Online Stores Adopt Click-to-Call Customer Service
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.
购物网站开通“点击通话”功能
网上购物遇到问题？购物网站有新服务了：不必给我们打电话了，让我们打给你吧！
亚马逊(Amazon.com Inc.)最近就推出了这样一项服务：网上购物者无需打电话、就能向客户服务代表提问。购物者只需在网站上的帮助栏填入自己的电话号码，并说明希望网站“马上联系”，还是5分钟、10分钟或15分钟后，就可以了。信息到达第三方服务公司、总部位于弗吉尼亚州的eStara Inc.后，该公司会在约定的时间帮客户接通亚马逊电话系统、与亚马逊客户服务代表进行电话交流。在经过了一年的测试后，亚马逊今年1月份在其美国、德国网站的所有帮助页面推出了这项功能，这项服务目前也面向法国和英国的一些客户。
在全球拥有5,500多万个活跃客户帐号的亚马逊正在意识到“点击通话”(click-to-call)的潜力；之前，只有几家规模较小的购物网站提供这项服务。去年10月，西尔斯网站(sears.com)在家电用品类的“个人厨房顾问”和“个人洗衣清洁顾问”栏目推出了“点击通话”客户服务。奢侈品手袋的生产商Hermes International SA旗下的Hermes of Paris Inc.在其网站hermes.com的客户服务项下设了一个实时帮助按钮，提供“点击通话”客户服务。J.Crew Inc.也表示，不久将在结算页面和jcrew.com的合身裤子指南页面测试这项功能，在这两个页面购物者往往都需要更多的帮助。
到目前为止，“点击通话”客户服务仍未大行其道，这在一定程度上是因为消费者认为拿起电话，拨打对方付费电话更方便一些。但提供“点击通话”服务的购物网站表示，采用这项新功能，消费者在咨询时遇到互相推诿的事情会少一些。虽然“点击通话”和受话方付费电话可能都是来自于同一个呼叫中心，但通过第三方的信息或因为只在某些网页提供此类服务，购物网站就能明白客户需要询问哪方面的事情。而且，受话方付费电话的号码可能也很难找到。亚马逊的800电话就没有在网站上公布。
零售网站希望这种新功能能提高客户满意度。随著留住客户对这个日间成熟的行业越来越重要，业内公司不断改善传统的、要求顾客首先查阅网站上常见问题一栏的客户服务模式。新的选择包括允许客户通过电子邮件提问，或用即时通讯软件进行沟通，使客户代表能作出实时答复。
Vonage Holdings Corp.、以及eBay Inc.旗下Skype等网络电话服务的兴起，也激起了零售网站对“点击通话”的兴趣。不久，越来越多的购物者将能直接通过电脑和网站联系，不仅可节省手机电话费，即使没有固定电话在旁边也没有关系。
“点击通话”客户服务采用的技术与“点击通话”广告是一样的；随著Google Inc.、雅虎(Yahoo Inc.)开始在自己的网站上测试“点击通话”广告，这种新的广告形式正在越来越受到关注。和“点击通话”客户服务一样，“点击通话”广告使得客户只需在指定空格内填入电话号码，就会得到广告商的联系。Google和雅虎计划对通过此项服务获得的每次通话进行收费，这和他们针对文字广告点击次数收费是一样的道理。
“点击通话”广告并没有迅速得到追捧，原因是消费者对此了解不多，而且他们一般也不愿意将自己的电话号码随便在网上透露。但一些分析师表示，这项技术可能更适用于购物网站，精明的网络用户更倾向于采用节省时间的工具。Nielsen/NetRatings驻纽约的零售业分析师多赫蒂(Heather Dougherty)表示，网络购物者可能也更乐于在网上透露自己的电话号码，因为如果购物的话，他们还要公布自己的信用卡信息呢。亚马逊拒绝透露近期已有多少人用过“点击通话”客户服务。
