Forrester and eStara are sponsoring a webinar on best practices using click-to-chat and click-to-call.
If you are interested, you can register here: https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/490210179. (March 7, 2007)
Since Marketing Communications Manager Dan Obregon at eStara was good enough to put a "click to call" link right in his e-mail to me about the event, I decided to call him and ask a bit more about this product, and why it's a good idea.
I was familiar with click-to-chat, but not click-to-call. When you click, a web page asks you to input YOUR phone number, and completes the call to your phone, either immediately, or later. Dan tells me that this approach means that the person you connect with on the phone (call centre agent, most likely) would then have access to your shopping cart, browsing history, or similar types of data. Hopefully meaning they can be more helpful to you.
I asked Dan to share some nuggets of Forrester's learning on the topic. And he had a couple of great ones:
"Customers overwhelmingly prefer speaking to someone on the phone, rather than being referred to an FAQ page...
"The customer doesn't really think about a particular channel -- they are not interacting with the company's web site or call centre, they are interacting with the brand."
Right on. I don't know if this technology is the answer to your prayers, but it sounds like these folks understand some fundamentals about customer experience.
[Please note this was not a paid announcement. No t-shirts or other booty were exchanged. I just thought you might be interested.]
