As we mentioned in our previous post, Google is working on a Google Chrome dev build to let developers play with an early implementation of WebRTC technology. We’ve prepared a demo to let you try WebRTC right now – check it out using this URL http://demos.zingaya.com/webrtc/

Here are some useful tips:

• You can get Chrome beta from https://www.google.com/landing/chrome/beta/
• To enable WebRTC you need to open chrome://flags in your Chrome beta and click “Enable” under the “Enable MediaStream” option.

Zingaya is always on the cutting edge, and we’re proud to be the first company in the world that has enabled calls from WebRTC to real phone numbers through our cloud platform. There’s still a lot of work to be done for the WebRTC community, but we think we’re making good progress!

P.S. You can get the latest info about WebRTC at http://www.webrtc.org/

“This is part of our ongoing commitment to enhance the customer service experience,” said SwimOutlet’s Director of Customer Service Anthony Ramirez. “We are always looking for ways to be ahead of the curve in terms of the technologies and features that we offer on SwimOutlet.com”

For an e-commerce website with high traffic, SwimOutlet will benefit from giving customers (and potential customers) the quickest way of reaching a live person to have their questions answered or their order completed. SwimOutlet has always been ahead of the curve in customer service technology, and we are proud to part of their story.

-Developers, who can build out mobile VoIP apps using the API.

-Support desks, who can accelerate resolutions.

-E-Commerce companies, who can improve conversion rates and increase order values.

Take a look at the full press release for more details, including social CRM enhancements like enterprise-grade call analytics reporting, complete customization of the widget’s look and feel, and even more call clarity and encryption upgrades.

Have questions abut how Zingaya can help your business? Give us a call (through your web browser, of course), by clicking on the “Call Us” button on the Zingaya homepage.

The Internet Revolution’s greatest impact on the retail industry has been to deliver greater self-service power to shoppers. Where shoppers once depended almost solely upon in-store sales clerks and toll-free contact center agents for in-depth information and to execute purchases, the internet added a channel that was often-times more helpful and convenient for shoppers while simultaneously less expensive for retailers. Customer satisfaction rose, margins increased, prices dropped and selection increased.

What followed the initial euphoria was an effort to train the late adopters. Banking provides an excellent example. Prior to the Internet Revolution, banks had already gone through such a process when the automatic teller machine (ATM) arrived. Transaction costs shrank and customers were serviced more quickly and with fewer errors. But most banking customers continued to wait in line for a human teller, even for simple withdrawals and deposits. Banks instructed tellers how to train their customers to conduct basic transactions using the newly-introduced ATM card. Most banks provided tellers financial incentives for getting customers to use the new technology. Once the ATM matured into a normal part of banking, the Internet Revolution introduced online banking and online bill-paying. Transaction costs shrank further and customers could be serviced faster and from the convenience of the home. But yet again, banks had to execute a strategy to migrate their customers to this more convenient and efficient medium.

While the Internet Revolution has shifted a significant amount of activity from offline interaction to online interaction, offline business has not gone away. Instead, offline business has experienced the Internet Revolution in its own way. Continuing with the banking example, the professional teller of today now conducts very few simple transactions and spends most of his or her day conducting complex banking transactions, which only a couple decades earlier were reserved for more senior bank employees.

With the Internet Revolution now approaching the end of its second decade, businesses have turned their attention away from migrating customers online, and are now focused on online-offline optimization. For many businesses, the agent at the receiving end of a conventional toll-free number is the one who closes the sale with the interested but undecided online visitor. These businesses have developed—and often published—metrics that show how providing a toll-free number on the website enhances overall customer experience, accelerates resolutions, improves conversion rates and increases average order values.

Achieving website – contact center optimization is not an easy task. Every placement of the toll-free number on the website encourages interested but undecided online visitors to speak with the contact center. More prominent placements (bolder colors, larger type, and better locations) mean more calls. But not all calls come from serious buyers. Contact centers also receive telephone inquiries from curious visitors who have absolutely no intention of even making a purchase. A business that is serious about optimizing the relationship between the website and the contact center needs to continually experiment with different placement options for contact information.

Additionally, achieving website – contact center optimization is not a one time exercise. Not only do our customers change over time but new technologies create new options for improved optimization. Many firms, for example, have implemented Live Chat on their websites. Live Chat is similar to instant messenger technology, except no signup or download is required. Companies deploy Live Chat on their website next to their other contact options such as email and the toll-free number. While not as personal as a voice call, Live Chat is often very efficient because contact center agents can carry on as many as four chat sessions simultaneously while taking advantage of pre-written answers to common inquiries.

Click-for-Call should not be confused with Click-to-Call

Click-for-Call is another tool many firms have implemented. Click-for-Call lets online visitors enter their telephone number online and shortly thereafter, either receive a call from a contact center agent or the phone rings and gives them a connection as if they had simply dialed a toll-free number.

Perhaps the biggest change occurring right now that is affecting website – contact center optimization is the increasing use of mobile and portable devices. We discuss this change in more detail in our February 2012 post, Web-Browsing from the Coach or the Patio. Suddenly screens and keyboards are smaller and more awkward, and hands that were once free to hold conventional telephone now need to hold or steady the mobile or portable device.

