We don’t talk anymore
Not like we used to…
Is it a sad day when the latest radio hit gets us thinking about local commerce and not teenage romance? It’s actually a pretty catchy song (link at the bottom so you’ll still read this article).
But let’s talk about customer calls and today’s experience. We don’t talk anymore… like we used to. How many times do we call a restaurant or office only to be asked to hold. We dutifully say “yes” and wait. Or we don’t. Or maybe we hit the phone tree (please listen closely as our options may have changed). Maybe we reach someone. Or maybe we don’t. Maybe we leave a voicemail. Or maybe we don’t. Maybe your staff call customers back. Or worse yet… maybe they don’t.
That’s a lot of dependencies for a business to count on. And the truth is that customers don’t stick around when they’ve entered phone hell. For local businesses, 24% of calls are abandoned before the customer can talk to anyone (1). That doesn’t even count the customers who don’t call in the first place.
24% of calls are abandoned before the customer can talk to anyone.
While those statistics for phone calls are daunting, we don’t think the phone is going away and it still serves a great purpose in the right context. But just as the phone has been a utility for decades, local businesses need to begin looking at messaging as an equally, if not more, effective utility today. Read rates for text messaging average 95–98% within 5 minutes. People send and receive 10x more messages than phone calls each day. Every business has a phone number yet the vast majority of local businesses don’t have a messaging strategy. With infinite resources, bigger brands are beginning to train their customer service centers on messaging and social media channels. Local and independent businesses needn’t be left out of the conversation.
HeyNearby is a messaging platform purpose-built for local businesses and their customers. With a simple sign-up process and little complexity, you can give your customers a better way to communicate with you today.
And that catchy song? Here you go: Charlie Puth featuring Selena Gomez.
2015 Click-To-Call Commerce Mobile Performance Report, Marchex
