New research: 60% of people prefer to call you before buying

60% of people said they prefer to call someone to get information about buying a product or service when it gets complicated*. So if your marketing strategy is only fixed on getting clicks and form fills, then it’s time to review your approach.

If you think about your own buying behaviour – this makes perfect sense. There are just some things in life that are easier and quicker to find out in a conversation with a human being. But what does this mean for marketers?

Well, it’s simple really – if you’re not including inbound calls in your marketing analytics, you’re doing yourself and your department an injustice. For instance, if 50% of your business is based on people phoning to make a purchase, if you aren’t tracking calls like your online conversions, then you’re missing out on incredibly valuable data.

Why is the phone channel so important for marketing?

If you encourage prospects to communicate and do business with you online, this may help you streamline resources and reduce overheads… But what about the human element?

One of our key findings was that 6 in 10 respondents prefer having the option to call and speak to someone if they need to discuss something complex, personal, or expensive. This suggests that we still prefer talking to people to help us get the information we need to make those important purchase decisions. And as marketers, if you aren’t tracking these phone calls in the same detail that you’re tracking your online interactions, then you’re only getting part of the picture, which will hinder your plans and strategy.

Reflecting a shift in attitude

16-24 year-olds have grown up with tech at their fingertips 24/7. It’s well known that this age group are digital natives, but we’re seeing a shift from digital to verbal communication.

Our survey revealed that the top 3 industries that Gen Z would be most likely to call before making a purchase are:

• For a mortgage enquiry
• Healthcare providers (including care homes, dentists, physios, etc)
• Booking holiday accommodation

So why is this? Maybe it’s too long winded to bounce emails back and forth to resolve queries before purchasing, when a simple conversation will do. Email and text fatigue is a known phenomena – especially with millennials and Gen Z. They get so annoyed with the natural delay in typing a message, that they end up phoning instead.

What motivates someone to phone rather than contact us online?

Good question. It really depends on how complex, expensive, or personal your product or service is. The higher up the scale it is, the more likely we want to talk details before we part with our money.

If you run a business in the automotive, healthcare, legal, or financial services sectors, or you’re a restaurant or holiday package provider; you are more likely to get clarifying questions before a purchase or booking is made. This is because everyone has specific needs and wants, and they like to be accommodated. The more expensive your service or product is, or the more options you offer, the more questions you are going to get – and your website FAQs aren’t going to answer everything.

In this world of on-demand information, people are less patient and are not prepared to wait a day for an email to be replied to. So they’ll call you expecting an immediate response.

In this world of on-demand information people are less patient and will call, expecting an immediate response.

Interestingly, when we start looking at preferences by gender, our data revealed that women are more likely than men to make phone calls for social purchases, while men tend to make calls when it involves finances:

• Women are more likely to use the phone to book a table or order a takeaway (26% vs 19% of men)
• 32% of men prefer to discuss financial services products over the phone, compared to 25% of women
• The roles are reversed when it comes to travel and holidays though: 34% of women pick up the phone to book flights and accommodation, versus 27% of men.

Don’t resign your analysis to guesswork!

Call tracking technology is just as important to your business as web analytics if not more! You can analyse your calls in as much detail as your website analytics. It shows you the advertising source they found you with as well as how they converted.

With a greater understanding of buying behaviour, you can:

• Fine-tune your strategy, plans, campaigns, and marketing activities
• Understand just how much your marketing contributed to sales online and over the phone, and
• Increase your return on investment.

*Research was carried out by Censuswide in July 2019. A nationally representative sample of 2,016 16+ year old adults across the UK were interviewed