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The America in Transition Blog contains items of current interest and relevance pertaining to a wide spectrum of articles pertaining to online business marketing tips and strategies.
Highlights from this year’s 88th Academy Awards.
Here’s how to follow the action as movie fans take the Oscar celebrations to Twitter this Sunday.
As climate change continues, scientists have observed a disturbing trend: The money that megacities spend to adapt to climate change seems to be linked more to protecting valuable capital, and less to protecting vulnerable people.
The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, reveals...
During a seven-month outbreak of Zika virus infection that ended in April 2014, health officials in French Polynesia noticed an uptick in the number of patients showing up at hospitals with a rare but dangerous constellation of symptoms known as Guillain-Barre syndrome.
Typically in the wake of...
Mobile devices are causing a huge upward trend. And advertisers are noticing.
BIA/Kelsey predicts that the annual number of mobile phone calls to businesses will reach 162 billion by 2019.
That’s great news for companies. Why?
Because consumers spend more than $1 trillion on offline purchases.
Customers normally conduct online research on their mobile devices, and then call businesses to make an offline transaction.
“Marketers are allocating more time to understand how to reach mobile consumers, especially millennials. Our data shows that for many types of purchases, millennials prefer to contact a business directly by phone, and then are following through with purchases,” states John Busby, SVP of Consumer Insights for the Marchex Institute.
A study by Digital Strategy Consulting found that consumers trust ecommerce businesses more when a telephone number is present. An unlisted phone number may discourage shoppers from purchasing products.
Capital One offers their customers the option to call service reps directly from their mobile apps. So, if an individual has questions about an account, he or she can immediately receive help.
Similarly, Redfin, a residential real estate company, gives home buyers the chance to speak to a local agent about specific listings. It’s a convenient solution for customers who need answers immediately.
However, some businesses are missing the click-to-call commerce opportunity.
About 20% of phone calls are abandoned due to poor customer service and sales practices. For example, shoppers may wait 10 minutes on hold or experience trouble with automated telephone systems.
“To really reap the returns from this type of marketing, companies need to take customer connection seriously — customers want staff to genuinely understand their needs. One sign that businesses are beginning to understand this is the migration of U.S. company call centers back in-house,” writes communications consultant Shellie Karabell.
So, how do you improve customer service over the phone? Here are a few ideas to help your team:
More than half of customers will abandon a call after one minute of waiting on hold. Instead, offer callers the option to receive a call-back.
Customers expect a personalized shopping experience. If possible, assign a designated representative to handle the buyer’s individualized needs.
Customer satisfaction is a company-wide responsibility. Using data will help executives adopt new policies or upgrade initiatives to deliver a better customer experience.
This infographic shows us the trends behind click-to-call commerce and the opportunity to increase lead conversions.