Web Queries Linked To Phone
Akamai Uses Hosted App To Give Customers Option Of Calling Or Sending Text Messages...
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Anyone who trolls a Web site seeking answers to questions knows the frustration of trying to get good, timely answers.
That's especially the case when trying to sell big-ticket goods and services to business customers. Even the most savvy suppliers have found that they can't expect potential customers to find answers on the companies' Web sites.
Take Akamai Technologies Inc., a provider of B2B content and applications delivery that's certainly no stranger to using Web technology. Lacking a suitable approach toward answering prospective customers' questions, Akamai had opted to use its site to steer visitors back to a time-tested live telephone response system.
But Akamai now has found a more suitable online alternative--a hosted application that lets prospective customers visit its Web site and place queries that are routed to sales reps.
Originally, Akamai handled online queries like most other companies. Its contact center had numerous manned e-mail addresses to which visitor inquiries were routed, but e-mail lacked the immediacy needed to satisfy visitors.
Akamai also considered, but rejected, live chat because it doesn't capture all the information needed from a customer, said Lara Bashkoff, director of Akamai Online Services.
The hosted app, provided by Callbutton LLC., lets Akamai interact one-on-one with potential customers online while tracking the process in a Microsoft SQL Server 7 database. However, Callbutton currently doesn't feed that information into customers' lead generation apps.
The Akamai site is seeded with customized Callbutton icons that invite potential customers to contact the company if they have questions. When a user clicks on the icon, it gives them the option of calling or sending a text message.
Text messages are particularly useful for after-hours or international queries. It asks for basic name, telephone and country information, which can lead to prompts to provide a company name and postal code that the visitor can fill in and send.
When the visitor sends the information, Callbutton picks it up and routes it to Akamai's inside sales department.
"They're accepting calls anyway, but these calls come over the Web," Bashkoff said.
The Callbutton app runs on a public switched telecommunications network gateway developed by Intelemedia Communications Inc., Callbutton's parent company. When calls are initiated by Web site visitors who use the Callbutton app, it reviews Akamai's business rules. Guided by those rules, it accesses the PSTN gateway and dials Akamai. If Akamai accepts the call, Callbutton accesses the PSTN gateway again to call the visitor and connect that person with the Akamai rep.
"It effectively makes a conference call between the person whom we've routed it to here and the visitor who just sent the information," Bashkoff said.
The Callbutton icons are strategically placed where Akamai markets its services, so those using the feature typically have questions on the service or products.
The vast majority of contacts are sales-related or come from people responding to Akamai's prompts, Bashkoff said. "We planted the buttons in places where it makes sense for them to want to follow up with a call," she said.
If calls come in after hours, Callbutton lets people schedule a callback the next day, providing protection against lost potential sales, said Michael Markette, CEO of Callbutton.
Pricing for the Callbutton service ranges from $180 per month to $1,400 per month, depending on the number of routing rules Callbutton employs and the number of user seats.
About one-fifth of Akamai's sales-related calls come in during off-hours.
It remains to be seen whether Callbutton's approach carries wide appeal, said Cheryl Currid, president of analyst firm Currid & Co.
"I'd give it six to nine months to see how well it works out," Currid said. "The ability to route to voice has been available but little used."
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Koller, Mike - (2001, September 17) Web Queries Linked To Phone - InternetWeek
