In the beginning of September, I added a phone number to one of my affiliate sites as I’ve always believed and have seen that having a phone number prominently displayed on your site will help both in adding a sense of trust to your site and also will give users who may be apprehensive about dishing out personal information online another, more comfortable way to convert. The results I’ve seen so far have not been what I would have expected.
Since adding the the phone number to the site, the phone number has only been used by 0.88% of my visitors. Not horrible considering most users who are using the site should be converting online anyways. However, the number of conversions received from phone-ins is quite a bit lower, coming in at exactly 0.
With barely any information regarding what the callers are asking about or looking for, it’s difficult to say why none of them are converting. From talking with my affiliate manager, I’ve been told that for this particular vertical, not many people in general will convert over the phone leading me to believe it may just be vertical specific.
So why are people calling? My best guess is that most people assume it’s a general company number and might be calling to get information. I already get plenty of emails from people asking questions that don’t really have to do with the products and services offered on the site so it’s not difficult to believe that they’re just calling in for that purpose.
From my own data, it looks like using a phone number won’t always help increase conversions for your website. At the same time, I’d still recommend listing it somewhere on your site if you’re able to do so. Phone numbers usually work for any type of retail site as some people would rather give their payment information to a person rather than on some website. I also feel that displaying a phone number will instill a greater sense of trust and legitimacy with your visitors.
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At our company, we’ve found that a phone number can help increase conversions, but really, the only way to know is from running split tests.
Without testing, you are leaving conversions on the table. You can check out our blog for more great post-click strategies. http://www.postclickmarketing.com
Cheers!
An internet webcommerce consumer’s response:
The zero telephone conversion result makes no sense to me. If I take the time to call a customer service number listed on a site in advance of placing an order, to me it makes sense to go ahead and place the order by phone.
Still, merchant image is the critical componet. As you reference in the last sentence, adding an easily found phone number builds merchant legitimacy and reliability in the eye of the consumer. Trust and legitimacy are further enhanced by including a physical address of either the offices or (when one exists) at least one store.
Here’s wishing a deliciously black holiday season to all, and may you have a much better 2009.
Sarah,
The site that my data is from is not a retail site and the phone number is strictly for conversions - no true customer service, etc. This is probably one of the biggest factors affecting the lack of conversions.