America’s Call Centers Revealed – New Marchex Institute Call Analytics Data Shows How a Warm Greeting Is Worth $20 Million
March 02 2016 - 9:00AM
Business Wire
A smile may be worth a thousand words, but a warm greeting over
the phone may be worth $20 million, according to a new report
titled “America’s Call Centers Revealed,” released today by the
Marchex Institute, the data and insights center for mobile
advertising analytics company, Marchex (NASDAQ:MCHX).
Marchex Call DNA® technology analyzed conversations, hold times
and call outcomes from a data set of more than two million phone
calls placed by consumers to businesses across a wide variety of
industries in 2015. The data found that showing a consumer basic
courtesies during a phone call can have dramatic returns to a
business’s bottom line. In fact, the study shows that when a call
is answered with a warm greeting, a consumer may be 22 percent more
likely to buy a product or service.
“We have all heard that being nice to your customer is good for
business,” said John Busby, Senior Vice President of Marketing and
Consumer Insights. “This study clearly shows that putting the
golden rule to work inside a call center can truly turn into gold
for that business.”
Key findings from the study:
- Consumer phone calls that resulted in a
purchase were answered with a warm greeting 63 percent of the time,
compared with 41 percent of calls that did not result in a
purchase. For a large call center, a warm greeting can equate to
$20 million in additional revenue annually.
- When consumer phone calls started off
with an open-ended question, such as “Why are you calling today?”,
conversion rates were 30 percent higher than when a consumer was
asked a closed question.
- Clear, no-pressure incentives lead to
happier customers and more sales. Consumers that were offered an
incentive to “buy today” were 20 percent more likely to buy.
- Hold times are a huge source of losses
for telesales teams. 50 percent of callers that hang up from hold
time do so in the first 3 minutes. Americans are expected to endure
900 million hours of hold time in 2016, according to an earlier
study from the Marchex Institute.
- IVRs, or phone trees, can be confusing
and frustrating to customers. 11 percent of prospective customers
hang up during an IVR.
“Consumers spend more than $1 trillion over the phone each
year,” Busby added. "The good news for businesses from this study
is that when they invest in better customer experiences it can lead
to considerably higher revenues."
Consumer adoption of smartphones is expected to prompt Americans
to make more than 100 billion phone calls to businesses in 2016.
Marchex Call DNA® enables marketers to better understand and
improve customer service and business performance during these
calls.
A full copy of the study can be found at
http://pages.marchex.com/americas_call_centers_revealed.html.
About Marchex
Marchex is a mobile advertising analytics company that connects
online behavior to real-world, offline actions. By linking critical
touchpoints in the customer journey, Marchex’s products enable a
360-degree view of marketing effectiveness. Brands and agencies
utilize Marchex’s products to transform business performance.
Please visit www.marchex.com, www.marchex.com/blog
or @marchex on Twitter (Twitter.com/Marchex), where
Marchex discloses material information from time to time about
the company, its financial information, and its business.
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Marchex, Inc.Investor RelationsTrevor Caldwell,
206-331-3600ir(at)marchex.comorMedia Inquiries:March
Communications617-960-8896Marchex@marchcomms.com
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