Excellent service deserves some praise. I needed a new transformer for our low-voltage kitchen light, because the old one was cutting out. Big bad vibes to manufacturer Brilliant whose customer service was worse than useless. Our plumber (another story - leaky shower, insurance claim, big hassle) recommended Edmundson Electrical for getting a part. They were superb — the guy helped me find the right part, called me back after checking with a colleague, and the price was good too. I’m pleased to have done business with them.
But go take a look at their web site. Now, I’ve upgraded my Flash player this evening because of a security alert. But when I went to view their site in the old version of Flash using Firefox, it didn’t work at all. Usual moral of story, don’t use Flash unless it adds value. I had to load it in another browser, and even then because of the Flash I couldn’t just cut’n’paste their phone number into Skype to check their opening times (not on the web site - duh!) and whether the part was in stock. (There’s a Flash-free version, too — hope your auto-detection works better than it did for me.)
With the release of the Skype browser toolbars, now is a VERY good time for merchants to go and take a look at their web sites and re-think their customer contact strategy. These toolbars are going to change how people use telephony.
Firstly, get the mechanics right. Will the call go through to the intended number? If you’ve not expressed it in international format, and it’s not clearly a North American number, you may have a problem. Particularly if the domain doesn’t give a clue as to the country (e.g. .com), or gives the wrong clue (e.g. localised domain names for countries like Ireland, but a pan-European call centre in the UK.)
Next, make sure it’s a number that’s callable internationally, if that’s your intention; or exclude international calls, as need be. Some numbering ranges are deliberately restricted to international callers, or have strange cost structures (e.g. 0870 numbers in the UK).
It’s also a good time to re-think whether you want to have an 800-style number. There’s a bigger cost, for sure, but even the folk with the basic version of Skype can call these without subscribing to SkypeOut. How much business can you afford to lose?
You also need to re-think your contact strategy. The number on your web site may start to drive a lot more of your calls. Do you just want to have a single mnemonic 800-type number (e.g. 1-800-AIRWAYS is British Airways), and force people to navigate an IVR? Or break it down into IVR-bypassing numbers? Do all numbers and internal destinations deserve promotion on your web site? Which ones drive revenue and customer satisfaction? Which ones are just cost?
Telcos are used to using their network distribution muscle to control the application services. Now the boot is on the other foot; the money isn’t from the phone call, but from the introduction. Companies like Google, Skype and Microsoft out-distribute the telcos easily here. The real fight is on who gets to display and re-intermediate these inbound call channels. By the time the call starts, the economic activity is all over! Soon these new entrants will start to upgrade the experience to “Voice 2.0” standards, with better call quality, multimodality, identity etc. built in (“bright purple minutes”, Jeff!). Would you rather place a PSTN call and have to dictate your details, or a Google Talk call which makes the experience simple and privacy-enhanced?
Regardless, the job of being a telco manager at your everyday corporation is about to become a lot more interesting and high profile. No longer do you have a single “phone system” to worry about, but rather a whole suite of possible voice-enhanced and real-time customer interaction channels. I recommend having lunch with your e-commerce team in the next few weeks. You’ve got work to do.
Posted by Martin Geddes at 09:23 PMTrackBack URL for this entry:
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