January 09, 2001
How To

Business Marketers Test

SUMMARY: No summary available.
More and more businesses are adding "Call me now" buttons to their Web sites. These buttons allow a visitor to input the phone number they'd like to be called at, and when they'd like to be called by a customer service or sales rep.

Why would a B-to-B site add this feature? Unlike consumers, most businesspeople aren't concerned with phone charges; and they aren't using a single line for both phone and Internet access, so they can make outbound calls even when they're online.

Diane Fraiman, VP Marketing for Sanctum Inc., says she added the call-back feature to her company's contact page because, "It's actually a very appealing thing. People don't want to make the effort to search around your company's phone system to find the right person to talk to, or be told that person is on another line now can I call you back. They want to talk to the right person, right now." Fraiman partnered with a "very, very cool" business telesales firm, Sunset Direct, to power the call-back. So far, she's been more than pleased with results.

IBM is another company using a "Call Me Now" feature. Company spokesperson Deborah Cohrs told us that IBM's been so happy with results that they've placed the button on more than 500 pages throughout their site, including the Small Business Center. Cohrs says, "It responds to our customers who, according to IBM research, are looking for personalized help more than 70% of the time. It is also efficient -- the call centers have more than 2,000 sales professionals who are brand specialists, each of whom generates an average of $5M revenue per year at a cost that is 40% less to produce than that of traditional face-to-face reps."

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