How To Get More Inbound Calls From Your Website

Inbound calls are a great resource for warm leads and potential conversions.

There are a number of ways to generate more inbound calls, but the best tool by far is your business website. 

Whether your company operates in retail and eCommerce, travel, automotive, or B2B services, your website is your primary marketing tool and a great source for sales calls. 

So, how do you generate more inbound calls from your website?

In this article, we'll detail the top tactics to help you get more calls from your website visitors. We'll cover:

• What are inbound calls?
• 7 strategies for generating more inbound calls
• The next step to a successful inbound calling strategy

What are inbound calls?

Inbound calls are phone calls to your business initiated by existing and potential customers.

They are often known as reactive calls, as the customer rings and the agent reacts.

However, this doesn’t mean you have to just wait around for customers to call you.

As we’ll see, there are a number of ways you can proactively encourage customers to make inbound calls from your website.

How to increase inbound calls - 7 effective tactics

Let's take a look at seven effective tactics you can easily implement on your website to encourage more and more customers to give you a call. 

1. Create a need

A vital element of getting customers to contact you is making them want to contact you.

This sounds really obvious, but you’ll be surprised how many brands miss the mark here. 

Creating a need all comes down to your core value proposition.

What are you promising your customers? Why should they pick you over your competitors?

Effectively expressing these messages on your website is key to increasing your inbound calling numbers.

To achieve this, you need to take a look at the text on your website and ask yourself: is this showing customers how my business can solve their problem/meet their needs?

For example, imagine you own a retail company that sells vacuum cleaners.

Let’s compare two samples of text for your homepage, one that is very product centric and one that is more focussed on customer needs.

The difference between the two is easy to spot. While the product focused example stays very factual, the customer centric copy appeals to a need the customer might have.

Concentrating on customer needs like this is much more effective at engaging customers and capturing their interest, which in turn will generate more inbound calls. ‍

Thinking of your product/service in this way can take some getting used to, and it can take time to develop key customer ‘needs’ to focus on.

Try following the these tips to get you started:

• Develop a customer persona - consider demographics such as age, interests, gender to determine your ideal customer. (This blog from Hubspot provides a detailed guide on how to do this and features a free template you can use)
• Decide 3 to 4 problems that your product/service solves - using your customer persona, brainstorm what needs your ideal customers have and how your product or service solves them. 
  

When you have developed this customer centric messaging, you need to make sure it's effectively conveyed at key points on your website to optimize your inbound calling potential. 

2. Display your phone number

Another obvious but crucial tactic - put your number on your website.

After all, how do you expect customers to call you if they can’t find your contact number? 

This doesn’t mean just having a ‘contact us’ page.

If you really want more inbound calls then don’t make your customers work to find your phone number - instead make it visible and prominent at all points on your website.

As a minimum, you can simply add your number to your website footer or header, as this will ensure it is visible on all pages.

However, there is a lot more you can do if you really want to increase calls. 

Firstly, you can display your number at key strategic points during the digital customer journey.

For example, if you want potential customers to call you for a personal quote, make sure your number is clearly displayed on your pricing page.

This will encourage customers to give you a call exactly when you want them to.  

Secondly, you can add your number to the main drop-off points on your website.

‍Drop-off points refer to pages and/or parts of pages where a lot of customers leave your site.

When you know these points (you can find them through your website analytics), you can add phone number pop-ups to them, which will encourage more customers to contact you rather than leave your site at these stages. 

To really increase inbound calls, bear these few key points in mind when displaying your phone number:

• Make sure it's visible regardless of window size and device type, such as mobiles and tablets. 
• If your phone number is free to call, let your customers know.
• If you have multiple phone numbers, choose the best one to display on different pages e.g. the number on a pricing page should be for the sales department, whereas a customer service number is a better fit for a checkout page. 
• If you target your audience locally, it's advised to get localized phone numbers for your business along with having a toll-free number since it will complete your image as a local brand.

3. Introduce click to call

A click to call button is one of the best ways to increase inbound calls as it makes it effortless for customers to contact you.

Click to call, also known as web calling, lets customers call you instantly from within your website.

With this feature, there's no need for a phone or to copy and type in a number. Instead, the customers simply clicks a button and starts a call instantly.

Powered by WebRTC, it requires no plugins or downloads and works on all browsers.

It’s completely free too, making it a super convenient customer contact method. 

Web calling also makes it easier for businesses to manage and route calls.

A call button can be embedded anywhere on your website, and you can establish rules regarding what number each button rings, ensuring customers always reach the right department. 

A version of click to call can also be implemented on mobile.

Here, clicking your phone number will trigger a normal mobile call, making inbound mobile calling just as quick and simple. 

There are many other benefits to click to call, but the main takeaway is it removes barriers to calling.

That's why it's so effective at increasing inbound calls.

4. Design compelling CTAs

A Call to Action, often known as a CTA, is a piece of text or an image that prompts customers to perform a certain task.

