You just lost an order! Would this help?

[letterboxunlimited]

Were currently looking at expanding some of our services and after working with a number of ecommerce stores we think we may have something which could help convert sales without any ongoing costs.

What we were looking at offering was a all in one telephone order service where we will answer the call 24 hours a day and take the order over the phone. We would not charge for calls but instead take the companies standard affiliate payout as our fee.

Can I please have your thoughts on this as its something we are looking to implement if there is enough demand.

 

[sysops]

Customers who want to buy from ecommerce sites over the phone are more trouble than they are worth, and best avoided. I would be paying you extra for the pleasure of capturing the most troublesome segment of the audience.

(cue waling and gnashing from those who don't know any better)

 

[luckyg]

Customers who want to buy from ecommerce sites over the phone are more trouble than they are worth, and best avoided. I would be paying you extra for the pleasure of capturing the most troublesome segment of the audience.

(cue waling and gnashing from those who don't know any better)

really interesting comment and true. how do you go about getting rid of telephone sales and telephone customer service though without losing revenue.

it is my dream!!

I convert a lot of sales myself on the phone through honest and good advice, but i would love if it could all be done via email or even outsourced but i am worried about losing valuable income.

 

[sysops]

It's easy - we don't accept phone orders! Believe it or not, it works very well.

 

[luckyg]

It's easy - we don't accept phone orders! Believe it or not, it works very well.

is it a niche area you are in?

may i ask how do you know it works very well? i mean, it could work to a level where you are very happy with the income you are getting and that is great. but how do you know you are not missing extra sales from people just not getting in touch because of no phone number?

 

[sysops]

is it a niche area you are in?

may i ask how do you know it works very well? i mean, it could work to a level where you are very happy with the income you are getting and that is great. but how do you know you are not missing extra sales from people just not getting in touch because of no phone number?

No, it's very mainstream, although we do run a few smaller niche sites.

We know it works well because when we stopped doing phone orders (2 years ago), there was no measurable drop in conversion. I measure *everything*. Most people who would have ordered on the phone just switched to ordering online. I'm sure we lose a few sales, but it's not measurable, which means it's under 0.1%.

 

[luckyg]

very interesting, i am intrigued!

i am in a very niche area so maybe that's why i don't think it would work for me well because people ring for advice.

need to work towards it as a goal though.

 

[sysops]

very interesting, i am intrigued!

i am in a very niche area so maybe that's why i don't think it would work for me well because people ring for advice.

need to work towards it as a goal though.

You think that's cool? How about this - on 2 of our sites (both quite quiet - around 10 conversions a day each), I've taken the phone number off altogether. No measurable drop in conversion rate.

The only way you'll find out is by trying it, just make sure you have enough data to assess the results meaningfully.

 

[FLAUK]

Customers who want to buy from ecommerce sites over the phone are more trouble than they are worth, and best avoided. I would be paying you extra for the pleasure of capturing the most troublesome segment of the audience.

(cue waling and gnashing from those who don't know any better)

Well, I guess I don't know any better

We take several orders over the phone every day from customers who either want detailed advice / recommendations, or just like to make sure there is a real person on the other end and the product is in stock.

To say they are more trouble than they are worth is pretty ridiculous. Yes, some can be difficult and try the patience but most people who phone are serious buyers and end up placing an order.

 

[sysops]

Well, I guess I don't know any better

We take several orders over the phone every day from customers who either want detailed advice / recommendations, or just like to make sure there is a real person on the other end and the product is in stock.

To say they are more trouble than they are worth is pretty ridiculous. Yes, some can be difficult and try the patience but most people who phone are serious buyers and end up placing an order.

I knew there would be one (actually, there are a couple more, they'll be along shortly)

For us, it justs didn't scale at all. Having 3 people manning the phones was too high a cost in relation to the orders. Once you factored in the % of phone orders which had subsequent problems, compared to the % of online orders which had problems, the choice was clear.

It isn't at all ridiculous to say that they are more trouble than they are worth if you have data to back it up.

 

[luckyg]

Well, I guess I don't know any better

We take several orders over the phone every day from customers who either want detailed advice / recommendations, or just like to make sure there is a real person on the other end and the product is in stock.

To say they are more trouble than they are worth is pretty ridiculous. Yes, some can be difficult and try the patience but most people who phone are serious buyers and end up placing an order.

Your view is the same as mine, i really do think the phone makes a difference, but maybe sysops has a point.

a) how do we know the customers wont buy anyway without the phone and the loss in sales is it maybe worth it for the cost of answering the calls?

