Chat is for Bots. Real People Want Push-to-Call

A lot has been written lately about how bots will replace humans for customer service. On the back of WeChat’s success with bots in the Chinese market, companies such as Facebook and others are touting automated bots for sales and customer service as the next big thing. And while there may be a place for bots, ask yourself: Do you want your questions answered by bots or humans? Yeah, I thought so.

Instead of bots, use push-to-call functionality for improved sales and customer service. Agile CRM has just made it easy for you to include this advanced functionality on your website, and there’s good reason to use this feature.

Roughly $1 trillion in annual sales comes from push-to-call functionality, according to mobile advertising firm, Marchex. Push-to-call is particularly important for mobile users, who now make up more than half of all web traffic globally; Google research has found that roughly 70 percent of mobile consumers use this functionality, and 61 percent cited it as the most important element of the mobile shopping experience. Around 40 percent use push-to-call frequently.

Part of this preference for push-to-call comes from how it quickly connects mobile shoppers with a live person who can answer their questions or solve their problems. Advances in mobile browsing have made smartphone shopping much easier, but screen sizes and load times still make mobile browsing a less than ideal experience. Shoppers want a quick search, a few pages on the company’s website, then action. Push-to-call makes the question and purchasing phases easier.

Quickly achieving a goal is the motivation for using push-to-call among 59 percent of the consumers polled by Google. Talking to a live person and getting follow-up questions answered were almost as important for the success of push-to-call, Google found.

Why Your Business Will Love Push-to-Call

There are at least four advantages that come from using this functionality on your website.

1. Increases Sales

Up to 97 percent of all online shopping carts are abandoned before the sale, according to some estimates. This is a devastatingly high number, but this functionality can reduce that abandonment rate by making it easier for consumers to get their questions and concerns answered before they walk away. Nearly 61 percent of online shoppers consider it important to be able to call a business during a purchase, Google research has shown, and more than half of those surveyed by the search giant also indicated that easy calling is important during the research phase of the buying journey.

Push-to-call helps elsewhere with the sales process, too.

“Many customers like to shop around before they make a purchase, but a phone call allows you to convert your leads in that moment, as opposed to playing the follow-up game after collecting an online lead,” notes Franco Puetz at digital marketing firm, 3 Digital. “Phone calls can also give you a better opportunity for upselling when relevant.”

2. Improves Marketing

Tracking is important for marketing insight and automation, and push-to-call functionality is an improvement over simply listing a phone number on your website because with Agile CRM or other software you can see the pages a user has visited prior to them making the call. Since call originates from your website, you can see which pages led to the call, as well as where the call entered into the customer journey.

Smart businesses can use this data for fine-tuning their marketing strategy.

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3. Aids Customer Service

Tracking caller behavior prior to a call also improves customer service. When your customer service agents know which pages a customer has visited prior to the call, they can more quickly assess and resolve issues.

Since push-to-call also can be tied to user accounts, your business even can answer customer calls knowing who is calling and their history with the company. This functionality can be a boon for personalized customer service.

4. Attracts Millennials

The Millennial generation, those born between 1980 and 2000, is the single largest segment of the U.S. population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This group heavily uses mobile, with 85 percent of Millennials using smartphones and 20 percent using them exclusively for web browsing, as per comScore reports. Yes, exclusively. Not only does this recommend push-to-call as an easy way to reach these consumers. Research by Marchex also shows that Millennials prefer calling a business before making a purchase.

“Providing a push-to-call button on your website and mobile device is an undeniable way to reach Millennials,” says Flight Media’s creative director, Ashley Burton. “Millennials are eager to connect directly with your business—their spending habits account for more than $1.3 trillion annually! You can’t deny wanting to tap into that market.”

Add Push-to-Call Easily with Agile CRM

We make it easy for you to add push-to-call functionality to your website with our new web engagement feature. If you have Twilio integrated with your Agile CRM account, you can quickly set up push-to-call functionality on your website and make it integrate with exit intent popups, automations and campaign triggers.

Here’s how you set up push-to-call within Agile CRM.

1. Navigate to Web Rules -> Add Web Rule -> Call & Click on Go.
   
2. Enter the following parameters:
   • Name: Define the Name of the Web rule.
   • Condition: Define one or more conditions to be satisfied.
   • Action: One mandatory action is Call Popup. More actions like Run a Campaign, Add a Tag etc. can also be added.
   • Phone Number: Enter the Number to which the call should be connected from the Call Popup.
   • Where to Show: Specify where to show the popup i.e. Center, Right Bottom, Left Bottom etc.
   • When to Show: Specify when to show the popup ex: Immediately, On the Exit Intent, After a Certain time etc.
     
3. Save the Web Rule.
4. The below given pop-up will be displayed when someone visits the Pricing Page.
5. Click on “call now” button to connect to the number mentioned in the Web Rule. Once the call is connected, a “hangup” button with dial pad will come up.

Note: Please make sure to have the Twilio Setup in place.

Not only is push-to-call valuable for sales, marketing and customer service. Now it also is easy to set up.