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cbscreative
03-27-2009, 02:46 PM
One of huggytree's threads brought up the issue of phone book advertising. I thought one of his questions would make an interesting discussion that deserves its own thread. I'm sure the experience will be different for various types of businesses, but that's partly the point.

Here's the question:
How much phone call volume does your web site produce?

In my case, it's very light, but that's OK. Most visitors who decide to contact me use either email or fill out a form. But I designed my site with that expectation.

Share your experience, and why you believe your phone call volume is high, medium, low, or non existent. You may want to include whether or not you publish an 800 number. I do not.

Patrysha
03-27-2009, 03:02 PM
My phone number is on my site and on my business cards...but most either email or just talk to me when they see me around town.

I use my pay as you go cell phone for my business line. I generally reload it once a month at $25. Considering the outrageous prices they charge per minute (compared to a plan phone), not many calls at all.

The reason I go with no plan even though the plans are cheaper per minute is that a plan that would meet my needs would cost more than $25/month and I'd be tied to a contract...and I am planning on getting a second land line or even perhaps an office one day.

vangogh
03-27-2009, 03:22 PM
I voted regular or medium. Most people will email me, some use the contact form. Calls are the lightest of the three, but I do get enough that I wanted to bump up a category in the poll. The vote was more that my calls are greater than none to low. I could have gone either way and may have chosen the low choice had it been worded differently.

Email is the dominant contact, followed by the contact form. I do have the form on every page of my site outside of the blog and most pages do have a link to start an email.

My phone number was listed alongside all the email links, which might explain why I received a few more calls. I recently removed the phone number from all but the contact page. I prefer an email and business has picked up to the point where I can afford to lose a few people who might have called, but now won't.

No toll free number. I don't think I could justify the cost (as minimal as it may be) or more importantly the call volume. I think the 800 number might lead to more calls that wouldn't be real leads.

Even though I prefer initial contact to be email I do like talking to new clients on the phone to get to know them and gather information in the beginning.

cbscreative
03-27-2009, 04:47 PM
Yeah, I realize the choices are generic and subject to interpretation, but I wanted to make it scaleable to business size. Some sites will have fairly low traffic volumes while others will be higher. I figure everyone can answer based on their overall perception.

Your comment did cause me to change the 2nd choice to "Occasional" which should work better.

vangogh
03-27-2009, 06:04 PM
I probably would have voted for the occasional or low, but that's ok. My one vote won't throw off the poll. I hope I explained it well enough in my post above.

It's an interesting question. I've always advised people to offer as many contacts as possible when they're looking for more business. Why lose even the one person in a year who prefers to call. I also think that having a phone number on your site leads to more trust in your business. People want to know they can call even if they don't want to. That might be more important for an ecommerce site than a lead generation site, but it should still be a consideration.

billbenson
03-27-2009, 06:08 PM
I get about 40% phone, 55% email, and 5% online orders. There are a couple of reasons as follows:

1. The shopping cart is buggy in checkout (oscommerce). Its been that way since the last update. Rather than spend time fixing it, I'm working on cutting over to a different cart. The phone number is very prominent and I think a lot of people just get frustrated with the site and call. I think they don't go to other sites, but call or email instead because I have better product information, free shipping, and a few other things that keep them on the site. The email is very prominent and is on the site in several places. Both in a form and open a email format (using js to keep the spam out to some degree). The phone is large and in the top nav bar.

2. The product is quite technical. Most orders go to phone at some point as product explanations are frequently necessary. Its a frustrating product to sell because I'm frequently on the phone from 8am Eastern time to 8pm Pacific time. I'm very much trapped in my office because if someone wants some literature or a quote, I have to have both internet and phone access. If I run to the grocery store, it could cost me a large order.

3. Purchasing people often need quotes for approval. They usually send an RFQ via email. I send them a quote and then it usually goes to phone contact. I prefer the Outlook approach for emails over forms because people frequently misspell their email in forms. Its usually correct in their outlook setup.

When I get the new site up and running I'm going to try some things to steer the visitor to purchasing online. I'm also going to add a quote generator and see if that doesn't help lower the phone traffic. Right now, I want to steer them into calling me because the cart isn't working properly. It does show that you can push people one way or another to a degree, depending on how you do things on the site though. In my case, I don't think I loose business because the cart has problems as its easier to close them on the phone anyway.

vangogh
03-27-2009, 07:35 PM
That makes sense Bill given your business. It's understandable why you'd get more calls than some of us. Do you think an improved cart would lead to less calls? I realize you'd rather migrate the site than fix the current cart, but I wonder if reducing your calls would give you more time to migrate.

billbenson
03-27-2009, 09:12 PM
It's a chicken and egg problem in my case VG. I spend so much sales time on the phone that I don't have time to work on the new site; and the new site really only has a couple of solid days to put it up and have it working.

I think an improved cart might lead to fewer calls. I'd also like to play around with things like better pricing when purchased on line. Better pricing is kind of an oxymoron in this case since I mark the products up much higher than my competition. The thing that is interesting is my customers don't price search very often and I have pricing for all products on line (several thousand), and my competition will have pricing and descriptions for 50 products at best. Customer just don't email every distributor for pricing and buy the cheapest.