 

[letterboxunlimited]

Your view is the same as mine, i really do think the phone makes a difference, but maybe sysops has a point.

a) how do we know the customers wont buy anyway without the phone and the loss in sales is it maybe worth it for the cost of answering the calls?

Thanks for all the feedback so far..

If the customer still wants to place a order we would give them a voucher code over the phone to track the conversion online.

 

[fruit trees]

Is this not a classic case for having a separate ( more expensive) price for phone orders.

 

[letterboxunlimited]

Is this not a classic case for having a separate ( more expensive) price for phone orders.

No, its using the industry standard affiliate model

 

[fruit trees]

To clarify,my point was that phone sales cost time and hassle, therefore a separate price list would make this channel pay more, easily justifying your fee. Many companies discount web prices to drive sales.I frequently see multiple pricing options depending on the channel of choice.

 

[FLAUK]

I knew there would be one (actually, there are a couple more, they'll be along shortly)

For us, it justs didn't scale at all. Having 3 people manning the phones was too high a cost in relation to the orders. Once you factored in the % of phone orders which had subsequent problems, compared to the % of online orders which had problems, the choice was clear.

It isn't at all ridiculous to say that they are more trouble than they are worth if you have data to back it up.

I think you will find it's more than a couple of others that agree with me. The likes of Amazon, Dell, Play all have telephone numbers on their sites.

I guess you know better from your exhaustive testing.

 

[sysops]

I think you will find it's more than a couple of others that agree with me. The likes of Amazon, Dell, Play all have telephone numbers on their sites.

I guess you know better from your exhaustive testing.

First, go back and read the thread, we're talking about whether or not phone orders are worthwhile, not whether you should display a phone number (which is a different question altogether - we display phone numbers on all but two of our sites, but we accept phone orders on none of them).

Second, Amazon do display a phone number, but they don't accept phone orders. Play follow the same model.

Third, there are plenty of large online retailers who do not display phone numbers. Asos comes to mind immediately, but there are many others.

We've split tested this exhaustively, and I'm confident that we're not losing sales through not accepting phone orders. Have you?

 

[cjd]

You also have to solve the problem of unknown (to the seller) people taking customer's credit card information over the phone. I'd be very uncomfortable about that as both a customer and a business owner - raises some interesting liability issues.

 

[FLAUK]

First, go back and read the thread, we're talking about whether or not phone orders are worthwhile, not whether you should display a phone number (which is a different question altogether - we display phone numbers on all but two of our sites, but we accept phone orders on none of them).

Second, Amazon do display a phone number, but they don't accept phone orders. Play follow the same model.

Third, there are plenty of large online retailers who do not display phone numbers. Asos comes to mind immediately, but there are many others.

We've split tested this exhaustively, and I'm confident that we're not losing sales through not accepting phone orders. Have you?

Well, you did bring up removing numbers all together, not me.

Funny, I was thinking about this a few minutes ago. Customer who is a lecturer at Oxford University called to place an order over the phone. I asked him why he called (don't normally do this but thought it would be interesting), his exact words:

"I wanted to talk to a human being and make sure you can deliver it tomorrow as I'm going away on Thursday"

total time of call was 4 minutes 35 seconds - what a time waster.

 

[sysops]

Funny, I was thinking about this a few minutes ago. Customer who is a lecturer at Oxford University called to place an order over the phone. I asked him why he called (don't normally do this but thought it would be interesting), his exact words:

"I wanted to talk to a human being and make sure you can deliver it tomorrow as I'm going away on Thursday"

total time of call was 4 minutes 35 seconds - what a time waster.

Anecdotal evidence is one thing, actual numbers is another. As I explained, we were paying several salaries to cover phone answering. When we stopped accepting phone orders, phone support time dropped dramatically (which equates to a hefty saving), but there was no measurable difference in conversion rate.

 

[luckyg]

sysops, how do you have a phone number on the site but manage to keep customers from calling to place orders? do you have "only online orders" or some sort of other instruction next to the phone number?

 

[sysops]

sysops, how do you have a phone number on the site but manage to keep customers from calling to place orders? do you have "only online orders" or some sort of other instruction next to the phone number?

Yes.

The phone number used to be prominently displayed on all pages. The first thing we did was replace it with a nice "contact us" button, equally prominent but no phone number. We split-tested this over 100k visits, found no change in conversion rate, so we moved onto step 2.

The second stage was to move the phone number to the bottom of the contact page, with an explanatory note about no phone orders. Again, this was monitored closely over the next 100k visits. No change in conversion, so we made it a permanent feature.

