Ten Tips for Click-to-Call Success

It’s Saturday and you’ve gone to the local superstore to purchase flowers, tools, or a new wine chest for the living room. You’ve walked into the store, but it’s huge like a warehouse, so making it there is only the beginning of your search. What you need now are sales or support people walking up and down the long aisles. If there isn’t any help roaming the store, you might leave without buying anything, overwhelmed at the mass of information, services, and goods that are confusing in their abundance.

The same theory of service and support applies to your Web site. With such a large number of sites on the Internet, you’ve done half the work by getting a browser to stop at your site. Now that they’ve visited, why not place sales personnel and support teams throughout your site to better serve your potential customers and hike up sales? A Click-to-Call (C2C) in the right place essentially does just that. Below is a list of ten ways to jazz up your C2Cs and, alas, your bottom line.

1. Before you even begin, ask yourself this question: What am I trying to get a clicker to do on my site? Is it to offer support to current clients? To clinch a sale with a new customer? To have someone take a survey that asks about the specific service they’re interested in? Perhaps it’s all three, but know what you want a Web surfer to do before uploading C2Cs onto your site. Careful detail is a prerequisite for any web design; integrating voice technology into your Web site should be no different.

2. Many new web surfers are skeptical about switching from conducting sales transactions with humans to a computer over the Web. A C2C can drastically reduce site abandonment by strategically placing C2Cs in areas of your site where things get a bit tricky. Many airline companies now place C2Cs in plain view while a customer is purchasing a ticket online. That way, if the weary web consumer becomes a bit disheveled, they can click a button and be speaking with a customer service representative in seconds. This is often the crucial difference between making a sale and having one fade away.

3. Actionable anchor text can improve the number of clicks that result in calls to your business. Simple text that reads “Click here to call me now,” “Click to speak with a customer service representative,” or “Click here to speak with our sales manager” can improve connectivity between you and your customers. You’ve set up a business that caters to your clients needs. Make sure they know that when they’re on your Web site.

4. The majority of Ifbyphone packages come with many or even unlimited Smart C2Cs. Use them! While you don’t want to overload and place a C2C in every paragraph of your site, you do want to be generous with the amount of C2Cs you input on your Web page. Anywhere you list your contact information there should be a C2C. On sales pages, remind the customer that they can click a link and be on the phone with a human being that moment.

5. An attractive image is vital. If you’ve got an ordinary image saying “click here” at the bottom of a static page, you’re not taking advantage of this valuable tool. But if you’ve got an appealing button that pops out from the page, the worth of your Web site to your business increases exponentially. It’s a simple concept that cannot be stressed enough.

6. Since we’re on the subject of images, let’s not forget the box that pops-up when someone clicks on your C2C link. This window should be branded to fit the design of your site. Since you’ve spent a chunk of time making sure your site is aesthetically appealing, you don’t want to let that slip when it comes to clickable links. Ifbyphone has a range of images you can use, but for the most unique outcome, upload your own image that fits your site’s design plan.

7. Earlier on we discussed strategically placing your C2Cs in spots where you predict a customer might need help. Placement is more than just helping customers through rocky areas of the site. A well-placed C2C can mean more voice-to-voice phone time between you and a customer and thus more potential to jack up sales. Research shows that online viewers first look at the top left of a page and then scan right, so an attractive C2C at the top left or top right of your site can improve talk time. It lets potential customers know you want to talk to them.

8. Hidden C2Cs can be a good way to initiate sales talks with customers. For instance, you could have a form on your site for a client to fill out asking several questions about what they need and their contact information. Once they click submit, a C2C hidden in that submit button will connect you to the customer, making your service or sales team look top notch.

9. Click-to-Calls are a valuable tool for letting customers know about special offers or inciting them to click in order to save money or win a prize. It could be a good idea to update some of the C2Cs on your site with information or offers to encourage a caller to get in touch with your company. A current Ifbyphone customer uses a C2C on a landing page that offers deals on their next auto purchase.

10. People on the Internet can be turned off by entering in their phone numbers. Information in the pop-up box or right beneath the C2C letting the customer know that the call is free to them and that their number won’t ever be sold to a list or given away could ensure a customer that the call is safe and easy, encouraging them to input their number.

Adam Greenberg is client services specialist for hosted voice application and platform company Ifbyphone. Reprinted with permission from the Ifbyphone “Voice of the Web” blog which may be found at www.ifbyphone.com/blog