Is A Bad Caller Experience Costing You More Than You Think?

Digital marketers are dropping the ball in one key area of the customer experience: the phone call. And revenue is suffering. In fact, when you consider that calls convert at 10 times the rate of clicks, you realize there’s an enormous opportunity to increase revenue by just improving the caller experience.

Digital Drives A LOT of Calls

Marketers everywhere are touting the importance of the customer experience. They're rushing to optimize and streamline every step of it, but few are paying attention to the caller experience. If you’re one of these marketers, don’t beat yourself up. Traditionally, phone calls haven’t fallen under your umbrella of responsibility. That is, until mobile came along. The rise of mobile signaled a huge increase of consumer phone calls coming from digital marketing sources. In fact:

• 57% of inbound calls come from customers who went to the website first. (Source: Harvard Business Review)
• 59% of people call a business at least a few times a month. (source: Invoca, The State of the Mobile Experience)
• Mobile search alone will drive 169 billion calls to businesses by 2020. (source: BIA/Kelsey)

Marketers are losing conversions and sales with a bad caller experience and their marketing ROI is paying the price.

A Crappy Caller Experience is Costing Billions

Poor customer service is costing companies over $62 billion per year in new business. A Customer Service Barometer study jointly conducted by American Express and Ebiquity found that 55% of consumers who intended to make a purchase have backed out because of poor customer service.

According to New Voice Media, the new omnichannel customer journey is at least partly to blame.

[su_quote]The emergence of multiple shopping channels has created a ‘digital divide’ in which consumers are more sporadic in their shopping across channels. Customers may make their product discovery through one channel but finalize their purchase on another - the journey breaks down to five or six different intersecting paths online, on the phone, in person, etc.“[/su_quote]

New Voice Media goes on to say that the core of these issues lies in the contact center. Companies are spending an unproportionate amount of time optimizing the digital journey when 58% of consumers say a phone call is their preferred method of communication with a business. Marketers are failing to create streamlined online to offline experiences, and customers are noticing...in a bad way.

• 53% of consumers are irritated if they don’t speak to a real person right away. (source: NewVoiceMedia)
• 32% of Internet users say the phone is the most frustrating channel for customer service. (source: eMarketer)
• After a negative experience over the phone, 74% of consumers are likely or very likely to choose another business. (source: Invoca)
• After a negative experience over the phone, 70% are likely or very likely to complain to friends and family. (source: Invoca)

At this point, I hope you’re thinking about how this problem applies to your company. Ask yourself: how many calls are my digital campaigns currently driving? What is the conversion rate on those calls? What is the value of those converted calls? If you don’t know the answer to those questions, that’s your first problem. You have to quantify the problem to understand the potential gain. If you do have those answers, I hope you’re beginning to see huge opportunity.

How a Positive Caller Experience Wins Customers

By optimizing the caller experience, you won’t only increase conversions and your customer acquisition rates. A good caller experience also promotes customer loyalty and a greater ACV (average customer value).

• After a positive phone experience, 80% of consumers are likely or very likely to become a repeat customer (source: Invoca)
• After a positive phone experience, 60% are likely or very likely to spend more money on current or future purchases (source: Invoca)

This is what we’re talking about! If you’re able to provide your customers with a great caller experience, they’re going to love you, and they’re going to make all their friends love you too.

And if you’re looking for ways to improve your caller experience, we can help you with that. According to eMarketer, the top consumer complaints about the caller experience include

• Having to repeat info
• Waiting on hold
• Not getting issues resolved
• Navigating phone tree
• Being transferred

Invoca helps marketers address these issues by creating seamless, personalized customer experiences before, during, and after a phone call. We have call automation features that help you filter and route calls,  and optimize the caller experience in real-time without interrupting your current call center workflow.

The bottom line: Don’t ignore your callers. As with any customer interactions, a positive experience will result in more sales and vice versa. But since phone calls usually involve two humans interacting, there’s more at stake. Make sure you’re giving phone calls the attention they deserve so you can create happy, loyal customers.

‍Get the Ultimate Guide to Conversation Intelligence to learn how you can improve the caller experience with Invoca.