Zingaya gives businesses a new tool to add to their arsenal for achieving website – contact center optimization. It is a Click-to-Call button. Not to be confused with Click-for-Call, Zingaya’s solution let’s customers call into a contact center with a single click. No phone or download is required. Website operators simply embed Zingaya’s click-to-call button next to their other contact options. A single click initiates a call directly to the contact center. The Zingaya call button is easy to create and deploy because it is just a few lines of auto-generated HTML code. Small businesses can sign up directly from our website for as little as $19.95 per month. Larger businesses, including the most demanding enterprises, can work with our sales and service team to craft a competitive package that will deliver a significant ROI.

Check out our small business plans here. Alternatively, use one of the contact options below to connect with our sales and service team. You can even use Zingaya’s click-to-call button to reach us from your browser!

Matthew Schwab
+1 (650) 520-4165
mschwab@zingaya.com

Because of the general increased availability of brands and the onset of social media, customers expect more immediacy in getting attention, having their questions answered, and getting problems solved. Speed and efficiency aren’t just nice to have – they’re expected. The issue is: can customer support not only keep up with social media, but also help drive social initiatives? We certainly hope so. Our click-to-call widget, available on any web-based property, is designed to transition a potential customer from the informational stage to putting them on the phone with someone. (And doing so in one click of a mouse.) After all, how can you deepen the relationship between marketing and customer service more than creating instant one-on-one communication? Especially as web browsing increasingly transitions to mobile and portable devices, it’s important to let customers connect to support whether they’re at their desk, on the couch, or on the patio.

Better integration between social and customer service has probably always been a goal of companies – but it will be interesting to see how the gap is bridged between what Ms. Clarkson describes as “objective and performance.” The tools exist to help fuse the two, companies just need to strategize on how to best integrate them.

We mostly agree with Website Magazine’s selections, but we also firmly believe every great e-commerce website has to have: 1) fantastic visual appeal, 2) an uncluttered design, and 3) seamlessly integrated ways to contact customer service. Breaking these five pages out, we extol The North Face for the attractive imagery used (as shown below), we laude Old Navy for getting a lot of information to the visitor without cluttering the page, and we commend Lush for incorporating a way to contact their service desk (even though adding a Zingaya widget would be a nice complement to their 1-800 number…).

Fantastic visual appeal from The North Face.

But whether you’re in the e-commerce business or a regular e-commerce shopper, take a look at these varied examples compiled by Website Magazine. Which is your favorite? Have any other examples of great e-commerce landing pages?

Great to see the progress! Let’s hope this year will be the year of WebRTC

If the underlying assumptions behind certain business decisions are no longer true, intelligent companies revisit those decisions. For more than a decade, companies could safely assume that nearly all web-browsing was taking place on the desktop or the tabletop. The screen and the keyboard were large and hands were generally free to perform functions like holding and dialing a telephone without impeding simultaneous web-browsing. The emergence of more mobile and portable devices is changing all that. Web-browsing, especially consumer web-browsing, is migrating away from the desktop and the tabletop to places like the couch and the patio. Companies that depend upon their website to drive significant revenues need to assess the impact this migration has on their business and develop new strategies that address the changing medium and venue of web-browsing.

Fortunately, most aspects of web-browsing remain the same. Consumers still visit websites and browse from page to page conducting research and performing self-service. But there are three key differences to consider.

• The screen is often smaller.
• The keyboard is often smaller and more awkward to use.
• Hands are no longer free because they must hold or steady the device.

All three of these key differences have a particularly high impact on the website visitor’s ability to interact with a contact center. For many companies, this should raise a big red flag. For them, access to the contact center from the website delivers a significant ROI. For these companies, the contact center augments the website to:

• Enhance overall customer experience;
• accelerate resolutions;
• improve conversion rates; and
• increase average order values.

Once away from the desktop or the tabletop, interacting with a contact center using conventional means is less appealing and less effective. With hands less free to hold and dial a telephone, toll-free numbers and request-for-callback options are no longer easy or convenient. Those website visitors who do use the telephone find simultaneously interacting with the website difficult. Likewise, a smaller and more awkward keyboard makes click-to-text-chat less attractive. Those website visitors who still initiate click-to-text-chat sessions find their smaller screens offer limited space for both website content and the chat dialog.

Zingaya’s click-to-call solution makes the contact center more accessible to website visitors in this new age when web-browsing takes place on the coach, the patio or just about anywhere. No phone or download is required. Website operators simply embed Zingaya’s click-to-call button next to their other contact options. A single click initiates a call directly to the contact center. The Zingaya call button is easy to create and deploy because it is just a few lines of auto-generated HTML code. Small businesses can sign up directly from our website for as little as $19.95 per month. Larger businesses, including the most demanding enterprises, can work with our sales and service team to craft a competitive package that will deliver a significant ROI.

Check out our small business plans here. Alternatively, use one of the contact options below to connect with our sales and service team. You can even use Zingaya’s click-to-call button to reach us from your browser. Perhaps best of all … you can make the call while web-browsing from the couch or the patio!

Matthew Schwab
+1 (650) 520-4165
mschwab@zingaya.com