In the age of mobile internet access, texts, tweets, and likes have replaced face-to-face engagement for many businesses. However, for small businesses there is still immense value to be gained from inbound customer calls. If you operate your own SMB, there are a variety of benefits to inbound calls. Here’s a handful of reasons inbound customer calls are still important in the digital age.
Capitalizes on an Immediate Need
Consumers pick up the phone to call a business when they have an urgent need. For example, if you run your own locksmith SMB, customers don’t have time to send you an email or put out a tweet for your company to see on Twitter. Someone locked out of their home or car needs help now. With Pay Per Call marketing driving inbound customers calls to your SMB, you are connected to a consumer that needs immediate assistance (product purchase, service, etc.).
Avoid Confusion
It is much easier to help solve your customers’ complex problems with a five minute phone call than a long chain of emails back and forth. As a small insurance provider, it’s much easier to schedule an appointment with a client over the phone where both parties can look at their schedules rather than bouncing emails to and from.
Read More: Why Phone Calls are Important to the Customer Journey
Believe it or not, not Everyone is Online
Moving the entirety of your business online may actually hurt you in terms of overall sales. While most Americans are online on a daily basis, there are still those who don’t go online very often. Pew Research found that as of 2016, 13% of US adults don’t use the internet. Among that group, 34% avoided going online because they had no interest and 8% felt they were “too old to learn” the ins and outs of online shopping. For these consumers, a voice on the other end of the line is far more convenient. Inbound customer calls from offline Pay Per Call campaigns can generate more business for your SMB.
Beat the Competition to the Punch
Finally, driving inbound calls from Pay Per Call can help you outmaneuver your competition. Consumers with an urgent need don’t enjoy leaving voicemails and waiting for a call back. If a pipe bursts in the basement and it fills with water, there’s not much time to sit and wait. When your SMB is available by phone, consumers get the solutions they want, when they need it. IN some cases, that is business for you that comes at the competition’s expense.
Read More: How to Improve the Quality of Your Customer Service with Inbound Calls