Time spent with digital media has gone mobile: 51% of time spent is now mobile, with only 42% of time spent on a desktop or laptop (eMarketer). As a result, we’ve seen the increased use of smartphones throughout the customer journey create a sort of fatigue with online interaction – customers are instead opting to call businesses at increased rates. In fact, BIA/Kelsey predicts that U.S. businesses will experience a 114% growth in calls from smartphones between 2014 and 2019.
Here are three instances (with the data to back them up) that prove your customers have grown weary of interacting with your business online and want to talk.
1. For Considered Purchases
67% of online shoppers will call a business directly for any purchase greater than $100 (OECD).
Imagine you’re shopping around for a new life insurance policy or a financial advisor to manage your investments. For purchases like these that are larger and more complex in scope, chances are you aren’t completing that purchase online. While your research may begin there, you typically have questions about the policy or want to actually speak to the advisor before allowing them to manage your money. After the initial research, digital channels are abandoned in favor of a conversation via the phone.
Pro tip: Use an IVR (interactive voice response) to pre-qualify your callers before they reach your agents to better understand their needs and determine how sales-ready they are.
2. For Customer Service
79% of consumers would prefer to contact a customer service center over the telephone (Nuance).
Even with the growing number of online tools, customers actively choose to call businesses for their customer service needs. Why? Customers receive answers to their questions and concerns more directly and immediately. And it’s just easier to have a conversation with someone about complex issues. What’s more, 69% of customers indicate their questions are always fully addressed over the phone. Customers want to talk, and ensuring your business is available to do so will keep them happy and keep them coming back.
Pro tip: Contextually route calls from your customers to ensure they are reaching the right representative right away and being helped in a timely manner.
3. For Instant Action
56% of mobile searches trigger a call to a business in less than one hour (Google).
Mobile devices have become a vital part of every customer journey. Customers are now conducting more searches on smartphones as they kick off their research into products and services. And they actively want to take action from these searches – many of them calling within an hour. Call extensions and call-only ads are helping drive more of these calls from search – as well as a growing number of “near me” searches, which have prompted greater traffic to local businesses.
Pro tip: track inbound calls back to the keyword terms searchers are using, and optimize your marketing to drive more calls from these search terms.
Mobile is making it easier than ever for customers to connect with businesses in conversation and, as a result, is helping to accelerate digital fatigue. Accounting for the resulting calls in your ROI measurement will grow increasingly important. Check out the webinar, “Exclusive Report Findings: The 49% Mobile ROI Mistake,” and learn more about how to ensure you’re measuring every conversion in your ROI analysis.
