The latest issue of ATG Insight Online Newsletter was published today and the lead article "Taking Advantage of the 'Long Tail' Opportunity" looks at ways that retailers can harness the power of the internet to reach mass niches.

One solution proposed by the article is enhancing customer experience by offering personalization for each website visitor through a number of techniques, including offering proactive customer service through click to call and chat.  As we've discussed in the past, proactive customer service can come in many forms, but includes offering contact center agents the ability to engage individual customers in a conversation based on their online shopping habits, or a set of rules that identify customers as "hot leads."

Here's an excerpt from the article:

Let's say your shopper puts a big-ticket item in her cart such as a plasma TV or a $1,000 handbag. But then the shopper hesitates; rather than checking out, she begins looking at the shipping information page. You don't want to lose her purchase. The hot new trend here is proactive click to call, a capability that lets you pop up a window and offer live help with a message that says, "If you have a question about shipping, click here to speak with a representative." Once the shopper clicks, she goes to the top of the agent queue, and her phone rings instantly, connecting her to customer service agent who completes the sale. Click to call is probably not a worthwhile tactic for saving the sale of a $10 CD, but for a $3000 TV, it's absolutely worthwhile. In some markets, click to chat can work equally well, proactively offering the prospect an instant live chat session with a customer service agent. The experience of eStara (an ATG company) in deploying this technology for our customers shows that this kind of service can increase conversion rates by as much as 50 percent.

For the best results, you can extend cross-sell personalization to the call center. When someone connects to the call center for that $1,000 handbag, you want the CSR to have access to the same history-driven cross-sell offer that would be presented on the Web site - the shoes, in the right size, that go with the handbag. You want to drive the call center with tools that can increase order size, not just reduce costs. That is the epitome of effective, cross-channel offer management.

Just a reminder that we'll be hosting a free Webinar in March to discuss the next generation of proactive customer service along with Forrester Research analyst Brad Strothkamp. Here's the information:

Who: Brad Strothkamp, senior analyst, Forrester Research and John Federman, CEO, eStara

What: Because financial services transactions are increasingly valuable and complex, online buyers are demanding sophisticated support and faster response to inquiries before completing a purchase, or an application. Those tasked with building better financial services sales sites are seeking flexible and scalable solutions to increase sales conversions, reduce website abandonment and improve the customer experience.

Multi-channel solutions are effective ways for companies to reach Web consumers. Forrester analysts believe that click to call is an “effective way to reach out to Web site visitors and engage them in a conversation. Retailers are starting to use this technology within shopping carts. Financial services firms are also joining the fray… eStara is a leader in click-to-call”. ("Ten Ways to Build a Better Financial Services Sales Site", Forrester Research, Inc., November 2006).

Join Brad Strothkamp, Senior Analyst at Forrester Research, and John Federman, CEO of eStara, as they discuss best practices for deploying proactive Click to Call and Click to Chat solutions.

When: Wednesday, March 7, 2007

1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. EST

Where: Online – To register, please visit: https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/490210179

A new study reported in Ad Age finds a growing dissatisfaction with advertising agencies amongst  marketers.  One of the main reasons, cited by MarketingVOX, is the lack of accountability.  "According to Ad Age, a measly 21 percent of clients would recommend their agencies' services to others. However, the report also found a whopping 76 percent of marketers had no way to determine their ROI from their lead agencies– 69 percent said ROI is too difficult to measure."

It's for this reason, that we're starting to see a trend of agencies partnering with technology providers to help add that extra element to campaigns.  It's one thing to come up with brilliant creative, it's another to show how your campaigns impact the bottomline.  Technology, like click to call, can help do just that. 

A new article today by John Federman in CRM Buyer looks at some best practices for deploying click to call and chat functionality for online sales and support.  According to the piece, "Click-to-call offers the power of voice, which can help explain complex issues and close sales faster. Many consumers still value this type of interaction and are much less likely to buy certain products without discussing it with a human. Chat enables customer service agents to handle multiple Web visitors at once and allows consumers to interact with an agent to answer a few questions."

CallCentreHelper.com recently posted a Q&A regarding click to call where the CTO of a large online retailer asked about what it takes to prepare for implementing click to call functionality.  Ian Davis of ATG (eStara's parent company) and Adam Faulkner of contact centre specialist Sabio offer their insight. Check it out.