There is no question that the internet has revolutionized business.
Many people are not only paying their bills online, but also ordering
products and services at an ever expanding rate as well. Businesses
with a web presence have opened themselves up to new market where many
consumers take advantage of the ease of shopping from pages visually no
different from a catalog.
Despite all that has changed in the last ten years, most companies that
do business over distance and do not rely on local storefronts still
see a large majority of their business come from the telephone. Several
years ago, many business forecasters were predicting that the internet
would have eclipsed the phone as the marketplace of choice by now. So
why hasn't that been the case?
There are two primary reasons why the telephone will always be
necessary to consumer sales oriented businesses. The first is that
while it is getting harder and harder to find a person who does not
have a personal computer at their disposal, either at work or at home;
it is practically impossible to find a person without a telephone. The
second is about human interaction.
Many people prefer to order from a
person over the telephone. That issue in itself may have to do with
perceived notions of security and fraud risk, personalized and
efficient customer service, or simply the desire for human confirmation
that a transaction has taken place. In any case, some businesses have
gone to great lengths in recent years to become a major presence in
their industry on the world wide web while neglecting to update their
antiquated phone systems.
What companies need to realize is that while
web based business will result in an overall sales increase as a result
of consumers who use the internet as their primary marketplace, it will
not do so at the loss of phone business if a capable phone system is in
place. Keeping a phone system up to date and ready to handle customer
volume should be a top priority for any business.
