Autumn 2009

Nearly four home shopping customers out of ten prefer buying by phone to buying on the internet. That's the rather surprising finding of a poll conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Invomo, a hosted communications service and technology specialist.

It says that among 3,000 consumers polled across all age groups over 18 years, 39 per cent preferred to make their purchase using the supplier's call centre.

Breaking the figures down, Invomo says two thirds of callers wanted more specific information before making their purchase; a third had difficulties with online ordering processes; more than a quarter were more confident of ordering through a call centre than online; and 20 per cent found it more convenient to call than use the internet.

The conclusion Invomo draws from this research is that retailers are focusing too much on the internet as a way of interacting with customers, and forgetting the telephone.

 

It says companies that do not include telephony in their customer service options suffer from customers giving up at an early stage of their interaction with the company. Customers want to be given a choice in how they interact with the brands they want to buy. Unifying web and telephone services seems the way to go as far as the consumer is concerned.

Are you convinced? It's certainly food for thought.