Online Stores Adopt Click-to-Call Customer Service By JESSICA E. VASCELLARO Wall Street Journal
March 15, 2006; Page D4 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114238633993598444.html?mod=technology_main_promo_left Online retailers have a new message for shoppers with customer-service questions: Don't call us, we'll call you. Amazon.com Inc. recently launched a customer-service feature that enables shoppers to pose questions to a customer-service representative without dialing a number. The service works by asking shoppers to enter their phone number in a field off the site's help section and to indicate whether they would like to be contacted "right now" or in five, 10 or 15 minutes. The customers' data go to a third-party service, eStara Inc. of Reston, Va., which connects customers' phones to the Amazon phone system. After testing the service for a year, Amazon launched the feature on all U.S. help pages in January, as well as on all German help pages and for some customers in France and the United Kingdom. With more than 55 million active customer accounts world-wide, Seattle-based Amazon is raising new awareness about click-to-call, which so far has been offered only by a handful of smaller online retailers. Last October, sears.com launched click-to-call customer service under the "personal kitchen advisor" and "personal laundry advisor" features in the site's appliances section. Luxury handbag maker Hermès International SA's Hermès of Paris Inc. offers click-to-call customer service through a "live help" button in the customer-service section of hermes.com. J.Crew Inc. says it will soon start testing the feature on checkout pages and on jcrew.com's pant-fit guide, two sections of the site where shoppers frequently require some extra help. So far, click-to-call customer service has yet to gain much traction, in part because consumers think it would be easier to pick up and dial a toll-free number. But those offering click-to-call say that using the feature often means customers are less likely to be bounced from agent to agent. While customers using a click-to-call feature are often connected to the same call center as those who dial the company's toll-free number, the online retailer can typically tell what section of their site a customer is calling from, either through information from the third-party provider or because they only offer the service on limited portions of their site. Toll-free numbers can also be hard to find. Amazon's 800 number isn't publicized on the site. Retailers hope the new option boosts customer satisfaction. With customer retention increasingly important to the maturing industry, companies have been improving old customer-service models that forced customers to poke through "frequently asked questions" sections online. Newer options include allowing shoppers to send customer-service inquiries via email or offering instant-messaging features that enable agents to answer customers' queries in real time. The popularity of Internet-based phone service offered by companies like Vonage Holdings Corp. and Skype, owned by eBay Inc., is also piquing retailer interest in click-to-call. Soon, more shoppers will be able to connect with a company directly from their computer, saving them cellphone minute charges or the need to be near a land line. Click-to-call customer service is powered by the same technology as click-to-call -- also known as "pay-per-call" -- advertising, which has gained publicity as Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. have begun testing it on their sites. Like click-to-call customer service, the ad format enables customers to talk to advertisers by typing a phone number into a designated field. The Internet companies are expected to charge advertisers for every call connected through the service, much in the same way they charge advertisers every time a browser clicks on their text-based ads. Click-to-call advertising has been off to a slow start due to low consumer awareness and consumers' trepidation about sharing their phone numbers. But some analysts say the technology may be a better fit for the online-shopping industry, where savvy Internet users are more apt to experiment with time-saving tools. Online shoppers also are more likely to be comfortable with sharing their phone numbers online, since they are already planning to part with their credit-card information, says Heather Dougherty, a retail analyst for Nielsen/NetRatings in New York. Amazon declined to say how many people have used click-to-call customer service so far. ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
