Earlier today, we announced the results of an independent consumer survey we sponsored, exploring shoppers’ perceptions of click to call and click to chat live help options when browsing and buying products or services online. The survey revealed a lot of interesting – and some quite surprising – results, which we’ve detailed in a research report entitled “Consumer Views of Live Online Help: Voice and Text Chat.”

The results of this survey showed that consumers want live help. In fact, a full two-thirds of respondents said having both click to call and click to chat options available would be useful. At the same time, only 37% of consumers have used click to chat and a mere 21% have used click to call. So, a strong consumer desire for live help with relatively low consumer experiences with live help indicates that these tools are not as available as they should be. Not to state the obvious, but clearly online merchants need to start offering both click to chat and click to call options. Responding to your customers’ wants and needs is the type of thing that improves loyalty and retention. That’s just good basic business.

An interesting finding I see in the data is that for certain types of (generally more expensive) purchases, consumers are likely using your site to research and compare, but there is still a level of unease associated with buying them online. By offering a click to call option, merchants can establish that one-to-one human contact that consumers need to get over the hump and “pull the trigger” on more expensive online transactions. Not only will you be creating a better experience for your customers, but also greatly improving your own business results.