It might seem like stating the obvious, but a new study has discovered what you would think most people would know intuitively: Warm, human interaction yields better results in the call center.
As reported online at MarketingLand.com, the study from Marchex -- a mobile advertising analytics company that bills itself as connecting online behavior to real-world, offline actions – found that “just as a bad landing page experience can blow a potential conversion, a bad call experience can similarly undermine a good campaign or a warm lead.”
It makes sense. According to Marchex, some $1 trillion in revenue is generated through “click to call” commerce annually here in the states. But a lot of that depends on how calls are handled and how phone-based sales and service representatives are trained.
The study from Marchex, based on looking at millions of call-center interactions across a number of industries (auto, telecom, travel, insurance and cable), found that a few simple improvements could potentially yield $100 million or more in additional sales annually.
“The Marchex analysis found that 62 percent of callers will abandon a call in under a minute if tied up in an IVR system,” the story noted. “Longer hold times equally turn into abandoned calls. In the cable TV industry, the study discovered that faster call response times could drive millions more in phone-based transactions: To wit, ‘Transforming just 10 percent of abandoned calls into conversions means up to $15 million in revenue per year.’”
Drilling down, the analysis found that just by improving the way agents answer phones, companies could generate millions more in annual sales: “If a large call center increases the frequency of beginning with a warm greeting even slightly, that means another $20 million in incremental annualized revenue,” it said.
“As search and commerce continue to migrate to mobile devices, companies that sell or close over the phone should carefully review their procedures for call handling,” MarketingLand observed. “The Marchex data strongly argue that even minor changes, such as friendlier agents and shorter hold times, could translate directly into millions more in revenue.”
Edited by Stefania Viscusi