Articles About Travel

Online Travel Distribution: It's About to Get Personal

Sydney, Australia (PRWeb) March 20, 2007 -- Along with most other industries, travel in recent years has become increasingly reliant on sales generated through online activities. Yet statistics show that many websites - even "high ranking" ones - fail to capitalize on their online marketing potential, with an average of between 66-90% of all online "shopping carts" being abandoned by site visitors. Why?

In a traditional "bricks and mortar" situation, there is opportunity to personally consult with a potential customer - find out needs and wants, give advice, answer questions, and guide them to a point where the sale can be closed. It is an effective "relationship building" sales method that closes sales.

The issue with the failure of online operations is that websites by themselves are simply unable to provide the required level of personal interaction that effectively deals with customer questions or objections, closes a sale or provides true, personal relationship building interaction with the customer.

The question comes back to a basic business premise of providing quality customer service. Is it possible to truly provide effective sales and customer service to the customer through online distribution?

Many astute operators are finding that the simple answer to this issue lies in integration of "Click To Call" technology. What is Click To Call? Put simply, it is a button or link placed in (or throughout) a website (or in emails) that seamlessly and immediately initiates a telephone call between the website visitor and the online merchant.

Businesses who have utilised Click To Call solutions on their website have seen sales and booking completion rates double since introducing the technology into their online activities. (Forrester Research, May 5, 2005 "Click-To-Callback Bridges The Cross-Channel Gap" by Bob Chatham with Nate L. Root and Elizabeth Backer).

Even Bill Gates stated at the ETRA Conference in Belgium. "In the future, there will not be any significant web sites that do not contain this capability. The question is, How significant do you want your website to be?"

One provider of Click To Call solutions to website owners is WeTalk2U, which offers online operators a hassle-free, inexpensive solution for incorporating this ground-breaking technology into their online activities. Utilising existing landline and cell phone infrastructure, the service provides serious online marketers with an inexpensive, dynamic, sales driven tool for boosting their online operations, without any need for further investment in software, hardware or additional infrastructure.

"The exciting thing with this technology is that website operators do not necessarily need to have a big online presence or marketing budget to take advantage of it," states WeTalk2U site owner, Matt Halloran. "It's available for all online businesses, it's global, it's inexpensive, there's no requirement for additional hardware or infrastructure, the call rates are cheap, and website owners have complete control over how the system is utilised within their online business."

Experience has shown that the rewards reaped far outweigh the small investment in the technology. Studies by Benchmark Portal have shown closure rates of less than 11 percent skyrocketing by 66 percent when Click To Call technology is installed. Website abandon rates under the study also fell by over 50 percent after installation of the technology.

"Travel in particular can be a complex product which often requires a professional consultative process to narrow the options for the customer and to close the sale," states Matt. "Unfortunately, in many ways, the web is kind of like handing a brochure to a customer. Unless we are able to interact with them, go through the 'brochure' and use a consultative selling process to assist and eventually close the sale, chances are they will simply walk out without further opportunity for sales conversion."

"What Click To Call does is bridge the gap and allow the relationship building and consultative process to be initiated directly from online operations." Matt continues, "And the statistics prove that it increases sales conversions and reduces website abandonment. It provides is an extremely low cost, high return investment for any online marketing strategy."

The question is no longer if this technology works. The low cost base, organisational ease, and personal interaction provided through Click To Call makes the technology a "must have" for any significant online business. The technology bridges the gap and provides the opportunity for business to be immediately connected with online customers worldwide through a phone call generated through their website. The proven results are in reduced rates of website abandonment, coupled with the rewards of increased sales conversions, and a much higher level of overall customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Taking advantage of the technology is remarkably simple. "Establishing Click To Call technology through WeTalk2U is simply a case of registering online and pasting a simple line of code into your website to get up and running. Our customers only pay USD$4.95 a month plus international call charges from around 12 cents a minute, which gives them full use and control of the system," explains WeTalk2U's Matt Halloran, "There's no contracts, and the system can be set to be as global as the customer wants it to be. This really is a significant generational development in online sales tools available in the market today. The applications for this technology are astounding."

Can traditional distribution methods co-exist or even survive in the face of technological revolution? The answer is most definitely yes. Through the successful utilization of technologies such as WeTalk2U's Click To Call into online operations, smart operators are bridging the gap from providing static web based data into true two-way, personal consultative interaction that services customer needs - and closes sales.

Travel and tourism businesses who successfully create a marriage between online distribution channels and traditional relationship-building consultation will see their business not only survive, but flourish. Click To Call technology available through WeTalk2U provides an integral part of the answer. It doesn't get much more personal than that.

WeTalk2U http://www.wetalk2u.com is an online reseller of worldwide Click To Call technology. The service costs USD$4.95 per month, with international call rates as low as USD$0.12 per minute. Interested parties can sign up or find further details on the WeTalk2U website - http://www.wetalk2u.com

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