Callbacks are a tricky thing. But shouldn’t we as a business be more forthcoming?
Many businesses take it lightly, because they know that if the customer wants to get in touch he will just patiently wait for our effort to call him/her back.
Imagine this scenario. You own a jeans store. Your customer knows about your brand from ads, social media accounts or influencers that tag your products all around the clock. So this customer enters your store with a certain expectation. We all want ads to become reality and advertisements to become what they promise. At the store he goes over to a counter and looks at a few pairs of jeans. He doesn’t know his/her size. He doesn’t know if he or she should pick a pair of slim jeans or maybe a slouchy kind. What he does is looking for a reference, a shop worker that might help with this decision. After finding one, he asks nicely, but as the worker is busy dealing with deliveries he hands over a card to the customer, telling him: „please we will let you know once we are less busy.”The customer walks out of the store, he left his number with the shop worker, but he actually wanted to be served right away. So his expectations were not met. How likely will it be that he will return to this store? What do you think?
After the pandemic hit us, online purchasing has become our new reality. We even buy luxury products or advanced technology online.
Your online store has to be as welcoming and informing as would every retail store and every shop worker that works there. No store visitor wants to remain unserved, in real life or online, the annoyance and the feeling of a missed opportunity is the same in both cases.
What mostly bothers me personally about callbacks, are how unpredictable they are and how the agent very often does not know my previous inquiry. Sometimes the numbers that try to reach me are unidentified numbers or numbers from other countries that I don’t recognize. We trust what we know, and getting a call from such an anonymous source doesn’t always feel good.
Another problem is the fact that for a callback you need to be hooked to your phone. For once, because you never know when they’re gonna call you, and secondly it’s a “callback” so it will only happen through your phone, at least that’s what most of us think.
What more, as a company that has scheduled callbacks and you try to reach your customer and he for some reason does not pick up his phone, and your call bounces straight to his mailbox, you still get charged for that phone call. Because all your calls are linked to a phone provider, that doesn't really care if you managed to reach someone or not.
Since we have established the problematic side of callbacks, and I dived a bit into my personal experience with them, why won’t we go over to strategies that can make callbacks better? And not only better, but also good enough, they become a very good source of strong and fruitful relationships with your customer. Where both sides benefit, you as a company and your website visitor as the customer.
Imagine your customer could leave his contact info through a widget on your website and then he would have two choices: click the microphone button instantly or receive an agent's calendar through that chat window to pick a perfect moment for a call. The customer is in full control of the timing of the scheduled call. You are only providing slots that are linked to your agent’s calendar’s, so that the customer sees only the availability provided by you. He feels empowered and he knows that your company cares about his time and comfort. Agent’s calendars update in real time, so they also have full control over their schedule.
What if the call would not be routed to his phone through a traditional phone call? But he would receive the phone call through the widget. The only thing he needs is to be connected to the internet, and so do you. He can even receive this call though his tablet, or on his computer. There are literally no limits on where he can receive that callback and there is no need to switch from desktop to phone. Again he feels fully in control, because he can pick the device that answers the call.
And if you or one of your agents is not at their desktop, no worries. The call will still be scheduled and you can reach your customer through an app, linked with the widget. So both you and the customer are perfectly able to move around, leave their desk and have full control over their time and both never lose any appointments, because the widget will reach both of you.
You spent an x amount of your monthly spending budget on a telecommunication contract. All your calls cost you money. In order to avoid spending so much on a monthly basis you could just pay for an internet connection. Which you probably already do on top of your phone contract. It sounds impossible, but believe me that there is a way of going fully online with both calls and chat communication, without having to avoid any of your previous strategies.
You might also consider implementing a new strategy. One that keeps in mind that in order to make an impression and represent your products fully, you can showcase them in a new innovative way. How so? Well, what about using not only an audio callback, but also switching to a video call with your customer? And no, I will not propose that you send your client a zoom or skype link. Remember, he still needs to feel fully in control. What if you could call him via video also through the same widget on your website? The same as you can use for audio calls. You can use it for video calls. And while having a video call, your agent can share the product with the client. How? For example showing him a powerpoint presentation, or during a live demonstration. A fun perk is the fact that also those video calls can happen on all of your or your customers devices.
The usual scenario with a callback leaves no traces. You have knowledge of your customer wanting to schedule a call. He leaves his phone number, but not more. If you cannot reach him, you lose the potential of a closed deal. If you would be able to request his email address, reach his main inbox and forward him later to your widget. Then you do not lose him. What more, he also does not lose the trace of your company. Because with that unique link in his inbox, he goes directly to the conversation he had with you already. He does not need to repeat himself, because everything he ever said is saved. Even if he feels like sharing more details on the product he is looking for, he can just add this info to the chat conversation and you will see it eventually.
These are my personal tips to you, they are all connected to Closer. And what is Closer? Closer is a virtual selling platform that allows you to have audio and video calls and so much more! Implemented smoothly onto your website, looking as harmless as a chat window, but in fact serving as so much more. With closer you can let your website visitors:
Let’s go back to our jeans store scenario. An in-store experience is always very personal, you meet someone face to face and he/she personally helps you to choose a product. But an online sales experience can be fulfilling as well. If you use all the mentioned options and a wide range of ways to sell and communicate, you will definitely succeed at a wider scale. Imagine an online jeans store. Where the customer gets greeted, he is asked to provide an email for further contact (now you already have his contact information for further purposes) and he is asked instantly what he needs. You reply now or if you can’t, he can choose when he wants to talk to you again. Let’s assume an agent is available, the customer says what kind of jeans he wants to purchase, they connect via video to show him in real time what you have in stock for him. After the purchase, the entire conversation and files are available for both of you for further encounters. It's a win win. People don’t always expect to be well served online. But in that case, your customer expects less, then he is actually receiving. Because you own a powerful way to communicate with him and share the details of your brand and products.
Remember, the customer is king. Even online that dynamic can still exist and usually it’s a proven concept of success. While using Closer, you are closer to making this your brand's reality.
Closer sp. z o.o.
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