their site - With online, you have to build a relationship which is proven by your own face to face conversion stats - so online it is more important to collect their contact details than give them a quote.

Rather than giving them a quote give them a report into the 10 Biggest Mistakes that people make when choosing their xxxx....

Regards