For example, CTAs may encourage site visitors to subscribe to your mailing list, to click on a link, or - you’ve guessed it - to call you. 

If you want more customers to call, you need to have compelling CTAs that encourage them to do just that. 

There are a lot of elements that make a good CTA, including copy, visuals, and placement.

We suggest A/B testing a number of ‘call us’ style CTAs to see what works best for you.

You might find that a simple ‘call us’ button to be quite effective on certain pages, but it's likely you'll need to get a bit more creative in order to really get your inbound calls soaring.

For instance, what’s more engaging - ‘Call our travel agents’ or ‘Chat to a dedicated travel expert now’?

You can trial different CTAs for as long as you need, allowing you to find the most effective ones for your site.  

To get the most out of your CTAs, use them alongside the web calling technology we discussed above.

Click to call buttons don’t have to display your phone number either. They can show text instead, meaning you can put your CTA copy directly on a click to call button.

This will allow customers to click on your CTA and instantly start a call, again making it easier and more likely for them to contact you. 

5. Utilise call tracking & web analytics 

Being intelligent about where and how you prompt customers to call you is another effective way to increase inbound calls. 

There are two ways you can do this. Firstly, use website analytics tools such as Google Analytics to monitor how customers interact with your site.

Take notice of your most popular pages and drop-off points, and use this data for strategic CTA, click to call and phone number placement.

In other words, make sure web pages with the most views feature a CTA to call you, and, as mentioned earlier, prompt customers to give you a call at main drop-off points. 

The other tactic, if you are using click to call technology, is to use call tracking software to see where customers call you from.

This can help you recognise both where and why customers contact you.

For example, if you notice you get a lot of inbound calls from a particular product page, it suggests customers have a lot of questions about this product, so play up to that in your CTAs.

By doing this, you are directly appealing to what customers might be thinking, further encouraging them to contact you. 

Data like this is being used more and more in customer service and marketing, so it makes sense to utilise it to increase inbound calls too. 

6.  Introduce live chat

Due to its fast response times, live chat is one of the most popular customer contact channels currently available.

In fact, 41% of customers expect to see live chat offered on a website and more than half prefer to use chat over calling a brand.

This makes it sounds like live chat is in competition with phone calls, but in reality you can use the popularity of live chat to improve your inbound calling strategy.

First, you can use live chat to increase customer conversations.

Then, when appropriate during chat interactions, advisros can suggest swapping to a voice call in order to better resolve the customer’s issue. 

This is what’s known as having an omnichannel strategy, whereby different digital channels complement each other to best serve the customer’s needs.

To do this, you need to ensure your channels are connected as part of one larger contact center solution.

This will allow for seamless transfer from live chat to voice call, causing no disruption for the customer. 

Naturally you cannot use this strategy with every live chat session - the rule of thumb should be to offer a voice call when it will best service the interaction, e.g. to answer a complex question or to upsell products.

But, when used appropriately, it will help you increase the number of relevant, high converting calls. 

7. Offer callbacks

Similar to live chat, offering callbacks won’t technically help you increase inbound calls, but it will increase website engagement and sales-related calls. 

There are a number of ways you can offer customer callbacks.

First, you can offer customers a callback when they make an inbound call and join an on-hold queue.

This will a) reduce the chances of the customer hanging up and the sale opportunity being wasted, and b) reduce your hold queue so more inbound calls can get straight through. 

Secondly, you can offer callbacks during out of hours. If a customer tries to contact you when you are closed, let them request a call back for the next working day.

This will ensure you never miss an inbound lead. 

The final tactic is to offer a callback option on your website.

The benefit of this over encouraging direct inbound calls is the extra context you can gain before the call.

If you ask customers to briefly explain why they want a callback, your agents can prepare for the conversation, increasing the chance of the call converting into a sale. 

In summary, callbacks are a great way to ensure you never miss a warm lead through an inbound call.

Rather than the call going unanswered or the customer hanging up, you save the details ready to make the call at the best time for you and the customers. 

The takeaway

Inbound calls are an age-old aspect of customer service that still have a prominent place today.

By making efforts to increase the amount of inbound calls from your website, you can capture more leads and drive conversions.

However, the modern consumer demands more than voice calls when it comes to connecting with brands.

That's why inbound calls should be treated as one element of a versatile customer engagement strategy that grants your customers range of channels to choose from.

But facilitating this requires the right technology.

And that's where Talkative comes in.

Our Consultative Service Platform provides a complete suite of engagement channels that'll empower you to connect instantly, and effortlessly, with all your digital customers.

You'll be able to manage inbound web calls, and all other customer interactions, within a single pane of glass.

As a result, your customer advisors will be fully equipped to provide better experiences that will engage and convert more customers than ever before.

That's why the Talkative solution is the key to contact center profitability.

Want to learn more? Book a demo with us today and discover how to gain more inbound calls with Talkative.