Click-to-call driving significant business for auto parts retailer

From October 2007

By Fred Minnick

A growing number of 1-800-Radiator’s customers are just a click and a call away. The nation’s largest independent auto parts distributor is using click-to-call technology to connect online visitors to sales representatives. The method has been extremely successful: it now accounts for 40 percent of the company’s retail sales.

“Two years ago, we realized we do much better when we actually talk to the customer vs. when someone goes onto the site,” says John Thys, vice president of sales and marketing for 1-800-Radiator, a national franchise company. “The majority of our customers have never purchased a radiator on the retail end, so a lot of them don’t really know what they’re looking for.”

To drive the customer to Radiator.com, the company is executing several Internet marketing tactics, including purchasing 60,000 relevant keywords and running banner ads. When customers visit the site, they enter an automated chat, “which collects information about the customer, finds out what part they’re looking for, where they’re located,” Thys says. “Ultimately, it asks for their phone number, and that’s where we connect them with our call center.”

Once customers enter their phone information, one of 100 trained salesmen calls within 90 seconds. And Radiator.com representatives are likely to be more polished and well-spoken than most telephone operators, considering they earn an hourly wage in double digits and are eligible for bonuses.

Guided tour
“We don’t have people just quote a price and let them know if a part is in stock,” Thys says. “Our reps walk [customers] through the entire process, make sure they have the correct part [and] explain our warranties.”

If a customer participates in an online chat, the Radiator.com representative can review the conversation the person had online, so they know their name and what part they’re looking for and are able to “get the process going right off the bat.”

Combining click-to-call and click-to-chat keeps customers engaged by offering a chance to speak with a live agent, according to eStara, the solution provider for Radiator.com as well as Amazon.com, Sears.com and Dell.com.

One of the world’s largest retailers “was able to see a 72-second reduction in call-handle times using click-to-call because as soon as you initiate a call, the agent knows where you’re calling from, why you’re calling,” says Daniel Obregon, marketing communications director for eStara. “And they have insight into your online session. This preserves the continuity of the experience of the consumer.”

Radiator.com has enjoyed steady growth with click-to-call – quarterly sales increases of 10 to 20 percent – but Thys sees room for improvement. For example, he’d like every call to be answered by a sales rep. In addition, he is closely following pay-per-call.

“Instead of paying for a click, I’m only charged when I actually receive a phone call, which in the end is what I’m looking for,” Thys says. “Right now, I have to do a lot of pay-per-click because that’s where the majority of the market is. But as this pay-per-call expands, we’re going to move more and more resources into that.”

With pay-per-call, he says, “you skip that whole middle process of putting customers through to a website and hoping they make it to the chat and put the phone number in. With the pay-per-call, they’re putting the phone number in right off the bat. Our entire system is geared toward getting that phone call.”