I think I close substantially more orders by getting them on the phone and closing them. The other thing is getting them to email me for information while we are on the phone. I try to get them to send an email by clicking on the email link on the site and then send them a quote or data sheet. Now within a couple of minutes they have a quote or product manual and my web site and contact info. Its in their inbox to contact me to place the order or ask more questions.

So from that standpoint, having the cart that doesn't work properly significantly improves my bottom line. I'm convinced of it. Unfortunately, it also gives me no time for web development and looking for new opportunities which impacts gowning my business.

Not sure; I think I kinda answered your question... :)

Dan Furman
03-27-2009, 11:02 PM
I get maybe 75% form, 15% e-mail, and 10% phone. I like it that way.

I have my phone number on every page, but it seems most people want to contact me via e-mail (and most of those use the form - I have my e-mail addy everywhere, too - it just seems people prefer the form. Odd.)

billbenson
03-27-2009, 11:29 PM
That is strange Dan. People really tend to hate forms in general. It's a pain to mouse from field to field and most people don't know they can use the tab key.

As a user, I always prefer email. Mostly because its not real time. I can shoot you a quick question Sunday at midnight when you are sleeping and you can answer me when you get time.

Dan Furman
03-27-2009, 11:34 PM
My form is small though - three fields: name, e-mail, and URL (if applicable). Plus a part for the description (and I got rid of the captcha).

That's all I want for an initial contact. Funny thing is I put my e-mail addy before the form. People still use the form.

I think it's because the form leads them into the info - otherwise, they don't even know where to begin ("Hi, I was at your website, and...")

billbenson
03-28-2009, 12:53 AM
Here is a question then: A form may have stuff you need, stuff you sometimes need, and stuff you occasionally need. For simplicity; you need an email, you would like a name and phone, and address and a bunch of other info would help you out in some cases.

The common method is to put an asterisk next to required fields or highlight them with colors. I don't like this much because its easy to miss an asterisk and colors are misused so often that the site visitor may ignore the color.

So how do you differenciate between the types of fields (required to optional) without scaring the visitor off when they see a ton of fields and immediately hit the back button.

Part of the reason a lot of forms use the asterisk's the way they do is that users tend to expect a certain order as well; say name, address line 1, address line 2, city, state, zip, email, phone, etc.

There has to be a better way than simply eliminating fields or the other ways that are currently being done. Anybody have any thoughts on this?

Dan Furman
03-28-2009, 12:58 AM
So how do you differenciate between the types of fields (required to optional) without scaring the visitor off when they see a ton of fields and immediately hit the back button.


Why a ton of fields, though?

I can't think of many instances where you need much more than name, e-mail, and brief description. I mean, we're just talking the initial contact here - there will be plenty of time to get all the other info later. Do we really need people's addresses and phone numbers? I know I don't - I'll get all that on my "client questionnaire" that all clients fill out.

I dunno - I think making it as simple as possible is best.

Edit: I used to have a bigger form. The smaller one blows it away in terms of people using it.

vangogh
03-28-2009, 02:11 AM
Bill I agree completely with Dan on the forms. Ask only what you need at that moment. In the case of a contact form all you need is a way to contact the person. An email address will suffice. The rest of the information you can get after you've returned the contact. Every additional field you require on a form is that much less likely someone will be to fill out a form.

On my contact form I ask for a name and email and then I leave a box for a comment. That's it. And none of the fields are marked required. People do use it to contact me. Any additional information I ask for in an email later.

With your cart are there any small changes you could make that might help get some people to get through the cart without calling. Even if it's just a couple of people it'll free up some of your time to make further changes.

billbenson
03-28-2009, 12:06 PM
I agree and also use only a couple of fields. However there are cases where you want more information. Say address so you can send the prospect free samples if they don't buy from you right away or put them on a mailing list campaign.

I'm just tossing the question out for the case of "you really could use that info" on the first contact. They do exist, just not for you, me or Dan; although you may have a customer come along that can really use it VG.

vangogh
03-28-2009, 12:49 PM
Bill it's not about what info you could use, but what you absolutely need to use for that particular form. If someone is filling out a form to get a free sample in the mail then you obviously need an address to send it to, but if the idea is you want to collect the info so you can send a sample the person didn't specifically request then you're wasting your time.

If you ask for information that's no necessary just because you may find it useful you're going to turn away a lot of people and get a lot of forms filled out with an address for Fred Flintstone of Homer Simpson or whoever. Unless I specifically want you to mail me something, I'm never going to give you my real address. Unless I want you to call me, I'm never going to give you my real phone number.

You're looking at it from your point of view and what you information you'd like to have. You have to see it from the point of view of the person filling out the form. You want them to contact you so you have to create a form that will make them more likely to fill it out and contact you.

Business Attorney
03-28-2009, 02:15 PM
I voted "regular or medium" though I have no idea how to really gauge that except against my expectations.

I haven't kept track of calls vs. emails, but I believe I get slightly more calls than emails. I don't have a contact form on my website. The emails I do get are often fairly detailed and contain a lot more information than people would expect to put in a form.

It seems that when people want to find a business lawyer, it is to meet a particular situation and they want to explain their needs in detail, either on the phone or in an email. I include both my phone number and my email address on every page of my website, so no one has to find a contact page to see how to reach me.