 

[luckyg]

Yes.

The phone number used to be prominently displayed on all pages. The first thing we did was replace it with a nice "contact us" button, equally prominent but no phone number. We split-tested this over 100k visits, found no change in conversion rate, so we moved onto step 2.

The second stage was to move the phone number to the bottom of the contact page, with an explanatory note about no phone orders. Again, this was monitored closely over the next 100k visits. No change in conversion, so we made it a permanent feature.

thanks for that, useful info.

 

[jelly3]

Well, I guess I don't know any better

We take several orders over the phone every day from customers who either want detailed advice / recommendations, or just like to make sure there is a real person on the other end and the product is in stock.

To say they are more trouble than they are worth is pretty ridiculous. Yes, some can be difficult and try the patience but most people who phone are serious buyers and end up placing an order.

Does this not depend on exactly what you selling?:|

 

[jelly3]

You would still need it for the customer service queries I suppose.
So you cannot get rid of all your lines.

 

[sysops]

You would still need it for the customer service queries I suppose.
So you cannot get rid of all your lines.

As I said in one of my earlier posts, we have in fact done just that for 2 of our sites, with no decrease in conversion.

The fact is, you can all pontificate about this 'til the cows come home, but until you test it, you won't know for certain.

 

[She Says]

I am also in a niche market and have A LOT of information on my website. In fact customers often comment how much they appreciate so much information.

Personally it annoys me if a company doesn't provide a telephone number and the website doesn't answer my questions. So I think if you want to cut down on the need for telephone sales, make sure you provide as much information as possible for your customers to read in their own time and reduce the need for so many questions

 

[cjd]

Does this not depend on exactly what you selling?:|

Yes it does. If we had no telephone number it would be disastrous but then we provide a service that relies on good support - we call it marketing.

On a personal level - which may be irrelevant - I would never buy anything of any significant value or complexity from a web site without a telephone number.

Horses for courses.

 

[jelly3]

As I said in one of my earlier posts, we have in fact done just that for 2 of our sites, with no decrease in conversion.

The fact is, you can all pontificate about this 'til the cows come home, but until you test it, you won't know for certain.

I do not know what you sell exactly, but if they are phsyical items, have you seriously never had any complaints from customers moaning that they cannot get in touch with you to discuss these items?

Forums all over the net are filled with the disgruntled moaning that they cannot get in touch with this or that trader on the phone.

 

[sysops]

I do not know what you sell exactly, but if they are phsyical items, have you seriously never had any complaints from customers moaning that they cannot get in touch with you to discuss these items?

Forums all over the net are filled with the disgruntled moaning that they cannot get in touch with this or that trader on the phone.

I'm sorry, I've had it with this thread. There is no point discussing this any further. On the one hand I'm putting across hard facts based on experiments we've carried out over thousands of orders, and on the other all I get is these "but what about" arguments from people who obviously don't run businesses.

 

[jelly3]

I'm sorry, I've had it with this thread. There is no point discussing this any further. On the one hand I'm putting across hard facts based on experiments we've carried out over thousands of orders, and on the other all I get is these "but what about" arguments from people who obviously don't run businesses.

Sorry, but we do have a business.
Every report we have ever heard, read, subscribed to has told us to ensure customers have telephone access to us.
I do not think it is unreasonable to ask you exactly how you can manage without it.
And I must say you also appear to be cagey about what kind of business you can operate where your customers do not care about your telephone support.
We have more than one web store.

 

[Lee Jones Jnr]

We take orders over the phone and do well from doing so.
I think Sysops ATV is quite low so I can believe that in his case it doesn't pay to do so. We sell complete kitchens and bathrooms so being able to talk things over etc is important and doing so increases sales.

 

[Christiane]

I believe it depends on what you sell. We take telephone orders, mostly from regular customers who want to place a quick order or aren't able to get to a computer (i.e. at work, etc). Sometimes from new customers wary of ordering online from a company they haven't used before or don't know what they want and need help. We also get a fair few queries which lead on to sales.

 

[Page]

Sysops is worth listening to but he will also have a different business and business model from yourself.

For example for a new business having customers ring and chat (waste your time) can actually be pretty helpful.

But as time goes on things change.

You have improved your site you are no longer twiddling your thumbs or excited by and order and then ... but as always depending what you are selling ... things change.

As sysops says if you test you then have an answer. He has given his (hers?) based on real world testing. That you cannot argue with.

As always it all depends.